The innovation comes several years after vertical farming hit mainstream headlines attracting investors as a way to produce crops in a more controlled, sustainable environment.
While products exist that enable people to grow food indoors on a much smaller scale, Home Harvest claims to be the first to bring a ‘connected’ contained system where all the agronomy is automated.
Scaled down vertical farming
The mini at-home vertical farms run on low voltage using around £2 of electricity a month. They come in two sizes, kitted out with either three trays or one; upon which the crops can be grown. The larger one is about the size of mini fridge, although much slimmer, whilst the smaller model measures around the same as a large microwave – both come in funky, modern colours.
How Home Harvest works
Once equipped with a unit (around £339), owners simply order their ‘seed mats’ – a recyclable tapestry-like fabric with seeds and fertiliser woven in – place these into the trays, and fill the tank with water.
The seed mats (which are bought via a subscription model; around £10-15 a month) are designed with particular recipes and goals in mind, from Italian herbs, to prenatal health, gut health, and vitamin-focused sets.
The seed mats packs arrive with a QR code, and by using the accompanying Home Harvest app, users can log which crop they’re growing; with the lighting, temperature and humidity all automated accordingly.
The larger units allow for three different types of crop to be grown simultaneously, with the app able to adjust each section to the right environment.
Cameras monitor crops from within the ‘farms’, so users can take pictures of their crops and view and share time lapses of their progress. The app also provides key information about when to harvest, alongside recipe suggestions against what a user is growing.
“In the future we plan to utilise AI to monitor the size of crop, check plant health, understand the speed of growth and indicate the best time to harvest,” co- founder Hedley Aylott said.
“By tracking exactly what a person grows, when they harvest it, and how their biometrics respond, Home Harvest will create the world’s most granular database on ‘Live-Nutrition’ efficacy.”
So long salad aisle?
The innovation is designed to increase accessibility to extremely fresh and diverse produce – from microgreen radish, to chervil, to fenugreek – whilst offering a sustainable alternative that eliminates waste, food miles and pesticides.
But what does this mean for manufacturers operating in the category.
Aylott was split, saying the invention isn’t intended to replace bagged salads, but at the same time, Home Harvest users will be able to replace sections of their supermarket shop with cheaper, fresher and more sustainable alternatives.
Proffering a single seed mat, roughly the size of an A5 sheet of paper, he told Food Manufacture: “In this mat is 2kg bag of lettuce seed – that is 50 trucks worth of lettuce.”
Waste has been a big driver for Aylott and his co-founder Andrew Johnson, who was the brains behind the Living Salad brand (wherein shoppers buy a potted plant salad) which launched into retailers in 2005.
“Having worked in the salad industry for many years I know first-hand the amount of waste produced by the sector as well as the environmental impact,” Johnson said.
“Around 30% of leafy salad crops planted are consumed, with the rest of the crop wasted.
“The UK imports about 1,000 trucks of leafy salads weekly from Southern Europe and Africa, with approximately 400 trucks’ worth being thrown away.”
The Home Harvest units have been four years in the making and are set to launch this summer across the UK and US.
And while Aylott said the units are not yet a full replacement to the herbs and bagged leafy greens, he is optimistic that they will shake-up the category.
“Today nobody’s looking for this product because they don’t know it’s possible,” he said.
“But I think there will a moment when Home Harvest reaches a tipping point and people will know what’s possible. If it’s that easy and it saves you money, why wouldn’t you do it?”
Referencing the punchy flavours of the crops Food Manufacture got to try first-hand, he added: “It will make people question the progeny of what they’re eating and whether it is healthy for them, and how much goodness there really is in it”.
Aylott said the future goal is for the units to be as ubiquitous as the kettle, with the models built into kitchen cabinetry like ovens.
“Everyone will grow their own – why wouldn’t they? It’s responsible to the planet, your health, your family, your wallet,” he said on the future.
This creation could certainly disrupt the fresh greens category. But it will be a matter of how well it’s marketed, the useability of the tech, and how convenient consumers deem it.
So far, Home Harvest has raised £1.2 million in investment and continues to raise funds.
