Orange Thyme, Black Magic kale, Pomegranate Crunch romaine. These aren't your typical grocery store herbs and greens. "My favorite is Mrs. Burns' basil," says Davis Breedlove. "It smells and tastes like Froot Loops."
All of these and much more are growing inside 2401 Larimer Street, a space set to open to the public by the end of July as Farm and Market, a new restaurant and market combo that's reimagining access to fresh produce. "The whole premise is to nourish folks with our high-quality food. ... No one has ever done an ultra-urban farm that sells directly to neighbors."
While another urban indoor farm, Altius, is just two blocks away, it primarily sells to restaurants and markets and isn't open to the public for shopping. "No one is really doing what we're doing," Breedlove adds, "which is kind of scary."
But it's also exciting, especially now that the first test rounds of plants are growing on Farm and Market's 1,100 vertical hydroponic towers, all of which can be seen from the dining and shopping portion of the space through a glass wall. "We care deeply about doing things right," Breedlove says. "Transparency is the biggest thing for me. I greatly believe in truthfulness, just being real. And I'm not a marketer. So I figured, what would be a better way to show the truth of what we're doing here? And it keeps us in check, too."
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