While the Pacific Northwest is home to many traditional farms scattered across the countryside, some entrepreneurs are finding new paths to planting, using hydroponic technology—which relies on nutrient-rich water solutions instead of soil—to grow food year-round in greenhouses and even warehouses.
A few are taking the process a step further with aquaponic systems that raise greens and fish in a shared system that mimics natural streams.
Growing With Farmbox Greens
Operations Manager Emily Blessington leads the team of eight at Farmbox Greens, Seattle’s first indoor vertical produce farm.
Dan Albert founded Farmbox in 2012 with his wife, Lindsay Sidlauskas, in their home garage.
“They just grew it from the ground up,” Emily says. “They went to farmers markets and cold-called chefs to get their product into the hands that they wanted. It was definitely a labor of love.”
In 2016, The New York Times wrote about Farmbox. Charlie Billow, of produce wholesaler Charlie’s Produce, saw the article, bought the company and helped it expand into a warehouse space in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle, where it still operates today.
Dan moved on to other pursuits in 2020, but not before he trained Emily as an entry-level employee seven years ago. When she graduated from Western Washington University with a degree in environmental policy, Emily wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. So, she and a college friend went to work as WWOOFers. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms matches volunteers interested in learning the trade with farmers all over the world willing to provide education, room and board in exchange for labor. Emily worked her way around traditional farms for about six months.
“I realized this is incredible,” she says. “This is what I want to do with my life.”
She returned home to Seattle, found Farmbox and got a job at the bottom rung. She knew nothing about hydroponic farming, but Dan was understanding and willing to show her the ropes. Emily swiftly worked her way up to lead and finally operations manager.
“If you have a passion for plants, and if you’re willing to learn, then you can learn anything,” she says. “I’m a real testament to that. I did not come from any sort of farming background. It’s all possible.”
Much like Emily, the seeds at Farmbox reach their full potential swiftly. Time and density are tighter in hydroponics. Instead of spacing plants and giving them time to grow, seeds are planted densely and harvested quickly. After a few days of germinating in the dark, the plants get water, nutrients and a daily 17-hour dose of LED light that mimics sunlight. Fastest from seed to harvest are the radish mix and the pea shoots, which are ready to sell in only seven days. The longest to market are the basil and red sorrel, which can take anywhere from 21 to 23 days.
Emily loves the smells at Farmbox, especially when harvesting fragrant herbs like basil or cilantro. Unlike traditional farmers, her team members rarely gets their hands dirty.
“If you were to see us harvesting, we’d have hairnets on, and we’d be wearing gloves and smocks. It feels very much like lab meets farm. We wear gloves at all steps during production just to be sure we’re as food-safe as possible,” she says.
Every facet of the growth process—pH, nutrients, light—is controlled. But sometimes challenges must be weathered and whole cycles of crops must be discarded, like the time the power went out for a few days.
“It was a bit of a struggle, but we just bounced back, and we’re off to the races,” Emily says. “A real system issue can affect things for a month, but we try to bounce back as quick as we can.”
Emily is certain robots won’t be doing her job anytime soon.
“We can really put our eyes on each tray, and that’s pretty special,” she says. “Maybe a robot could do that, but I think that we care so deeply, and I just don’t think a robot could.”
Hydroponics Help Farmers Be Nimble
Mykl Nelson, who taught urban agriculture at Oregon State University from 2020-2025, says he sees a potential for growth in hydroponics as acreage becomes harder to come by, especially for young first-generation farmers who don’t own land and are looking to break into the industry.
“If you’re growing on 5 acres on the edge of town and the person you’ve been renting from decides to sell it, and you’ve got to get out, you’re not taking that soil with you,” Mykl says. “All the work that small, organic farmers do to their soil, it’s just gone. All the tending to microbial life and the soil tills and soil aggregation and trying to change texture and trying to improve organic matter, all of that is gone. And you just have to walk away.”
But hydroponic farmers growing in vertically stacked systems in a warehouse, Mykl says, can take advantage of their systems’ modularity and pack up the operation and set up shop elsewhere, if necessary.
“It would still be a pain,” he says. “You’d still have to shut down production. So, there’d be a length of time when you wouldn’t have fresh product. It would be annoying, something to be avoided, but it would be possible.”
Mykl says another benefit of hydroponics is the ability to be nimble. While conventional farmers must slowly improve soil to get it where they want it, adjusting conditions in a hydroponic system is instant.
“If you want the pH lower—boom, it’s lower,” he says.
Best of all, Mykl says, is it happens without pesticides, chemicals or even dirt. He adds that real research is going into designer produce.
He sees farmers focused on “growing not just a good lettuce, but the best head of lettuce and being able to manipulate how crisp it is and how many antioxidants are in there and how many nitrates are in there,” he says.
Fish Are Friends at FarmWild
Brian Rusk, known to most as Farmer Brian or the Basil Guy, raises fish and leafy greens in a symbiotic system in Bellingham, Washington. The fish excrete waste full of nutrients the plants need to grow. Then the plants clean the water, and the system sends it back to the fish.
