Spring is a time of new beginnings and growth, no matter where you find yourself in the world. In April, I’ll be embarking on a new life journey as I relocate to the Houston area with my partner, who was offered a great career opportunity at his company’s location there. We’re excited for the possibilities and prospects down south, but unfortunately, it means I’ll be stepping down from my post as editor of Produce Grower.

I joined parent company GIE Media in April 2012, and have been your editor on Produce Grower for the past four years. As I reflect on my time in the produce world, I can’t help but think of the recent “10-year challenge” on several social media platforms. Users post a photo of themselves from 10 years ago alongside one from this year. While I didn’t partake in the photo challenge, I did my own “seven-year challenge” and took a trip down memory lane, reflecting on continued themes and changes in the produce industry.

I remember walking through PMA Fresh Summit in 2014 and being absolutely amazed by the new fruit and vegetable options out there — grape-flavored apples, anyone? During a keynote, PMA president Cathy Burns and then-CEO Bryan Silbermann highlighted the fact that no country has successfully lowered their obesity rate in the previous 33 years. That’s not surprising, since they also cited a study that said kids were seeing 5,500 ads for junk food per year, compared to 100 ads for healthier options. Children and adults would still benefit from incorporating more fruits and veggies into their diets in 2019, just as they would have in 2014. And we need produce growers like you to fulfill that demand.

Looking at changes, seven years ago I would avoid eating tomatoes and greens during the winter, as most of the ones you could buy at the grocery store were watery and flavorless. In recent years, several hydroponic operations have popped up in the Cleveland area and started providing delicious, fresh produce year-round — a testament to the continued growth of our industry. We’ve seen previously unpopular produce experience a renaissance; seven years ago, no one had even heard of avocado toast, Brussels sprouts were unpleasant, and a salad was made of iceberg lettuce and shredded carrots, not the fancier blends being grown now.

I could fill another 10 pages with more thoughts on produce, but suffice it to say that I’ll still be keeping up with the industry, as it interests me personally. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as your editor for the past four years and I wish you all the very best this spring and beyond. I hope our paths cross again one day!

kvarga@gie.net | (216) 393-0290
Twitter: @Karen_GIE

I started off my Sunday morning by picking up my phone, which had buzzed at me at 6:15 a.m. It wasn’t an alarm going off, but rather a text notification alerting me that my Whole Foods shopper had started working on my grocery order I’d placed the night before, with a delivery window of 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. While I enjoyed a rare moment snuggled up in my bed with coffee, reading for pleasure, someone else was doing my grocery shopping. Total bliss.

Let me start by saying that for the most part I’m a down-to-earth gal who likes to get her hands dirty and who embraces a DIY lifestyle. I’m an avid gardener who grows a lot of organic food, both outdoors and indoors. I keep chickens and bees. I place a high value on clean, healthy food. I also really like to cook. That said, I’m also a technophile who runs a busy company, with very limited time on my hands. I also hate grocery shopping. It’s not that I don’t enjoy grocery stores, but grocery shopping always feels like the sort of task I don’t really have time for. I can always think of something else more productive I could be doing with that two hours. I don’t mind spending two hours in the kitchen, but I don’t want to do the shopping beforehand. Time is my pain point.

My husband, on the other hand, loves driving around for errands and has no problem going to the grocery store for me — mostly because it scores him points and makes him think it will get him out of being assigned some other domestic task he doesn’t want to do. (You’d think after 26 years he’d realize resistance is futile.) Having spent time as a grocery stock boy, he also happens to love grocery stores. So, a few years ago I retired from going to the grocery store and we started using a shared OneNote digital notebook on our phones. I would make grocery lists, and he would head off to the store and check off the items as he got them. Easy. The only problem was, I couldn’t always get him to go to the store on my schedule. He’s since been replaced with an Amazon Prime Whole Foods shopper and delivery person. It’s $20 well spent.

