A hydroponic farm in New Britain is growing opportunity while going green

Inside the Does Good Garden hydroponic farm, you’ll find thousands of lettuce plants constantly growing. The new indoor farm in New Britain is growing about 2,000 pounds of lettuce each week, harvesting what would be equivalent to a 45-acre farm, but the indoor space is only one-eighth of an acre.

“We’re not using any pesticides, any chemicals,” explains Bill Green, President and CEO of CW Resources. Green continues, “The water, we have zero waste. Everything’s going into the plant and being recycled. And we saved tons of CO2.”

The process begins with three seeds in each pod. They germinate in bins for a few days, then move to another sunny growing rack. “We can see what the humidity is,” says Green. He continues, “The temperature is, so we can assure the farm is working at peak efficiency.”

After a week and a half, they’re transplanted into racks where they’re watered every 30 minutes.

To help simulate the outdoors, bright lights will be on for 12 hours per day, then turn off for 12 hours to simulate night. The farm is efficiently using water and lowering CO2, but also helping its workers grow, too.

CW Resources provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other barriers.

“It’s like sometimes you could do like a whole phase or maybe just do a half a phase, and then you never get people that take the thing down, and then put them in the basket, so that’s like plugging,” explained Jeanay, one of the farm’s employees.

Does Good Gardens has Phase I finished of the hydroponic farm.

They plan to expand to Phase II to double the amount of leafy greens the farm produces. The farm is also experimenting with growing fruit, like strawberries, and herbs, such as basil. Currently, the farm sells its lettuce to Cisco and some local restaurants, but plans to expand its customer base.

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