Lufa Farms, a new Montreal business that grows vegetables and greens year-round on an Ahuntsic-Cartierville office rooftop, will begin the sale and delivery of fresh produce direct to local consumers this month.
Lufa Farms' greenhouse is expected to supply approximately 1,000 Montreal families with weekly baskets of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, bok choy, spices and other edibles – all grown without any artificial pesticides, fungicides or herbicides. Lufa will augment its rooftop offerings with root vegetables and other seasonal items grown on organic farms in Quebec.
Weekly deliveries of Lufa Farms produce and local organic vegetables will be available by subscription, and customers may choose from the following assortments: The Lufa Farms Fresh Produce Basket of vegetables grown in the rooftop greenhouse. -- This assortment will include lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, a mix of herbs and a selection of eggplants and bok choy. The 12-week subscription price for a small basket is $264 ($22/week), and $360 ($30/week) for a large basket. The Lufa Farms Fresh Produce & Local Organics Basket of rooftop-grown produce, plus a seasonal selection of organic foods grown by local farmers. – Subscribers to this basket will receive such items as potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, mushrooms, sprouts, squash and organic Quebec vegetables, depending on the time of year. The 12-week subscription price for a small basket is $336 ($28/week) and $494 ($41.20/ week) for the large basket. The produce baskets are ordered from the company's website at www.lufa.com. So far, more than 600 Montreal families and individuals have pre-registered to retrieve deliveries from Lufa Farms at drop-off points around the city. "These offerings will be the very finest in fresh produce – produce that has demonstrably better taste and nutritive values. The rooftop-grown produce will be the year-around freshest produce available anywhere in Montreal," said Lufa founder Mohamed Hage. Hage created Lufa Farms as an answer to widespread consumer concern over the impact of conventional agriculture on the environment and on food safety. He sees the business as a logical extension to the popular trend favoring fresh, high-quality produce from local farms. "Our greenhouse project is based on a fundamental belief that we can grow food responsibly, and provide it directly to city consumers without compromising the taste or nutritional benefit. Lufa Farms produce will travel only a few miles ever, so we don't have to worry about how the vegetables hold up to shipping and handling," said Hage. Lufa Farms began construction of its 31,000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse in July of 2010. It is the first of several greenhouses the company plans to build in Montreal and in other cities. The facility employs controlled-environment agriculture, which enables the operation to yield as much produce as a conventional farm 10 times its size. In addition to using controlled-environment farming methods, the Lufa Farms greenhouse will collect rainwater and will filter and re-circulate water used in crop irrigation. The Lufa Farms greenhouse, located at 1400 Antonio-Barbeau near the Marche Central, is the world's first commercial-scale rooftop greenhouse.
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