I’ve been teased with many different grocery delivery programs here in Dallas over the years, all coming and going in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Every time a new service would pop up, I’d get super excited and place my first order for delivery. By the time I’d be ready to place a second order, the service was shut down. Plus, I often couldn’t get groceries from where I wanted, which specifically meant limited or no access to organic produce.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods (something I can’t say I was happy about) I was at least intrigued by the opportunity to get my organic groceries shipped and delivered. After having used the service many times now — with only a handful of small issues — I can say that I hope it sticks around. For a busy multitasker such as myself, being able to tap out a quick grocery order on my phone while I’m still working, and have it delivered to my door when I get home, is a dream.

Amazon is taking its tech a step further by outfitting brick and mortar stores with digital features that replace cashiers: automatic scanning as customers cart their selections, and automatic inventory stocking data delivered on the back end. It looks like Microsoft and Kroger are also jumping in with their own “smart stores” to compete with Amazon on that front. While I can say I love shopping digitally from my computer or phone, I do not enjoy self-checkouts at grocery stores. Inevitably, something goes awry. I think they’ll still need to make sure people have others to turn to when technology fails during a live shopping experience.

Customers also want the same digital on-demand services when it comes to their takeout. The handful of times I’ve used services such as Uber Eats, I’ve had mixed results, and even orders completely dropped. When we do get takeout, my husband usually prefers to go pick it up himself. That’s where new services such as Tyme TakeTech are coming in handy. These are cubby/locker systems installed at restaurants who use the services, that allow staff to place ready-to-go meals in temperature-controlled cubbies. The customer simply picks up their order from the cubby when they arrive. That means less time waiting around in line to pick up your order.

While part of the farmers market experience is, well, the experience of attending the market, time is still of the essence for many customers. Parking alone can be a nightmare at big city markets and is often a deterrent for me to visit in-person as often as I’d like. Come to think of it, I’d love more access to digital ordering and delivery of locally grown produce from farmers markets. Perhaps the Tyme TakeTech option, or something similar, could also work in this context.

The bottom line is that customers want access to quality produce and organic foods, but they also want their time back. If we want to encourage consumers to get back in the kitchen and spend time prepping and cooking produce, we need to cut the time it takes to acquire it.

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com

Nestled in the heartland of northern Indiana’s Amish country sits a shimmering glass greenhouse where fresh produce is grown, 365 days a year, without any pesticides or herbicides. Although the facility occupies a mere quarter of an acre, the owners of Micro Farms hope to revolutionize global food production with their innovations.

“Our big-picture goal for Micro Farms is to develop technology and growing systems to provide wholesome food to people globally,” says Loren Graber, who established the hydroponic greenhouse about five years ago.

“There are too many people who go to bed hungry,” adds Dion Graber, Loren’s son and head grower. “With all the technology and resources available, we should be able to feed them.”

Building on a long farming history, the Graber family has been producing food on this property for generations. Back in the ’80s, before Dion was born, Loren ran the family’s corn, soybean and dairy farm in Nappanee, Indiana. One day, he jokingly mentioned to the farm’s agronomist, Steve Kiefer, that he would start a greenhouse operation someday.

But then, soon after Dion was born, milk prices plummeted — forcing Loren to find work in another field. At the time, he didn’t realize that his new job in vinyl fencing would inspire the innovation to bring his greenhouse to life.

“Since he was in the vinyl business and he has PVC connections, vertical farming was right up his alley,” Dion says. “He’s always been an inventor at heart, and he has multiple patents. He just loves thinking outside the box and trying to come up with new things that are more efficient.”

Leveraging his inventive curiosity, his knowledge of vinyl and his drive to make traditional agriculture more efficient, Loren designed and patented his own vertical hydroponic/aeroponic tubes. He asked Kiefer to team up with him again, and they established Micro Farms in late 2013 with the dream of farming differently. Dion jumped onboard as head grower, and several years later, his younger brother Nick joined the family business to execute their father’s dream.

“Vertical” integration

Loren considered using traditional, single-layer hydroponic systems that used floating rafts — deep water culture (DWC) — or the nutrient film technique (NFT), where nutrient-rich water circulates past the bare roots of plants in enclosed channels. But these horizontal layouts required too much space — pointing him toward vertical farming instead.

“You get so much more product per square foot when you grow vertically,” Dion says. “We have 320 tubes in a 4,000-square-foot area, and we can fit 46,823 plants in that 4,000 square feet. That’s roughly 10 plants per square foot.”

