EATING WELL
What is The Villages Grown? The Villages Grown is a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) operation that grows a variety of produce. Most CEAs are category pillars in which only one product – such as leafy greens or tomatoes or herbs – are grown. The Villages Grown is growing six types of tomatoes – specifically heirloom – as well as a variety of lettuces, collard greens, microgreens, herbs, and different types of cucumbers. Jennifer, Director of Operations Adam Wright and Director of Production, General Manager Tracey Herrera, and Wellness Dr. Bill Huggins, are excited to offer chemical-free, “clean tech” vegetables, herbs, and microgreens to Villagers and surrounding communities.
The Villages Grown launched in 2018, started construction in 2019, and by the summer of 2020, the farm was semi-operational. Phase one consisted of nine acres of greenhouses being fully planted by the end of November. Those nine acres will yield roughly six million pounds of produce in one year. A total of 40 acres are dedicated to greenhouse space. “We’ll move pretty quickly and take on several iterations of phases which will position us to be one of the largest operations in the Southeast of its kind, which is exciting,” Jennifer says. Numerous greenhouses allow growing 365 days a year. Not being beholden to seasons means that a
Tracey Herrera, Jennifer Waxman, and Adam Wright
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consistent product is delivered over and over again. That excites Jennifer. “Our first thing we teach someone when they tell us they don’t like vegetables or don’t like tomatoes is that they probably have never had a real one. We’re so disconnected from our food supply, by the time you’re eating a general tomato on your plate it might have been harvested, in inventory and transit for up to five weeks. It is tasteless, it’s not delicious. They [other farms] are gassing it, coloring it, doing so many things to preserve it, and we do none of that,” Jennifer says. Local artisans have also gotten involved with The Villages Grown, using their farm products to make “amazing culinary wellness products such as fermented vegetables, vegan meat solutions, jams,” and so
