Montreal woman grows fresh strawberries year-round from her indoor farm

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Ophelia Sarakinis found herself looking to start a business, at a time when most businesses were closed.

Thanks to a grant from McGill University, where she had just graduated from the agriculture department, she began growing strawberries in a Kirkland underground parking garage.

Her experiment did bear fruits, literally!

Four years later, the now-25-year-old entrepreneur moved her operation to an industrial sector of the city. With full staff, experience management, and a strawberry production of 15,000 plants in its first year of production, she can provide fresh berries year-round under the name GUSH Farm.

Why strawberries? Because Quebecers eat a lot of them – but they’re usually imported from California or Mexico 10 months of the year.

"They grow a strawberry that's not tasty. It has low sugar content so that it doesn't rot as quickly for shelf life," said Sarakinisi, who spent years studying and experimenting with the fruit.

But growing strawberries indoors comes with challenges. The fruit grown in the fields is fragile and requires a large amount of pesticides to protect it from parasites and diseases.

GUSH farm won't use any pesticides. They’re growing in a climate-controlled greenhouse. Ladybugs take care of parasites. Bumblebees pollinate the flowers. And the company needs to follow strict guidelines to protect its production. A costly operation, said its chief technology officer Zachary Mason.

"It depends a lot on your management practices and what kind of beneficial bacteria you cultivate in your system as well, whether you're growing in soil or hydroponically. All these things have an impact in this complex system," he said.

Sarakinis was able to start GUSH farms with venture capital investment from Montreal's Broccolini family.

Right now, the strawberries can only be ordered through Lufa farm's website, a distributor that specializes in fresh, organic food. And because they're handpicked and shipped right away, they're as fresh as summer-time strawberries.

"We’re just a few kilometers away from the consumer, so we can afford to pick the strawberry when it's fully, fully ripe," said Sarakinis.

But the small operation and related costs have one major downside. The fruit costs the same as the organic variety, which is not within everyone’s budget

"We start with the niche market, people who care about gourmet food, and then eventually we're going to have strawberries for the masses," said Sarakinis while packing the fruits for shipping.

If Sarakinis' business model takes flight, expect more strawberries and other fruits to be locally grown and available year-round.