Last week, I had the chance to go for a walk on the roof of an IGA . Funny activity, you might say? Well, not as fun as creating a 25,000 square foot garden on the roof of a supermarket! But it's true: the IGA Duchemin in Ville St-Laurent now has the largest organic vegetable garden on the roof of a grocery store, and you can visit it !
Entrepreneurs who dare
I've been immersed in the world of entrepreneurship for a few years now, and in my opinion, what characterizes a good entrepreneur is not only seeing a solution where there is a problem, but even better, seeing an opportunity... and that's exactly what the Duchemin brothers did! The borough required a 50% green roof, so while we're at it, why not become THE first grocery store in Canada to sell vegetables grown directly on its roof?
Of course, as with any innovation, they've had their share of challenges. It's not easy for market gardeners to work with soil only 15 cm thick. After a year of testing, more than thirty plants are now growing there. I think we can say mission accomplished! So now you can get your hands on the most locally sourced lettuce, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, beans, and herbs available.
Freshness in abundance
Having tasted some of the vegetables sold in stores, I admit that the freshness of a product that only requires a few flights of stairs is absolutely incomparable. I'm sure I could recognize them in a blind taste test, but they can be identified more easily in stores by the "fresh from the roof" label.
Unlike Lufa Farms, this is an open-air vegetable garden, but make no mistake, we're still aiming for 9 months of production per year! The more intense heat on the roof allows for an earlier start to the season, and a tunnel will be installed to continue growing in a greenhouse in November. Given the limited space, the varieties grown have been chosen to produce 2 to 3 crops in the same space during the season. They are therefore well prepared to meet demand.
IGA is waiting to measure the results obtained before launching another similar project, but we can only highlight the initiative and hope that others will follow suit!
This content is sponsored by IGA . That said, the opinions shared are my own.
