Illumitex and Uriah's Urban Farms partner up

Illumitex will provide Uriah’s Farms owner David Smiles and his team its Hortitecture growing service, which offers beginning-to-end consultation from Illumitex’s team of plant scientists.

 

Uriah’s Farms develops live plant installations in restaurants for chefs wanting to offer their diners a “farm to fork in five minutes” experience. Plants are grown to near-harvest stage at Uriah’s Farms facilites, then transported to restaurants for display and just-in-time harvest.

 

“I’ve always grown very high quality food, but as soon as you ship it off, greens degrade very quickly,” says Smile. “Everything that we deliver is alive.”

 

Uriah’s Farms is named after Smiles’ son, who at the time of the farm’s founding was gravely ill with a thought-to-be-incurable disease. As Smile labored to get his business off the ground, he and his wife also fought to find a treatment for their son. After an intense battle of genetic hide and seek, they were successful. In a beautiful stroke of luck, the treatment for their son’s genetic disorder turned out to be fresh greens. Just like those grown by the child’s namesake farm.

And as young Uriah thrives, so does the farm. In addition to using Illumitex’s Hortitecture services, Smiles intends to purchase numerous Illumitex LED grow lights to propel his company’s expansion.

 

“We have plans to take our model to every urban center — Miami, New York, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Las Vegas,” says Smiles. “And Illumitex will be with us every step of the way.”

 

“Uriah’s Farms food is as beautiful as its story,” says Illumitex VP of Hortitecture Paul Hardej. “We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative indoor grower. And we can’t wait to celebrate each and every one of Uriah’s birthdays as he grows into a healthy young man.”