• By RICK MILLER

• March 27, 2023

ELLICOTTVILLE — Ellicottville Greens — a vertical vegetable farming operation that originated in Ellicottville in 2019 — is planning to expand operations in Cattaraugus County this spring.

The Olean area is one of two sites in the running for an Ellicottville Greens 10-container vertical farm operation in the county. Owner Gabe Bialkowski designs vertical farming systems that fit inside steel shipping containers — complete with lighting, heating and cooling equipment.

If they were used to grow lettuce alone, the containers could produce 10,000 heads of lettuce a week.

“Olean is one of the locations we are looking at,” Bialkowski said. “There’s a great workforce in the area.”

After losing its lease, the Ellicottville operation moved to Clarence to a spot behind Eastern Hills Mall where it grows more than 20 varieties of greens — including lettuce — and herbs.

Most of its sales are wholesale, although there are some sales directly to restaurants, Bialkowski said.

When it started in Cattaraugus County, Ellicottville Greens offered home delivery of weekly subscriptions of different greens to subscribers. The company hopes to announce a new subscription program for weekly pick-up by subscribers once local operations get underway, he said.

Ellicottville Greens recently purchased Buffalo-based Vertical Fresh Farms to become Western New York’s largest sustainable indoor vertical farming operation.

Vertical farming is like a greenhouse, except there’s no natural light. LED lights mimic sunlight and the plants are grown in soil in special vertical containers, Bialkowski said. It can also utilize hydroponic growing

Vertical farming can produce as much of some products in a vertical farming set-up in a shipping container as on an acre of land — at any time of year.

Products include leafy greens like bibb lettuce and oakleaf; herbs like basil and cilantro and microgreens like beet, bok choy, cabbage, dill, mustard, onion, parsley, radish and sunflower shoots.

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The Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency granted sales tax abatement to Ellicottville Greens for the project last summer.

The Ellicottville site under consideration did not meet pre-construction qualifications, Bialkowski said. “We are going to start construction in the spring.” The location should be known by early April. The company’s headquarters will be in Ellicottville.

“Indoor farming has been around for a long time and has gone through different phases,” Bialkowski said. Profitability has always been the key. The key costs involve lighting, labor and heating/cooling.

Bialkowski’s background is not in agriculture. It is in technology. He’s an RIT graduate in software engineering. He recruited an agriculture expert and has a team of really good qualified people who tend to that sector. The company has 14 employees.

The Vertical Fresh Farm site continues to grow microgreens at the Buffalo location. The Cattaraugus County site will be somewhat of a model for other microgreen operations outside Western New York. If a developer is interested in the concept of “locally grown, everywhere,” Ellicottville Greens can build and operate similar operations.

The greens can go from being picked in the morning to being in a restaurant salad or a garnish on a main dish that evening. The taste is every bit as good as greens grown outdoors and the freshness can’t be beat.

Ellicottville Greens participated last year in the Laine Business Accelerator program in Olean and was among area businesses receiving a $5,000 grant. According to Bialkowski, buyers are looking for three things: “Quality, less spoilage and sourced locally. We check the boxes on all three.”

The greens are grown without pesticides, chemicals or GMOs.

Indoor farming is a $6.8 billion industry that continues to grow.

To learn more about partnerships and creating community-focused jobs check their website at www.ellicottvillegreens.com.

(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)

Lead photo: Ellicottville Greens grows more than 20 different kinds of vegetable greens in specialized shipping containers like this one behind Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence.