Winter 2023 - 8

GREENHOUSE & HOOP HOUSE GROWING
City Roots co-owner Eric McClam looks over some
of the organic farm's crops, including red acre
cabbage, mustard microgreens, and purple Rambo
radishes. Photos: Melinda Waldrop
FINDING A NICHE
City Roots' current
crops include arugula,
broccoli, kale, radish,
mustard greens, cilantro,
and snow peas, along with
the sunflowers that stem
from the McClams' early
experimental efforts.
" At one point, we were
growing a dozen acres
of vegetables, a couple
acres of cut flowers,'
Eric McClam said. " We
were doing mushroom
production, microgreen
production, agrotourism.
Then at a certain point a
couple of years ago, we
said let's pull this back.
Let's focus on what we
are most well-known for,
which are the microgreens
and leafy greens. "
City Roots was always committed to obtaining organic
certification, Eric said, and its soil is certified under the Real
Organic project. The farm is also GAP (Good Agricultural
Practices)-certified for food safety.
" The rigors of (those processes) really show to the
general public, or our buyers or our vendors, that we do
what we say we do, " Eric said.
of Daniels Engineering Services in Columbia, which worked
on the project.
Greenhouse zones like the ones City Roots is planning can
also add to growers' flexibility and increase crop production.
" If you have a variety that doesn't need 18 hours (of light),
why give it 18 hours? " Séguin said. " Say we want our target
to be 400 micromoles, for example. If the sun is giving me
400-plus, the lights shut off. If the sun is giving me 300, the
lights will give 100. In that way, you're never giving too much
light, so for the crop health side of things, you're getting a
uniform light level. Also you're only applying as much energy
as you need to make your target. "
Controlled lighting also has applications managing pests
and pathogens, with nascent research producing promising
results, Séguin said.
" So far we've seen some positive effects, " she said. " We
would like to see it more throughout the entire season to
really follow that trend to see how it works and hopefully be
able to replicate it in the coming years. "
While Sollum has typically worked with growers of
peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, Séguin said market
diversification is expanding to include strawberries,
eggplant and cannabis.
" The goal is to take as much data as the grower has and pull
it all together with ours so that they can make really informed
decisions, " she said.
8 WINTER 2023
Another City Roots tenet is soil-based farming. To that
end, the new facility will include more compost sheds to help
maintain the farm's living soil, currently being analyzed.
City Roots' soil is run through a tray filler, a water
tunnel and an automated seeder, then topped with a coat
of vermiculite before being left to germinate. At the new
greenhouse, a conveyor belt will move the trays through
different growing zones to their eventual destination: a fullservice
harvester.
" Fundamentally, soil is the structure of our planet and our
production. Philosophically, for us, it's really important to
maintain that, " Eric said.
The new facility, situated near an industrial park on land
purchased from Richland County, will include a washing
and packaging operation, loading docks and cold storage,
as well as a solar array that will reduce City Roots' energy
costs by 30%. The operation will also create around 50 jobs
when up and running, Eric said.
The McClams will maintain ownership of the original farm,
renting out its commercial kitchen and leasing its greenhouses.
The evolution of City Roots from Robbie McClam's
retirement project into a regional player in the microgreens
market draws a wry smile from the elder McClam, who
met with initial resistance to the idea of focusing on the
microgreens that he saw as " a controlled profit center. "
" (Eric would say), 'No, I want to be a farmer. I want to
grow everything,' " Robbie said. " We finally got a good focus
and we've gotten pretty good at what we're doing. We're
pretty proud of that. "
Winter 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Winter 2023
