Green City Growers Is Largest Urban Food Co-op In U.S.

Green City Growers Is Largest Urban Food Co-op In U.S, occupying 10 acres in the heart of downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

Take a look at a unique employee-owned cooperative that grows lettuce and other greens for local food services, restaurants and grocery stores with plans to do more.

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Graham Tucker showing hydroponic lettuce.

Floating rafts are used to grow lettuce hydroponically.

Hairnets and hand sanitation are required upon entry to the growing area.

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Strict food safety procedures are followed, including wearing hairnets any time employees or visitors are in the growing or packaging areas.

Production is continuous; as mature plants are harvested, young plants are added. Once plants are placed into the hydroponic rafts, it takes about 13 days until harvest.

Young plants are placed in rafts at one end of the growing area; as plants grow they are gradually pushed to the other end, where they are harvested.

The final product, called Living Lettuce, is ready for shipment.

At harvest, plants are washed and placed intact —including the roots — in clamshells, where they will stay fresh for up to two weeks. They are branded with the Living Lettuce name.

Cases of Living Butter lettuce ready for shipment.

Cases of Living Butter lettuce, the most popular variety, ready for shipment. Green City Growers will produce 3 million heads of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs per year. The food dollars are kept in Cleveland, within a 50-mile radius. The company donates one percent of its produce to local food banks.

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