The futuristic indoor farm supplying 'microgreens' to Portsmouth businesses

Portsmouth’s ‘first indoor farm’ is bringing a modern approach to food production to the city by growing ‘microgreens.’
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Adam Brown, who owns Gaia’s Utopia Ltd, has grows herbs and miniature vegetables at his facility which he claims is the first of it’s kind in Portsmouth. He has already started supplying several local businesses in and around Portsmouth, including Restaurant 27.

Adam said: ‘After the pandemic, my business kind of ceased. I was in payment processing and all the shops shut. So, I started looking for something else to get into and the vegan scene is definitely something that I saw on the rise and I started making meat subsitues but I realised very quickly that the nutrition in that stuff is no-existent.

Adam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023.

Picture: Sarah StandingAdam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023.

Picture: Sarah Standing
Adam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023. Picture: Sarah Standing
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‘I started researching to find out where the most nutrients were – what the most beneficial food was – and there’s a big thing in America now called microgreens. A microgreen is pretty much any vegetable that is grown to the size of slightly bigger than cress. It’s harvested when the first two true leaves appear from the seed.

‘The research shows anything up to 40 times the nutrition of the mature counterpart. It’s not across the board – specifically red cabbage – but they hold a lot more nutrients than we’re currently used to, so you don’t need to eat as much.’

Adam added that he plans to use his business to education children about food production after seeing his children show an interest in growing the greens.

He said: ‘During the pandemic, I was trying to get my kids away from the TV, so ordered some seeds and just grew some of these herbs with them. As soon as they saw me eat them, they wanted to eat them. Previous to this, they wouldn’t touch anything green. I’ve now got a photograph of my four-year-old son eating a plate of greens leaves with his thumbs in the air, which would never have happened before.

Adam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023.

Picture: Sarah StandingAdam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023.

Picture: Sarah Standing
Adam Brown from Portsmouth, owner of Gaia's Utopia Ltd, a microgreens indoor farm he set up in January 2023. Picture: Sarah Standing
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‘Fortunately, GetSet Solent was available and they gave me a grant to get hold of all of the equipment set up and going. Now I’m looking to grow the restaurant aspect of it to supply restaurants and small supermarkets but also eventually work with local schools and bring back the days of growing cress on the windowsill with something a little more modern and fragrant.’

Adam’s indoor farm – in a warehouse in on Surrey Road, Landport - consists of a walk-in chiller which is fitted with growing racks with a hydroponic automated watering system being installed. Spring water is used in the farming proccess to avaoid contamination. He plans to expand the variety of crops grown at the facility to include the ‘cucamelon’, a plant which resembles a miniature watermelon. At present the farm can produce about 200 kilograms of produce per week.

One study from the University of Maryland found that microgreens including coriander, celery, red cabbage, green basil and rocket contain four to 40 times more of nutients such as Vitamin C, E, K and beta carotene than their mature counterparts.