“As long as they’re in balance, they can continuously work together,” Brian says.
While many aquaponic farmers prefer raising seafood like tilapia, Brian says he prefers raising koi, and he doesn’t have to kill them.
“Mostly I just name them and pet them and talk with them and keep them well,” he says.
Brian grew up in suburban Richmond, Virginia. After earning his doctorate in geology, he worked as a university professor. About 10 years ago, Brian started FarmWild as a side gig, raising chickens for eggs and turkeys for Thanksgiving. In 2017, he added aquaponics.
Out of all the things he did on the farm, Brian found aquaponics the most captivating. When he realized he was delegating the other work to employees, he decided last year to give up the fowl and focus his full attention on fish and greens. He almost regretted it when his buddies were bringing in $12 a carton for eggs.
Brian eased away from university life, too, first working fewer hours, then half-time before stepping away altogether five years ago. Along with the switch to aquaponics came a change of venue. Instead of working out of greenhouses on the farm, Brian works in downtown Bellingham in a warehouse less than a mile from many of his biggest customers.
That proximity means FarmWild greens couldn’t be fresher. Brian pulls the basil from the water with the roots still intact, boxes it up and drives it to his nearby restaurant customers.
“It’s still growing in the box and can stay alive for weeks so they can harvest it in their own kitchen,” he says.
From Ponds to Aquaponics
As a kid in California, Michael Hasey had a clubhouse with walls lined with aquariums.
“Anything I could catch went into an aquarium where I would study it and then let it go,” he says.
Michael learned farming by helping at surrounding ranches near his childhood home in Livermore. He racked up skills as he went, learning about landscaping, construction and pond development. He’s particularly proud of work he did maintaining water features for places like Mission Bay Golf Course, Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo.
As he worked on ponds, Michael perfected methods of breeding fish using vegetative filtration. He wrote an article about it for POND Trade Magazine, and a university professor in the Virgin Islands reached out.
The professor said the university was studying similar things but using it for food crops—calling it aquaponics—and invited Michael to visit. It just so happened that Michael’s brother was working as a chef near the university.
“So, I had a place to stay,” Michael says. “I hopped on a plane, and there I was studying under Dr. James Rakocy.”
His new mentor was one of the fathers of aquaponics.
From there, Michael made his dream a reality. He sold his pond business and bought land and water rights in Southern Oregon. For five years, he and his wife, Olivia, with the help of a partner, interns and WWOOFers, built and ran a successful farm in the Rogue Valley.
Rogue Aquaponics had six tanks, each larger than 1,000 gallons. The company was raising 1,400 to 1,600 pounds of fish a month. Meanwhile, Olivia was developing the plant side, working on recipes for pesto, which they processed in an on-site commercial-grade facility and sold through distributors and at farmers markets under the name Super Simple Foods. Michael was also sought after as a consultant by others hoping to start aquaponic systems of their own.
That’s when the area was hit by a huge storm. Add to that the COVID-19 pandemic and the birth of Michael and Olivia’s second child, and it was all just too much. The couple decided to pause production for a while so Michael could focus on consulting. Five years later, they have no intention of giving up on aquaponics, but they are planning to pursue it in a new place. As soon as their Oregon farm sells, the couple plans to head to Kona, Hawaii, which Michael says is a big hub for aquaponics.
“They’re pioneers in this industry and have been for a long time,” he says.
Olivia is excited about the future, too.
“I’m over the moon,” she says. “We’re just really champing at the bit to get to all these new ways we can see ourselves applying all the things we’ve learned here.”
Annual Farm Tour Returns
FarmWild, an aquaponic farm in downtown Bellingham, is among 15 stops on this year’s Whatcom County Farm Tour.
The tour, sponsored by the nonprofit Sustainable Connections, welcomes the public to visit “a good mix of farms,” says organizer Jessica Gillis. That includes “folks that grow vegetables, fruit, or flowers, those that raise animals, and some that use hydroponic or regenerative practices,” she says.
Last year, the tour drew more than 1,750 participants to the free one-day event. This year, FarmWild has a change of venue. Last year, the business was still out in the country, and 300 to 400 people made the trek to see pigs and chickens. Founder Brian Rusk suspects being in downtown Bellingham, in a more accessible venue, will result in a bigger draw this time around.
“Most people have never seen this kind of thing, and there’s a lot of curiosity around it,” he says.
Other farms slated to participate include: Alluvial Farms, Bellingham Flower Farm, CTK Food Share and Farm, Fair Cow’s Path Farm, Five Elements Harvest, Grace Harbor with Steensma Creamery, Growing Veterans, Lagom Vineyards, Oak Meadows Farm, Primavera Farm, Small Acres, Sonder Farmstead, Widnor Farms and Wright Brothers Farms.
Visit sustainableconnections.org/whatcom-county-farm-tour for more information about the tour.