Farming Inside The Box: Rally House Farms Grows Inside A Shipping Container
RALLY HOUSE FARMS HAS TURNED A ONCE USELESS PAVED AREA OFF THE CORNER OF MURFREESBORO PIKE AND FESSLERS LANE, INTO A THRIVING PLACE OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH.
David Goodman is an idea guy, always thinking outside the box. However, when it came to Rally House Farms, thinking outside the box, meant thinking inside the box. Specifically, inside an old shipping container.
Rally House originated as a recovery home for men trying to turn their lives around. The urban hydroponic farm is the latest addition to Rally House, though it has been a long-time dream, originating with the organization's start. Inspired by his mom’s idea to bring fresh goods into Nashville’s inner city, David’s dream is that one day the farm will be large enough to provide jobs and opportunities to the men of the Rally House Recovery Homes.
The farm’s unlikely setting certainly allows some perks. Appropriately named The Leafy Green Machine, the re-purposed shipping container is only 320 square feet, yet can yield the equivalent produce to 2 acres of farm land. “We’re not limited,” said David, tending to the plants inside the small, air conditioned container. “We have limitations, but we are not limited to the seasons.”
Garrett Griffey, David’s partner who has a background in agriculture, emphasized, "[the biggest challenge] is coordinating where you place things, with limited space. . . we have to be very strategic with everything we put in here.” When you first enter the shipping container, you’re met with a blast of cool air and rows upon rows of vertical-hanging foliage––lettuce first catching the eye. Garrett explained how the process works, from seed to table. “There is a germination center, with 2400 seedlings, where small plants are brought from sprouting to ready for planting,” Garrettt said.
After the germination stage, they are planted in one of the many stacks that hang vertically from a hook on the ceiling. Lights keep the plants warm during the winter and an A/C unit keeps them cool in the summer. The plants are then watered and given the nutrients they need through drip irrigation lines that run along the shipping container. A relatively quick turn around, the lettuce that David and Garrettt sell at local farmers markets has been grown for 4 to 5 weeks in the stacks.
He and David hope that one day Rally House can expand beyond just local farmers markets and into restaurants, where they can reach even more of Nashville’s locals.
“We want to make sure what we are giving our community is really good, nutritious, and delicious.”
—David Goodman
