Farm Girl Greens, owned and operated by Abby and Mark Lepak, is a 3,600 square foot indoor hydroponic farm with 300 ZipGrow™ Towers located in Auburn, NY. Five years ago, both Abby and Mark decided to start their venture of starting their own family business. Mark’s experience in information technology and Abby’s 20+ years experience in the corporate health and wellness field together helped build their indoor hydroponic farm business in November 2019. The hydroponic farm provides a supply of fresh greens and herbs without the use of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides to local restaurants, businesses, and markets.
The farm is located beside their family home where Abby and Mark reside with their two sons, Jack and Alex. Leaving her professional job of 20+ years and starting a vertical farm with her husband was really an incredible experience and a journey for them, especially for their children.
“Our sons are now able to understand the process that their mom had to leave her job in order to run the farm and also understand and experience the hard work that goes into owning a business”, explains Abby.
Response to Covid-19
Recently, due to Covid-19 measures, Farm Girl Greens was not able to supply as much produce to local restaurants and businesses, however, Abby was able to still supply and deliver produce to customers who ordered through their Farm Girl Greens website. Farm Girl Greens also had the opportunity to cross-promote Simple Roast, a local cafe, by also selling their products through their Farm Girl Green website, which was shut down due to Covid-19 measures.
When asked about how the recent Covid-19 restrictions affected their business, Abby explained how they managed to control the situation by responding accordingly to the current market demands and simply planting the greens that were most popular for the customers. “More lettuce, less herbs,” stated Abby.
Our Technology
Farm Girl Greens is run by ZipGrow™ systems which is a patented hydroponic system that is designed to maximize space and decrease production time. When asked about their experience so far about maintaining the ZipGrow™ system used in their hydroponic farm, Abby stated how at first, their hydroponic farm involved a lot of trial and error; however, there hasn’t been that much error.
“It’s just nutrients, water, lighting, and spacing and once you understand the logistics of it, it’s a very easy concept”.
-Abby Lepak
Community Grow
Farm Girl Greens hopes to continue and build more connections within their local businesses and local markets and also build their expertise in providing the community with healthy and tasty fresh produce. Abby is also looking forward to attending many more events and meeting new businesses in the future to help teach and provide their local and sustainable produce.
For more information about Farm Girl Greens please visit Farm Girl Greens or follow their Instagram page: @farmgirlgreens
