Jardins Carya

This interview details Jardins Carya, an indoor farming company based in Canada. The interview is with Alex Flores, Co-Founder of Jardins Carya.

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What is the origin story of Jardins Carya?

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My co-founder Ramzy Kassouf and I met in 2008 while I was working as a farm hand at a market garden down the street from where we would eventually start our project together in Senneville, Quebec, 40 km from downtown Montreal.

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Ramzy was finishing the first chapter of his life as an equities trader in the financial industry, and I was a recent McGill University Agricultural and Environmental Science graduate, full of energy and ready to start a career. Ramzy owned a small slice of agricultural land, some of the last of its kind on the island, and was in search of a business partner to start a market garden/community supported agriculture operation.

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Our skills and experience were complimentary in every way, him with a love of sales, and myself passionate about all aspects of production. We decided to jump in, neither one of us having run a business before, clueless and hungry to succeed. And so Les jardins Carya began, in 2010, growing 40 varieties of organic vegetables, as well as seeding our first 10 trays of sunflower sprouts in Ramzy’s garage at home. We have since incorporated the business and taken on 2 more partners, Jason Serfaty, and Eric Hanson, and operate with a total of 15 people, including the owners, at peak season. 

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Jardins Carya in the future?

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It’s safe to say that most small-scale organic farms face the same challenges now that they will continue to face in years to come: with consistently rising input costs and operating expenses, and with a global market designed to keep food prices low, farmers struggle to derive a sustainable salary from their business. Keeping our farm as lean and efficient as it can be is the best thing we can do, so that we can pay ourselves and our employees the wages they deserve for this essential service.

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What is unique about Jardins Carya compared to competitors? 

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Our focus on quality and the consistency of our products is what we are known for. This applies to our field grown salad greens, garlic, and carrots, our high-tunnel grown parsley, celery and tomatoes, as well as our microgreens and sprouts. Also, many farms of our size focus primarily on growing for CSA basket programs and small farmers markets, whereas 80% of Carya’s production is sold to restaurants, grocery stores, cafeterias and larger institutions like hospitals and universities. Furthermore, having an offer of fresh products in the form of our microgreens, year-round in Montreal, known for its harsh, long winters, is a definite selling point.

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What is the current size of your growing area? 

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Our market garden site is roughly 6 acres, ⅔ of which we use for production, ⅓ of which is in cover crops. Our soil-grown, vertical, organic microgreen site is 2100 sqft of industrial space where we can produce a maximum of 480 (1020-sized) trays weekly, which comes out to about 150-175 kg of greens with our current methods, crop make-up and yields.

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Do you use CO2 in your operation today -- if so, how much and what do you pay for it? What are your thoughts in CO2 usage in indoor farms? 

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Our microgreen farm which, we call Le P’tit Jardin, is low-tech for the time being. We continue to carry out most operations by hand, such as soil-mixing, seeding, watering and harvesting. The CO2 for the plants is provided 100% by the happy humans working in the space. I understand the need for CO2 in controlled and closed systems, which we are not, and I hear there are some new technologies on the rise that offer more sustainable sources of CO2.

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Energy is a big topic in indoor farming right now. How much do you pay for electricity (kWh)? Is it mainly from the grid or renewables?  

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We are fortunate that Quebec offers hydro electricity at fair rates. We pay roughly 1300$/month for all the electrical needs of Le P’tit Jardin, which is on average 8000 kWh monthly. We have considered installing solar panels, and may do so if we build out and own a grow space, rather than rent one.    

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Jardins Carya?

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Follow us on Instagram @jardin.carya or feel free to contact us by email anytime at info@jardinscarya.com.  Our website jardinscarya.com is full of information about the farm, but is not updated regularly.

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