FLORIDA: Made In Tampa Bay: Brick Street Farms
Farm-to-plate greens grown faster than traditional farms with less water, no pesticides, no soil and no sunlight. Welcome to Brick Street Farms.
Shannon O’Malley’s sustainable urban farm in Downtown St. Pete uses less water and land to produce lettuce, arugula, and other greens for Tampa Bay’s booming restaurant scene—and for your kitchen table.
O’Malley is on a mission to make urban farming cool again. As the Co-founder and CEO at Brick Street Farms (BSF), she’s converted shipping containers into hydroponic farms.
Co-founder Shannon O’Malley.
“I’ve had this vision and mission to design the earth’s most sustainable farming system. So I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve designed a very competitive machine that produces an extraordinary amount of fresh vegetables, and I’m able to do it in an environmentally sustainable way,” said O’Malley. “We can do massive scale farming with very little resources in a very small space, and do it where we have enough volume to really make an impact.”
Each 40-foot shipping container produces the equivalent amount of produce a traditional farm can generate on two to three acres.
“Each container uses 15 gallons of water per day (they have a patented four-part water filtration system) which is less than the amount of water used in an average shower,” says Briant Wildes, account manager for BSF. Another bonus is that the produce is wash-free and can last over three weeks.
O’Malley wanted to be accessible to the community and opened a retail location on the property during the pandemic. Manager Claire Hendrix says, “Our farm store offers items such as our hydroponically grown leafy greens and microgreens, as well as local eggs, meat, drinks, shelf-stable items, and organic produce.” Local restaurateurs are fan favorites of Brick Street Farms and their products. David Lazer Benstock, executive chef and owner of IL Ritorno says, “We have worked with Brick Street Farms for almost three years. We get different microgreens from them to garnish our plates and add explosions of flavor.”
Chef Richard Anderson of the Oxford Exchange in Tampa says, “We receive approximately 100 lbs. of mixed greens a week at OE. We use them at all of our current restaurants and plan on bringing them with us to future locations. They are a great company with an incredible product. I think people forget what great lettuces and herbs taste like until they find them through great purveyors like Brick Street.”
O’Malley prides herself on the cost-effectiveness of her design, which is around $5 million to build and millions less than competitors. “We have the same production capacity that they do. I designed a system that is more cost-effective and just as productive. And I really think that every city needs a Brick Street Farm.” she says.
“One of the challenges is that you’re still dealing with a living perishable product. Plants like what they like, so you’ve got to control temperature, lighting, water temperature, nutrients, disease and pest prevention. It’s all still relevant, even for indoor farming.”
And what’s next for O’Malley? Plans call for hubs across Florida to cultivate life lived by her motto, which is “always local, curiously fresh.”
The farm produces a variety of greens including lettuces and kale along with herbs like basil and a wide assortment of microgreens.
Produce is grown in half the time as a traditional field farm and no pesticides, herbicides or insecticides are used.
These microgreens are the farm’s Petite Red Vein Sorrel greens, known for their delightful strong lemony tang.
LEDs create a specific light recipe for each plant, giving them the spectrum and intensity they need in the most energy-efficient way.
At Brick Street Farms in St. Petersburg, hydroponic systems use 90% less water than traditional soil production for the same yields.