Consumers in Tennessee don’t often find freshly grown local vegetables year round, but that’s exactly what Falcon Ride Farm is producing.  Their popular CSA program provides the local community with fruit and vegetables throughout the year, thanks to the new high tunnel greenhouse design that lets farm owner, Bart Gilmer regulate interior temperatures more easily.

“We are very excited about the potential for our early and late crops like lettuce, beets, greens, kale and others that will be available in early spring, late fall and winter in addition to our popular summer crops,” says Gilmer.

The new style greenhouse will allow Gilmer to expand product offerings.  The weekly CSA boxes, which travel from farm to home in one day, are now packed with selection on a weekly basis.

The high tunnel greenhouses, along with a heated greenhouse for seed starting, were built with the help of a grant from the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program.

“Starting our crops from seeds gives us the ability to have the varieties that we and our customers want, when we need them and in the quantities that we need them in. We also enjoy the fact that we take care of each vegetable from a seed all the way to the consumer without the need for any ‘middle men,'” Gilmer explains.