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Greenhouses provide Alaskans with fresh food

Eli Wray remembers the first time he ate a locally grown tomato, fresh off the vine.

“It changed my world,” he said.

“I grew up here, and I had no idea what fresh produce tasted like until I started growing it,” he explained. “I didn’t realize that tomatoes weren’t just sacs of skin and water, fleshy and disgusting.”

The Wrays are young entrepreneurs who are breaking into the farming industry in Juneau, a field has a lot of opportunities for commercial growth but also lots of challenges posed by climate. They began growing and selling food under the name of Panhandle Produce about four years ago, and it’s beginning to pick up momentum.

“My vision is a multi-aspect farm,” Eli said. Half of the business would be growing hydroponically year-round (i.e. growing plants without soil indoors), and the other half would be growing seasonal organics in a greenhouse, both outdoors and old-frame.

“Traditional farming in Southeast Alaska will not feed our community,” he said. “The only way to feed our community is hydroponic growing or greenhouse growing, and climate controlled growing.”

He’s doing both right now on a small scale. In the summertime, he uses the Glacier Gardens Landscape Nursery greenhouse to hydroponically grow tomatoes, peppers, basil and lettuce. He grows more produce — cucumbers, cabbages, potatoes, kale, brocolli and cauliflower — in a cold-frame greenhouse on a separate property, also owned by the Bowhays.

Read more at Juneau Empire
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