614: Jenn Frymark on Growing Fresh and Closer to home.
Looking outside of the box for garden growing.
In This Podcast:
Jenn Frymark has grown fresh produce in some very unexpected places, so she is a firm believer that everyone can grow fresh and close to home, wherever home might be. She explains how she took this belief a step further and started Gotham Greens, using her hard-earned expertise to find out if food could be grown and distributed locally as a business, rather than a grant-funded educational or community project. Jenn talks about the early challenges and many successes.
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Our Guest:
Jenn is the Chief Greenhouse Officer of Gotham Greens, a pioneer in urban indoor agriculture with a national network of local high-tech farms. At Gotham Greens, Jenn oversees all greenhouse design and growing operations. Prior to Gotham Greens, she managed greenhouses at McMurdo and South Pole stations in Antarctica, providing fresh vegetables for U.S. research scientists. She also worked in the greenhouse at the Cuisinart Resort and Spa in Anguilla and designed and led operations for the Science Barge in New York City. Jenn earned a Master’s degree in Plant Sciences from The University of Arizona and a Bachelor’s degree in Plant Biology from Arizona State University.
Listen in and learn about:
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- How Jenn was inspired by Greg when she was a new plant lover
- Experiences that led Jenn to become an expert on greenhouses
- The defining moment in Jenn’s career
- How Jenn ended up in Antarctica
- Growing challenges Jenn faced in both Anguilla and Antarctica
- The inspiration behind Gotham Greens
- Leveraging technology without moving too far away from nature
- How Gotham Greens ended up on the roof in NY
- Turning a model typically funded by grants into a business model
- Challenges Gotham Greens faced as a groundbreaking business
- Successes as the company grew
- Advantages of the Gotham Greens growing model
- How Gotham Greens is “vertically integrated”
- Food waste in the current system
As well as:
Her failure – Some projects not making it to completion for various reasons
Her success – Gotham Greens, still a successful company 10+ years later
Her drive – A real love of plants & an inquisitive nature
Her advice – “Everyone should spend much more time outdoors in nature.”
Jenn’s Book recommendations:
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
How to reach Jenn:
Website: www.gothamgreens.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/GothamGreens/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GothamGreens
Twitter: twitter.com/gothamgreens
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gotham-greens-farms/
*Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a nominal commission at no cost to you. We offer links to items recommended by our podcast guest as a service to our audience and these items are not selected because of the commission we receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.UrbanFarm.org/gothamgreens
