Growing Green

A quick glance inside MGM Greens’ rectangle shipping containers brings to mind a disco, thanks to the intense purple glow, light emitted from thousands of tiny blue and red LED bulbs, filling the small space. The illusion quickly fades; there’s no music or dancing. And yet, there is life, energy and excitement all the same.

MGM Greens is growing a lot of green goodness and doing it in a way that’s good for the environment.

MGM Greens began in 2019 when Vintage Hospitality Group partnered with Alabama Power to explore container farming. Today, this urban hydroponic container farm is housed in two former freight containers stacked on top of each other that sit right behind VH Group’s two restaurants, The Vintage Year and The Vintage Café across the street. The operation grows herbs, veggies and flowers for use in both restaurants and to sell to the public at local grocery chain, Renfroe’s. MGM Greens products will also make their way to the Group’s new downtown Italian restaurant, Ravello, when it opens later this year.

Vintage Hospitality Group Executive Chef Eric Rivera touted the quality of the produce that’s pulled from the containers and then used in his kitchens. “Having the best ingredients is really important to me as a chef, and what we’re growing here, it’s amazing,” he said. “These lettuces and herbs are so bright and delicious, and we’re achieving great consistency in the products.”

In each container, green things of all sorts are bountiful and thriving. But it all starts small. Seeds for basil, butter and romaine lettuces, Swiss chard, arugula, turnips and more are placed in a substrate that resembles soil, one seed per each indentation in shallow trays at the front of the container.

Once the seeds germinate and fledgling plants are visible, they’re transplanted to vertical columns made from pieces of PVC fence post. They’re bathed in the purple light that mimics the sun. They’re fed water, fortified with nutrients, that drips down a furrow in each column at various intervals. They don’t require dirt; just the little bit of growing substrate they began in. The result is a verdant jungle, with rows and rows of floor to ceiling leafy greens packing the interior.

MGM Greens is currently the only Freight Farm in Alabama, there are about 500 Freight Farms farmers worldwide.

In one 320-square-foot container, and in just a few weeks, MGM Greens can produce 700 heads of lettuce with this method, a hydroponic system that’s efficient, sustainable and highly successful, yielding big, healthy harvests. And MGM Greens harvests year round. “Unlike traditional farming, where we are dependent on the seasons, here, we get beautiful, fresh basil 365 days a year,” Rivera said. “And I mean super fresh since we’re just steps away from the restaurants. Plus, these harvests have the roots, so unlike other produce that’s already dying by the time we get it, this stuff is still living. That really enhances the flavor as well as the appearance.”

That’s just one of the positives container farming brings; the environmental benefits are huge. “We use fewer resources, far less water,” Rivera said. “We’re actually in a water surplus in the top container. We make more than we need for the plants.” Because the climate is so controlled, there’s no need for pesticides. And with no real distance between the source and the end-user, transport emissions are drastically reduced.

But there’s still learning to do, as Jud Blount, proprietor of Vintage Hospitality Group explained. “It’s really a big science project,” he said. Container farming allows high levels of control and customization. Fans and tubing regulate air flow, temperatures and other climate aspects like humidity are set and maintained. The specifics of what brings about the best results are still being figured out and are different for each farmer. “We’re still tweaking all the time,” Blount said.

Thanks to the equipment and system MGM Greens is using, from a Boston-based company called Freight Farms, the team can take advantage of what other Freight Farms farmers have discovered. “The Freight Farms community is very open and sharing,” Blount said. “I love that aspect.” While MGM Greens is currently the only Freight Farm in Alabama, there are about 500 Freight Farms farmers worldwide, so there’s a large network of knowledge. Plus, Blount and his team can manage almost every aspect from the Freight Farms smartphone app.

Despite the multiple benefits MGM Greens has reaped from container farming, it’s not down on conventional farming. Vintage Hospitality Group has a traditional farm that it relies on for all kinds of produce, and MGM Greens is not replacing those efforts; instead, it’s augmenting them. “We are starting a lot of plants in the containers and then moving them to the outdoor farm,” Rivera said. “We are getting stronger, better plants when we do that.”

MGM Greens is producing plenty of crops to supply the restaurants (The Vintage Year and The Vintage Café) as well as enough of some crops to sell to the public at Renfroe’s Grocery and at The Vintage Café.