For decades, the Howe family farmed apples, potatoes, and dairy in New Brunswick. "My parents farmed here, and my grandparents farmed here. We go back multiple generations," says Jon Howe, founder and chief grower at Sunden Farms. Today, that legacy continues indoors.
Sunden Farms is no longer focused on livestock or orchard rows but on delivering hydroponically grown leafy greens, including 15 different types of lettuce, microgreens, kale, swiss chard, herbs, and baby leaf herbs, within just one day of harvest.
Fresher and faster with no loss in nutrition
"From harvest to dinner table or harvest to shelf, we want that timeline to be less than 24 hours," says Howe. "So you get that nutritional value for your family and value for your money." By growing indoors in a controlled environment, Sunden Farms is able to stabilize supply and preserve freshness across seasons.
"The majority of the vegetables are imported within our province right now," Howe explains. "When you have long supply routes like that, the nutritional content of those vegetables degrades. For instance, vitamin C content within romaine lettuce can degrade by over 90 percent."
The economics of eating local
For Howe, the deeper motivation lies in keeping value close to home. "When you buy something that's imported, most of that money leaves this province. It never comes back again," he says. "So when you buy produce from the farmers here in New Brunswick, your money stays within the local communities."
That closed-loop logic has helped Sunden Farms gain traction not only with consumers but with grocers and chefs who are increasingly looking for reliable, local sources of high-quality greens. The farm currently supplies retail outlets and restaurants across southern New Brunswick, with a growing online presence via Market114.ca.
Local as long-term strategy
'Buy Local for Good', an initiative launched by the New Brunswick government to support local producers and strengthen food security, is a call for regional self-sufficiency. For Jon Howe, it's also a guiding principle, closely mirroring what Sunden Farms practices every day. "'Buy local for good' is twofold for me," Howe explains. "One is that buying local is obviously good for the community. It reinvests within your community, but it also means that you should buy local forever."
That message is landing at a time when Canadian provinces are being pushed to rethink their supply chains. From rising transportation costs to mounting cross-border regulatory hurdles, the idea of building resilient, province-first food systems is gaining urgency. Vertical farming is increasingly part of that conversation, not just in cities, but in communities like Lower Coverdale.
Controlled environment, open-ended impact
Beyond distribution and economics, Sunden Farms is also investing in efficiency through lighting research. By customizing LED wavelengths for specific crops, the farm has significantly reduced its energy footprint.
"We've modified those wavelengths so we can provide the correct wavelength to our plants while reducing the amount of energy consumption that we have," says Howe. "We've got it down to about 10 watts per square foot, which is phenomenal."
The farm continues to expand its technical capabilities through active research partnerships, with a focus on production scalability and knowledge-sharing across Canada.
See more of Sunden Farms here.
For more information:
Sunden Farms 
Jon Howe, Founder
www.sundenfarms.com
[email protected]