An urban farm has sprung up in downtown London, growing greens in a 750-square-foot retail space. Forest City Microgreens is harvesting, on average, more than eight kilograms of greens weekly in its tiny storefront space on King Street, offering an innovative use of vacant space downtown, as well as a different way of growing food.
“You can go from farm to fork within hours,” said Santiago Ramirez, manager of the business owned by his parents. “We are getting great reaction and as things reopen I think we will get more attention. Restaurants are reaching out. I’m getting calls from health food stores. It is picking up.”
Forest City offers about a dozen different types of microgreens and blends, which are grown on vertical racks under LED lights in a controlled environment and harvested when they are young and small. They are used in salads, sandwiches and smoothies. Think of it as a grow-op for salad.
“I have always been interested in sustainable farming and took an online course to learn more about farming in general,” said Ramirez. He began researching microgreens and found microgreen businesses doing well in the Toronto area, but little offered here. “It is amazing. I am into health, so to be able to produce something that is good for people is what this is all about,” he said.
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