July 23, 2019

By Olivia Rizzo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A giant lime-green storage container parked behind Robbinsville Township’s Senior Center is not what I imagined I’d be looking at when I learned the town had a public garden. But that’s exactly what it is and the magic happening inside the 40-foot-long space might surprise you.

Affectionately called the “leafy green machine” by the staff that runs the garden in a box, it operates on a hydroponics system, which, after stepping inside, made me feel like I was inside a sci-fi movie with its eery lights and machinery.

The storage container-turned-garden, which cost the town $104,000, was first installed in 2017. Its main focus is to provide local residents with fresh vegetables that are able to be grown year-round in nutrient-rich water without the need for dirt or pesticides.

“This is really a great urban solution to bring localized greens to residents,” said Kyle Clement, the farm’s coordinator. Clement was hired shortly after graduating from Rutgers to oversee the farm’s production.

Despite its tiny size, the storage container allows them to grow the same amount of crops as a 32,000-square-foot plot of land, which amounts to about 500 heads of lettuce harvested a week. The majority of the produce — lettuce and kale, and eventually herbs like basil — is donated to the town’s senior center and the Mercer Street Friends food bank. The rest is sold to residents who sign up through the town’s program and pay $20 for four weeks of veggies.

I got a tour of the space on a recent afternoon. The inside of the container was mostly dark and was almost solely lit by blue and red LED lights. The closest I’ve come to have an experience like this is when I took a darkroom photography workshop in middle school.

The sides of the storage box are lined with rows and rows of white vertical shelves, which is where the heads of lettuce grow.

As Clement walked me through the process of farming, he pulled one of the inward-facing shelves off its stop to reveal the most perfect and symmetrical heads of lettuce that I’ve ever seen.

The reason these veggies look so perfect has to do with their growing process, which goes a little something like this:

Everything is grown from seeds. They first start out in the seed nursery for about three weeks until the lettuce bulb is big enough to fit into the vertical rack. From there, the entire growing process is controlled and monitored by the farm’s computer system.

“The sensors take all of the readings of water, temperature and pH levels, which are sent to the farm computer, and the computer reads it and adjusts the environment as needed,” Clement said.

The vertical growing system requires no soil and uses a drip water method that conserves 90% of the water used. Any water that isn’t absorbed by the vegetables is collected by the box’s irrigation system to be reused.

Instead of sunlight, the LED lights provide the energy the plants need to grow. The red and blue wavelength lights provide optimal light to the leafy vegetables growing in each garden.

Once the vegetables are fully grown, they are harvested by Clement and a team of volunteers each week. The heads of the lettuce are pulled from the vertical stacks and are cleaned on a workbench before being bagged and prepared for customers.

On my way out of the tour, Clement handed me a bag of lettuce and a flyer promising me the best vegetables I had ever tasted. So I obviously had to put the claim to the test.

I went home and made myself a salad for lunch. I added some tomatoes and cucumbers with chicken and balsamic dressing. This is pretty much my go-to salad recipe but the super fresh greens really pushed it to the next level.

To start, washing off all the heads of lettuce was super easy because there was no lingering dirt particles clinging to the leaves, so I managed to get things prepared in only a couple of minutes.

The taste and texture were also great and I give that credit to knowing the lettuce was just harvested a few days ago and hadn’t been sitting on a truck and going through shipping for weeks at a time.

When I was done with my lunch I still had enough lettuce left over for at least one or two more meals, and I definitely intend on making them last. Robbinsville residents who want to sign up can register online. Customers will be able to pick up their vegetables at the senior center.

Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips.