Day in a Life of a Grower: Distribution
Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to grow food year-round using hydroponics?
Step inside a working farm and explore what it’s like to be a hydroponic grower! Fiona with Rocket Greens will document what it’s like to seed, transplant, grow, and harvest in a Growcer modular farm*. Plus, how Rocket Greens distributes their harvest through their subscription box.
Distribution
It feels a little surreal that close monitoring and some TLC from our team can produce such rapidly growing greens. In six weeks, we go from seed to full, fresh vegetables on our grocery store shelves.
Once our Rocket Greens subscriptions are all filled on harvest day inside the Growcer, they are finished with a herb packet on top.
We bring some of our fresh greens to our kitchen, where they’ll be incorporated into the food served on-site for researchers, staff and visitors.
Spinach, mustard greens, butterhead lettuce and red Russian kale will be on our menu this week.
Time to make our way to town!
We load up the rest of our freshly harvested produce in the Rocket Greens van and make our way 23 km to town. I always feel spoiled by this drive. Depending on the season we might see foxes, hares, owls, caribou, or polar bears.
Last fall this female polar bear walked down the road in front of us for 10 minutes before moving along to let us pass!
Delivering our leafy greens around the community is a treat. We drop off produce to Tamarack foods, the Northern store, and to folks who signed up for delivery.
Delivering greens is an enjoyable part of our Wednesdays - we get to have face-to-face interaction with our subscribers and visit friends like Stella along the way.
Stella’s family has been subscribing since the very beginning of Rocket Greens! We couldn’t run this program without people like them. Subscribers form the foundation of our project.
We deliver to Tamarack foods and the Northern Store before visiting subscribers.
Stella loves her Rocket Greens almost as much as she loves pets!
Caribou Hall is a gathering space for our subscribers to share recipes and bond over food.
I really am proud of the Launch Box service and have been excited about it since before working with Rocket Greens. We can speak with our subscribers face-to-face, get their feedback, and get to know them personally.
After delivering to folks around town, we set up at Caribou Hall, a space donated to us where we can hand out the remainder of our subscriptions on Wednesday evening.
This is a great way to connect with our community, which is part of what makes the Launch Box service unique. More than that, our subscribers get to talk with one another about how they use their greens, how their outdoor gardens are doing, and what’s going on in their lives. Connecting over food is natural, and it’s nice to be part of this gathering space.
“Connecting over food is natural and it’s nice to be a part of this gathering space.”
Subscribers are divided on arugula, but we love it!
Greens like Swiss chard bring a beautiful contrast to our mostly green veggies.
I’m always interested to hear what people are cooking up with their greens. I especially love seeing dishes that fuse together country foods with Rocket Greens - these dishes feel so special.
Combining traditional foods harvested from the land we live on with leafy greens that are grown using a newer sustainable method is a perfect pairing. It feels like a privilege to see and taste these creations; each one has a story.
Claudia’s harvest salad. Claudia has been a subscriber for many years and helps to operate the Churchill Community Garden – she is always sharing her knowledge (and recipes) with us.
Moose tacos.
Ginger garlic moose tenderloin with rice and Rocket Greens Rosie bok choy. This was made by Jill, a skilled hunter who took down this moose with her hunting partner last fall.
Mini-subscription. From left to right: Asian Delight choy, Rex butterhead lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, Spinach, Mustard Greens and Basil.
While the Launch Box subscription still isn’t a service everyone can afford, selling directly to community members helps us to keep healthy, fresh greens affordable for many locals. Our prices have been the same since the beginning: $10 for a Mini size, and $20 for a Standard size.
Watch Carley - the Growcer’s first farmer - unpacking her Standard subscription!
What I think makes this subscription program special is that it shows a sustainable and equitable way to grow and share food in an area where many, many people are hungry. Even while food inflation and other factors can cause grocery store items to skyrocket in price, we can keep our costs low in the North using a model like this.
I see so much potential in small scale food projects like these, and I know they can help northern communities to feed our families and neighbours.
Even when our plants are a little small or our Launch Box subscriptions are lighter than usual, we take a moment to recognize that we are still delivering fresh, locally grown leafy greens to a northern community of 900 people, each week of the year.
Enjoyed this series? Stay up to date with everything Rocket Greens on @cnscrocketgreens.
*Because Rocket Greens was Growcer’s first customer, their farm represents an older version of Growcer’s modular farms that uses nutrient film technique (NFT) instead of shallow water culture (SWC) to grow greens. For the latest farm specs and yield data, download your comprehensive guide to Growcer’s farms.
Step inside the farm!
Understand how hydroponic container farms work, from common misconceptions to daily tasks.