Micro Farms’ “Verti Tubes” are 12 feet tall and eight inches in diameter. Loren’s patented design features removable growing cups and trays that pop out of the tube for cleaner, easier harvesting. Prongs in each cup hold a foam cube in place to support the plant’s roots, and a small groove in the bottom of each cup channels water down as it trickles through the tube.

“The biggest thing that separates us when it comes to our Verti Tubes is the removable cup,” Dion says. “Most of them are molded in and you can’t take them out, so our design is better for cleaning purposes. It’s easier to harvest your plants, because if the roots are too long, they’ll get caught when you try to pull them out.”

The foam cubes can be removed with the roots still intact, allowing Micro Farms to harvest and sell living lettuce with a shelf-life of at least two weeks — leaving minimal cleanup behind.

Finding the right mix

The Grabers broke ground in fall 2012, and then a team of builders from Rough Brothers constructed the Venlo greenhouse in 2013. The glass structure contains a 3,000-square-foot head house for seed-starting, a 4,000-square-foot space filled with Verti Tubes, and another 4,000-square-foot space for vertical vine crops.

Dion didn’t have any experience with hydroponics, so he and Kiefer attended the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at the University of Arizona for a “quick crash course” that packed “six months’ worth of college courses into five days, and then another four months in two days,” he says. “That’s where my knowledge started, but at least 80 percent of my growing knowledge is just hands-on.”

When Dion started growing, he experimented with 23 varieties of leafy greens that he seeded weekly. Through trials, he whittled that collection down to 10 varieties, based on what grew and sold best.

The front half of the greenhouse is dedicated to leafy greens like butterhead and oakleaf lettuce, kale and pak choi grown in Graber’s hydroponic/aeroponic Verti Tubes. In the back half, vine crops like tomatoes, red bell peppers and snacker cucumbers are strung up toward the ceiling from hydroponic Bato buckets below — which are filled with recycled glass Growstone that can be rinsed and reused.

Dion and Nick continue to explore new varieties together — switching up greens in the summer to include basil and other heat-loving plants. They’re even trying strawberries in the Verti Tubes.

“We’re constantly experimenting,” Dion says.

Watering the natural way

In addition to Loren’s innovation, the design of the greenhouse also drives efficiency at Micro Farms.

For example, each peak of the Venlo greenhouse roof has a vent on each side. “Whichever way the wind blows, the opposite side opens, so you don’t have a dramatic change in temperature,” Dion explains. “And then every valley has a gutter where we collect rainwater, which is stored in a 25,000-gallon tank under the floor of the headhouse.”

The roof of the warehouse next door also collects rainwater to supplement the operation. They have access to well water, if needed, but they rarely need to tap into that supply.

“The plants just respond better to rainwater,” says Dion, who also uses an O2 Grow system to “supercharge” the water with dissolved oxygen. “We’re trying to imitate exactly what a plant would get out in the ground, but with no soil.”

To that end, Kiefer formulated a mix of granular fertilizers mined from the ground — including Epsom salt, potash, potassium nitrate, monopotassium phosphate and calcium nitrate — that’s added to the water.

Bugging out for pest control

To keep greenhouse insects in check, Dion and Kiefer rely on beneficial bugs to provide biological pest control at Micro Farms.

“We try to keep our population up, so when pests come, we’re ready for them,” Dion says. “Pests seem to multiply quicker than your beneficial bugs, so we’re constantly ordering them.”

Dion regularly releases parasitic wasps to control pesky aphids. Meanwhile, small sachets of swirski mites hang from the plants, inviting the tiny predators to go after the eggs of thrips that can threaten crops. Beneficial insects are released once or twice a month, negating the need for sprays.

“One thing that separates us is that we do not spray any pesticides or herbicides on our plants,” Dion says. “We don’t even have to rinse our produce after harvesting, because nothing was sprayed on it.”

Harvesting fresh for market

Using scissor lifts to access crops all along the 12-foot-tall tubes, Micro Farms employees harvest produce daily. While some is sold fresh to local restaurants and retail customers, Micro Farms also sells produce through an online farmers market called Market Wagon.

