by Meryl Phair ~ Special to Colorado Community Media

February 14, 2024

Despite Colorado’s cold winter weather, two shipping containers at Uller’s Garden sprout vertical panels of lettuce, arugula and basil. Equal to five acres of land and using 95% less water, the hydroponic system feeds the growing rows of plants with essential nutrients from a constantly circulating water system while high efficiency LED lights supply them with all the sunshine they could need. 

“With this system we can maintain the same quality and consistency 365 days a year through the rain, snow, hail and whatever the future can throw at us,” said Nick Millisor, founder and CEO of Ullr’s. 

With a hyperlocal delivery zone of just five miles in central Denver, the hydroponic garden’s mission since its launch in 2022 has been to feed the local community and promote sustainability – including pursuing net zero operations – from their small niche on South Broadway in the Overland neighborhood. 

Originally from Breckenridge, naming the garden after the Norse god of snow was an easy choice for Millisor, as Uller’s strives to build community even in the middle of winter. In working to expand their impact while maintaining their local mission, Ullr’s recently partnered with online grocery platform PineMelon, a Denver-based organization that partners with local farmers, ranchers and producers to deliver quality products at fair prices. The garden’s romaine and butterhead lettuce, arugula and living lettuce heads are currently listed on the site’s app. 

Founded by tech entrepreneur Alexey Lee, PineMelon is modeled after sister company, Arbuz, which means watermelon in Russian – Kazakhstan’s most widely spoken language. With apt naming, a pinemelon is a distant cousin of the watermelon. Launched in Denver in 2022, their first day in business they received just over 10 orders. Now, with 3,000 membership subscriptions, PineMelon offers same-day delivery seven days a week, and delivers groceries in a roughly 30-minute radius of their 30,000-square-foot warehouse located in Denver’s north side. With the convenience of their app, customers can select items that will be delivered in a two-hour window between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. 

“We connect the local marketplace to consumers,” said Emma Alanis, local partnerships lead at PineMelon. “It’s a way for people to have the farmer’s market experience of meeting their community, meeting local artisans and farmers, and then having a convenient way to continue to purchase and support those people.” 

Previously a farmer herself, Alanis understands some of the unique challenges facing producers today. For every dollar spent at the grocery store, the farmer’s share is less than 15 cents as the often-complex chain of middlemen – from transportation, packing, cooling, buyers and sellers – all need to get paid. 

“With PineMelon, we’re guaranteeing our farmers are going to see 85 cents of the dollar,” said Alanis. “We have a fair pricing model and a fair marketplace guarantee.” 

Farmers price their products and determine what they sell, while PineMelon takes 15% for fulfillment, last-mile delivery and card processing services. Currently, the grocery delivery service works with 12 family farms across Colorado. 

In addition to local products, the more than 6,000 items PineMelon offers include conventional options from wholesalers that provide staple items year-round. Farmers have also been using the service to sell small bouquets from extra flowers on their fields. All excess food is donated directly to Denver Food Rescue and the company uses sustainable packaging in the form of returnable totes, recyclable 
paper bags and limiting plastic in transportation. 

As PineMelon has grown, it has adjusted to fill the needs of the communities it serves. After a push by customers to source halal-certified meat options, PineMelon partnered with a couple of ranches to make those products available. While areas like Washington Park, Capitol Hill and Central Park have been popular for grocery delivery, interest has been growing from customers outside of Boulder, so a Boulder delivery window will be opening in March.  

With Colorado’s short growing season – which is just about 100 days – Alanis said PineMelon is also starting to work with more local vendors growing in greenhouses and hydroponic containers that can source fresh products like chard, lettuce and kohlrabi year-round, especially during the winter months. 

For a new hydroponic farm like Uller’s Garden, Millisor said PineMelon has been a huge asset. After leaving a career in real estate in 2021 following a wave of climate disasters across the globe, Millisor was looking for a way to meaningfully contribute to the climate space. With his brother Luke Millisor and cousin Ian Randall on board, Ullr’s Garden was born. 

“They’ve helped us get a lay of the land,” said the hydroponic farmer. “There is no one size fits all solution to any of this. I’m always trying to think of not necessarily how to create a perfect world but how to make small adjustments, which PineMelon is all about.” 

In addition to working with the grocery delivery platform, Uller’s sells its produce to restaurants and through its Community Supported Agriculture program. Millisor said another benefit of the delivery service is that it saves the pollution created by people driving to grocery stores. 

“PineMelon is a way to get educated, but also to connect with different community members – from local farmers and nonprofits – who are working to fix our broken food system,” said Alanis. 

PineMelon’s new slogan, Act Like A Local, is all about encouraging people to participate, volunteer and understand where the food on their plates is coming from.

To learn more about PineMelon, visit pinemelon.com. To learn more about Uller’s Garden, visit ullrsgarden.com.

Lead photo: More indoor growers like Ullr’s Garden are working with Pinemelon to offer fresh produce, like the pictured red lettuce, year-round. Credit: Meryl Phair