US (NH): Salad business interested in local winter produce

Robert Demers, one of the owners of Demers Garden Center in Manchester, has been trying his hand at hydroponics for the past year and says he is eager to see what new methods Brian Krug and his research project at UNH will produce.

Demers, who has been on the New Hampshire Plant Growers Association for 20 years, helped Krug receive a research grant from the association.

Demers said he hopes that hydroponics will help him provide locally produced vegetables for his salad business during “the months in the dead of winter when you cannot get fresh produce from a local supplier. That's my goal. I haven't got the growing practices down yet. We don't have a steady crop.”

Demers said he became interested in hydroponics when he realized while grocery shopping that none of the produce was locally grown during the winter months.

“The stuff that comes from south of the border from the U.S … they aren't that crisp green,” he said. “They are dull and kind of pricey for what you are getting.”

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