Founded by a fellow former dairy farmer, the online platform allows customers throughout the state to order locally grown or handmade products from various vendors, who get to set their prices and availability weekly. Then, orders are either delivered directly to consumers’ doorsteps or to local pickup points.

There are too many people who go to bed hungry. With all the technology and resources available, we should be able to feed them. — Dion Graber

Every Thursday morning, Dion drives a truckload of produce to the Market Wagon hub in Indianapolis, two hours south of Micro Farms. On the way home, he swings by another hub in LaPorte, an hour west. At each hub, he distributes orders into customers’ bags, which are delivered after every vendor drops off their goods.

Market Wagon extends Micro Farms’ reach across the northern half of Indiana. But word travels fast in the small, rural town of Nappanee — and local consumers started asking how they could get fresh hydroponic produce, too. So last November, Micro Farms began selling to the public on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon.

“At 9, you’ll see half a dozen buggies and a dozen cars in the parking lot,” Dion says. “Local people have responded very well to our products.”

Photo: Brooke Bilyj

Looking to the future

The Graber family is eager to share their hydroponic innovations with other growers. The first phase of this long-term plan is their home growing unit, which is slated to hit the retail market later this year.

A smaller version of their greenhouse Verti Tubes, the home hydroponic units, are mounted on a rolling cart that can be wheeled outside. Or, the unit can sit in a kitchen, using an optional LED strip and rotating function to provide sufficient light inside. The home unit features Loren’s patented removable cups and trays, allowing consumers to hydroponically grow 24 plants with minimal mess or maintenance.

Looking even further into the future, the Grabers’ dream of improving food production around the world by providing greenhouse supplies, resources and knowledge to communities in underserved nations like Haiti and Africa, where they’ve been involved in mission work.

“We want to teach other people how to grow. Ultimately, our big goal is to feed the hungry by educating them and setting them up for success,” Dion says. “Because our tubes maximize product per square foot, we think it could definitely make a difference.”

Brooke is a freelance writer based in Cleveland.

Photo: Allison Krieg

In late 2018, Buckeye Fresh — a Medina, Ohio, vertical farm — expanded its relationship with a one-year deal with Midwest grocery chain Giant Eagle. As part of the agreement, some of Buckeye Fresh’s lettuce blends will be sold in clamshells designed with Giant Eagle’s Market District branding, marked as “grown locally” and placed in endcaps reserved for locally grown products at different stores.

“It’s been great,” says Buckeye Fresh co-founder and president Kim Hookway. “I think it was better received than they anticipated.”

Produce Grower: Why do you think the program has gone better than expected?

Kim Hookway: So going into a new product launch, and not having any data points whatsoever, they gave us a certain projected number [that we’ve beat]. Promoting it through ads I think is helping. You have those shoppers that shop those flyers weekly and when you see a good deal on a great product, if you’re like most consumers you’re going to jump on that. A lot of them have been, which has been great. Their goal this year is to promote this Market District brand and see how far they can take it. And so we have ads planned every month. It’s been good.

PG: Has this deal lived up to your expectations?

KH: It’s definitely exceeded ours. Although I will tell you, going in the beginning, they gave us their numbers, which I thought were very conservative. But I guess from the initial launch I thought their numbers were light. So I guess the numbers to me, not that I knew what the numbers would be exactly, but I knew they were a little conservative only because we had Buckeye Blend [Buckeye Fresh’s main lettuce mix] out there under our brand, so it was already a product that I kind of had history on myself of what Giant Eagle and other stores were taking. We do have another product for them that was introduced [Summer Crisp, a crunchier lettuce] — I didn’t have a good feel on that one. But I did anticipate Buckeye Blend would be a winner.

PG: When you’re working with a brand, how important do you think it is that they know that you’re a local business and market that to the end consumer?

KH: I think it does matter, and I think the goal is, on their marketing side, to have more about the farmers and the growers — a little side note. Whether it’s a display in the store of how things are done and where things are located, I think there is more of an education focus that will be placed on this whole local branding. So I think there is more to come, I don’t think this is it.