New industry, jobs coming to Opasatika: Truly Northern Farms establishing 23,000-square-foot indoor growing facility.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay

A freshly established hydroponic farming operation is bringing the promise of new industry and employment to the small community of Opasatika.

This spring, Truly Northern Farms (formerly Smart Greens-Sudbury) will establish the first crops of lettuce and basil inside a 23,000-square-foot growing facility that was previously used for cultivating mushrooms.

Located about a 30-minute drive west of Kapuskasing, the Town of Opasatika has a population of about 200 people, but no major industry to sustain it.

The mushroom facility had sat vacant and unused for three years before Stephane Lanteigne was approached by the owner about the building's potential.

"We went up there, and the amount of infrastructure that's in that building is unreal," said Lanteigne, who now owns and operates the facility with his partner, I Jeremy Gillanders.

"So for us, we're able to launch at a significantly lower price than if we were building up from new."

With 90 per cent of the needed infrastructure already in place, the cost of building hovers around $3 per plant site, Lanteigne said.

That's a huge decrease from what Lanteigne and his wife, Erin Rowe, see at their hydroponic container farms in Chelmsford, outside of Sudbury, where the per-plant-site cost is about $63.

Since the couple began growing kale there in 2017, a strong market has developed for their product, which they sell to local restaurants and grocery stores, and at the local farmers market.

But early on in the process, the couple quickly realized that this type of "boutique" growing was only suited to small, specific crops, and they were eager to explore farming on a larger scale.

"We're not moving away from kale--we still have a healthy market for kale--but we very much want to expand," Lanteigne said.

The Chelmsford operation requires constant monitoring to ensure the plants are receiving optimal levels of water, nutrients, and light.

But the Opasatika operation will take a different approach to growing that will be much less labour-intensive.

Seedlings will be placed into long metal racks, which float on a bed of water, and the entire thing moves around like a giant convey; or belt as the plants grow.

Once they're ready to harvest, the entire plant is plucked from the rack and packaged for shipping.

"You buy a live lettuce plant or a live basil plant," Lanteigne explained.

"That means it gets packaged with a little bit of water on the roots, so it literally stays living until you eat it.

"It'll be...