Most people enjoy fresh, locally-grown produce.
But in the winter when the ground is frozen those products are only available trucked in from places like California, or Mexico and they’re anything but local, or fresh.
Until now.
David and Alyssa Pfaeffli’s farm, three miles west of Busby, has a 9,500-square-foot building that houses 14 stainless-steel-lined 40-foot shipping containers that are each eight-feet wide and a little over nine-feet high.
Inside are row upon row of lettuce (leaf and head) as well as basil and other greens.
“It was kind of the only way I could get into farming with only one quarter section,” said David.
He said he had been hearing about indoor ag and looked into it a little further and met with CubicFarm Systems, based out of Langley, B.C.
“I toured their facility and equipment and right away, it caught my eye. The use of space is ideal, you’re not growing in one single layer. You’re using every cubic foot of growing space,” he said. “In 9,500 square feet we can grow more than 20 acres worth of produce.”
Theirs is a hydroponic growing operation, adding liquid nutrients from Brite Light in Ontario with the plants themselves growing their roots through coconut plugs.
Crushed coconut shells are the ‘dirt’ and no pesticides are needed.
“It’s 100 per cent food safe and biodegradeable, grown in a sealed micro-climate,” he pointed out, while noting their operation is Canada GAP certified and audited yearly.
David Pfaeffli inspects the produce in one of the farm’s 14 growing containers Jan. 28.
Each container has multiple rows of stainless-steel growing trays that rotate regularly on a chain-drive system, with each tray being watered once each rotation under lights.
Any water the plants don’t use in a rotation is recycled back into the system.
“We save 90 per cent of the water usage versus regular irrigated fields. We use fresh town water trucked in from nearby Barrhead,” he said.
Each container typically uses about 25 gallons per day for over 4,000 plants.
“There’s no waste. All of the water from the irrigation system is fed right to the roots.”
Using this source of water rather than well water eliminates any chance of salmonella or E. coli or any of those problems, David pointed out.
Each container can be tailored to whatever they are growing; currently both leaf and head lettuce, herb basil and microgreens. Lettuce and basil takes about five weeks, and microgreens are harvested every six days.
The Pfaeffli’s seeded their first crop at the beginning of December and just recently began delivering product to retail outlets.
Sobeys in Westlock is one of those and told us the product from Swiss Leaf moves off the shelves very quickly.
David figures every week they can easily do 8,000 heads of lettuce, for example.
“I can run everything pretty much from my phone or an iPad,” he noted.
“Which is both good and bad because at five in the morning, if there’s some kind of issue, I have to come and fix it.”
Their home is located on another area of the farm, while the growing facility is adjacent to Highway 651.
As for heating, David said they found that the heat generated from the containers provides enough for the whole building.
“I have a 200,000 BTU furnace in the shop part that I’ve never turned on. It just sits there like an expensive paper weight,” he said with a laugh.
If the power does goes out they have enough generators on site to keep things from freezing, but the plants can easily go 12 hours without power.
Their biggest energy use is electricity and hopefully they will eventually be able to utilize solar power to offset that.
He feels their location is ideal as they’re within a 100-kilometre radius of Edmonton, St. Albert and all the local towns.
“And shipping out the same day that we harvest has already added at least a week onto the shelf life of the plant.”
Swiss Leaf Farms (the name comes from his Swiss heritage) is partnered with CubicFarm Systems on this project.
David said he can run this entire operation with just himself and a staff of four, with the biggest work being the picking and packaging of the crops.
In a year they can produce 1.25 million heads of lettuce, six million plugs of basil and 150,000 pounds of microgreens.
“The best part of this is that it’s alive when we harvest it and it’s alive when the customer gets it.
“Our packaging has a little watering hole. You can water your lettuce daily and keep it alive, or just leave it in the bag in the fridge. We have a 10-day, best-before date. It really lasts a long time. The bag is like a crisper and keeps it nice and fresh.”
And the current operation is just the start.
“We’re constantly working to expand our markets. We started off with Sobeys and Safeway and there’s been interest from the Co-op and others. But driving to multiple locations with small orders is just not going to work.
“We’re working on other avenues. Our focus right now is to get what we can do out to market. We want to make some happy customers. We’re constantly doing R&D. I’ve had a lot of ask for strawberries. We’re constantly looking at other things.”
Davis said the goal is to hopefully have four similar growing facilities at their site within a decade, but they’ll take baby steps to get there.
You can learn more about Swiss Leaf Farms by checking their website and Facebook pages by Googling Swiss Leaf Farms.
