Strawman Farms provides natural food

By Grant Cree

Sturgeon County residents now have another opportunity to shop locally and support a local business. A few kilometres west of Morinville, Strawman Farms is busy producing and providing farm-fresh food.

“The idea is people phone up, or they go to our website and then they can shop there,” said Bob Holm, owner of the family-operated business. “There’s a store on there with our products, and they buy it, and we deliver it.”

Apart from the friendly staff at Strawman Farms, unique technology adds value for customers. “We have a vertical indoor farm with technology from Singapore,” said Holm. “We’re set up, and it’s a pretty cool system that we’ve got going here.”

The farm offers a variety of fresh produce and household plants. Part of their inventory includes useful recipe items. For example, soup broths, sauerkraut, garlic, arugula, beets, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans. “And almost everything else in an outdoor garden,” said employee Jon Dombroski. He noted the family farm doesn’t use harmful chemicals in their operation.

Established in 2011, Straw Man Farms is Canada’s first vertical indoor farm near Morinville. The farm works in partnership with Sky Greens Canada, focusing on providing clean food produced with clean energy.

“Everything in here is running on natural gas from two big generators,” Holm told the Free Press during a tour of the massive facility in a quiet rural area. The warehouse-size building houses numerous towering displays of plants, including strawberries. Each plant is fed by tubes from a central water area that looks like a wading pool.

“We’re going to pump water to the plants anyway,” Holm explained. “So while we pump the water to the plants, the water wheels are turning and rotating this tower.” He pointed to a 30-foot tower, one of many large structures, each equipped to feed plants with healthy essentials.

When Holm visited Sky Green’s vertical farming system in Singapore, he was impressed with several components of the unique farm operation. The experienced farmer recognized the potential of a series of rotating towers.

“That was a big deal to me,” he said. “These towers rotate, so we don’t have to climb to get the plants like when we harvest. We can speed it up and stand there and harvest. And remember, this goes to the top of a 30-foot tower.”

Holm and his team are excited to provide their farm-fresh produce to residents willing to give them a try. Strawman Farms offers delivery within one week.

“Sometimes three to five days,” said Holm. “Under-promise and over-deliver. That’s my motto.” For more information, visit www.strawmanfarm.com