by April Lisante

It may be in the arctic 20s outside, but tucked in the basement of the Rittenhouse Hill Apartments just off Lincoln Drive near Wissahickon Avenue, AGreen Farms looks and smells like spring.

Owner Adam Green couldn’t have a better last name, considering he certainly has a green thumb during these cold winter months, nurturing 3.500-square feet of specialty edible greens in a warm, light-filled, hydroponic greenery lab.

As an indoor grower and purveyor of petite salad greens, edible flowers and herbs, Green is making a name for himself among area chefs and distributors who are looking for unique, rare and extra flavorful greens to cook and garnish with. His goal is to bring flavorful greens to restaurants across the region. Restaurants downtown like Vetri Cucina and Giordano’s have already become big fans, and his goal is to hopefully get some Chestnut Hill chefs on board.

“I’ve always been a foodie at heart, and I’ve always loved obscure foods,” said Green, a 20-something who lives right upstairs in the Germantown apartment complex where he runs the farm. “Chefs love this. It’s so exciting to bring them something that is the highest quality I can find.”

Green, who grew up in South Jersey and attended both Syracuse University and Temple University, before graduating from Temple in 2018, didn’t want a traditional 9 to 5 cubicle job. He convinced his father to invest in his idea last year, after working and interning at two different places to learn the ins and outs of the biz. But most of what he does is self-taught, from how to prune plants to how to light and grow them.

Green has always been fascinated with how and where food is grown. While at Syracuse University, he became obsessed with the farmer’s markets in the area, and getting the freshest, most local produce.

“I would go to the farmer’s markets and see how the produce related to the people who were growing it.,” he said.

This month, as he celebrates his first successful year as owner of AGreen Farms, it’s all about sustainability for him. He grows the greens hydroponically, cutting back on waste and packing flavor into every bite with high quality seeds that spend eight to 10 weeks soaking up pink spectrum rays.

“When do greens ever taste like this?” he asked, watching the expression on my face when I tried a unique wild arugula, and looked as if I was tasting arugula for the first time. “That’s the message: sustainability. Chefs use less product because all of the taste and nutrients are so concentrated.”

I toured and tasted many of his 80 varieties of greenery, from nasturtium to arugula, basil and fennel.

These are no ordinary greens.

“I can’t eat regular salad anymore,” Green laughed. And after a few samples, I understood what he was talking out. I’m not sure my grocery store romaine will cut it after this experience.

There are a multitude of petite salad greens he grows, a size midway between micro greens and baby greens. In row after row of black beds, he has miniature bush basil, wild arugula, mustard greens, bronze fennel, nasturtium, and even a lime mizuna, or mustard greens. The mizuna has a kick to it like cayenne pepper.

In a second room, he nurtures flowering plants that will be used to gather the blossoms for chefs.

Believe it or not, some of the lights that hang above the beds are white and pink, intended for growth, while lights that don’t have white bulbs are strictly designed to make plants flower. Those blossoms, from oregano to lavender to nasturtium and marigold, take about eight weeks and are sold for their taste and their beauty on a resto plate.

He sells the greens in containers that average about two to three ounces each. The greens are cleaned and destemmed, so chefs don’t have to prep or wash the veggies.

“It’s pretty much like having a home garden, but distributing it all over,” Green said, of his precious inventory.

This past year has been one of ups and downs, a learning curve Green is adapting to as he tries to expand his market. A 40-hour power outage in October was probably the worst thing that could have happened to his business, forcing him to throw away inventory and start over.

But this year, he is looking forward to moving away from strictly wholesale to offer perhaps a CSA-style 10-week subscription to locals who want to try some of his products.

“I’m thinking I am ready to do that.” Green said. “And maybe give tours for members.”

For more information, contact Green at agreenfarms.com.