"We’ve experienced inconsistent product quality primarily from California growers"

The ongoing boom for the North-American CEA industry is boosted by more and more food service suppliers opting for indoor-grown food. Today Midwest hydroponic grower Pure Green Farms announced that they will be supplying their greens to one of them. The reason is the inconsistent product quality from outdoor growers.

The Cincinnati-based LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria will be offering Pure Green Farms Baby Green Leaf lettuce on its menu beginning today. Pure Green Farms will provide over 10,000 lbs. of baby leaf per week to LaRosa’s 66 pizzerias serving Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

“While we’re best known for pizza, we also serve tens of thousands of salads a year,” said Mark LaRosa, Buddy’s son and President and Chief Culinary Officer of LaRosa’s. “We’ve used iceberg lettuce in our salads for years. But recently, we’ve experienced inconsistent product quality primarily from California growers due to weather conditions there as well as difficulty getting timely delivery,” he said. “The Baby Leaf Lettuce from Pure Green Farms solves both issues. It’s fresh and tastes great. It’s got the same robust crunch that our guests loved about our iceberg lettuce,” said LaRosa.

Pure Green Farms Baby Green Leaf lettuce will be featured in all LaRosa’s side and entrée style salads. The lettuce is grown at one of the most high-tech, sustainable indoor farms in the country. The farm, located in South Bend, Indiana, uses advanced technology to seed, grow, harvest, and pack greens all hands-free.

“It’s the right time to be expanding into foodservice,” says Joe McGuire, CEO of Pure Green Farms. “Just as LaRosa’s has served its local guests for nearly 70 years, we are proud to serve our local community sustainable, healthy, and fresh greens. It’s what our brand stands for: The Pure Green Farms greenhouse is equipped with a lot of technology, which makes growing fresh lettuces year-round a cleaner and safer endeavor. Our farm uses significantly less water and never uses any pesticides or herbicides. Pure Green Farms practices clean and environmentally conscious growing, all the time."