Lufa Farms began with an idea to provide local produce to the community. Five years of developing the project and today, Lufa Farms is feeding over two thousand customers weekly from it’s Montreal 31, 000-square-foot rooftop greenhouse. Founded by Mohamed Hage, the city farm provides fresh produce baskets direct to consumers. Customers can order a variety of baskets some supplemented with organic product from local farms.

“We’re a small innovative team, we have many graduates from agriculture programs who are passionate about working on this project,” said Yourianne Plante, communications manager.

“We’reTina Levesque is a researcher from the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) researching native parasitic wasps and their effectiveness on Aphids on a greenhouse environment. feeding people where they live, it doesn’t get much fresher than this,” said Ms. Plante. “Our distribution zone is approximately 10 kilometers and we offer fresh vegetables all year long,” she continued. Customers order a 12-week program and can choose between a small or large weekly basket.

Lufa Farms had multiple varieties of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, herbs and chard growing when The Produce News visited the greenhouse.

“We’re always testing new products,” said Greenhouse Supervisor Jesse Pratt. “We’ve been testing fruit as well, strawberries this winter. The strawberry tests went well. We are also offering micro greens for local foodservice establishments,” he continued. “As we continue to grow, we’ll continue to innovate and find new products to test within our model.”

“There’s also a cost savings for the building, there are energy savings as the greenhouse heat energy can help keep the building warm in winter and cool in the summer,” said Mr. Pratt.

“Community supported agriculture has a strong following and we want our products accessible to as many families as possible,” said Ms. Plante. “The city farm prototype is a win-win, it’s good for the community and it’s good for the building owner. We’re looking at two additional rooftop projects in 2013 and looking to expand to the U.S. We are actively seeking partnerships for building rooftops upwards of 100,000 square feet.”

“Lufa Farms has been delivering baskets direct to consumers for a year and a half now,” continued Ms. Plante. “We’re proud of our products and our model allows us to control the quality from farm to table. We receive direct feedback from the customer and can adjust production immediately to meet needs and change in demand. We feel we have a great model and now the focus will be on expanding the farm model to other cities,” concluded Ms. Plante.