Farming In Portland’s South Waterfront, Nexgarden Grows Microgreens Indoors

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I remember when I saw the stand at the Montavilla Farmers Market earlier this year. The banner behind the woman selling microgreens read: "Nexgarden Farms, S Moody Ave., Portland, OR." A farm in the South Waterfront? I was intrigued. So I introduced myself to the farmer, Skyler Pearson, and asked for a chance to come out and tour the farm.

In August, I finally made my way to the old Zidell Yards shipyard, just south of the Tilikum Crossing bridge to tour Nexgarden Farms myself and learn more about it.

What I found was a testament to agricultural innovation tucked away in one of Portland's most urban neighborhoods — a thriving hydroponic operation housed in a converted shipping container, producing flavorful microgreens for Portlanders.

Pearson, co-founder and CEO of Nexgarden Farms, didn't set out to become a farmer. With a background in psychology and previous work as a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, she seems an unlikely candidate to be growing food in an industrial part of Portland’s waterfront. But sometimes the best stories begin with the most unexpected turns.

It all started in 2017 when Pearson's then-partner was enrolled in a PSU graduate program focused on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. "He had this really cool idea for a hydroponic growing system, and I was like, 'that's not a business,' right?” Pearson recalls with a laugh. "I was helping him with this cool stuff."

That "cool stuff" quickly snowballed. The pair won a university prototyping competition, then a state competition. Suddenly, they found themselves with funding and a business concept neither had quite planned for.

 "We were like, 'OK, what are we doing?'"

For two years, they worked on developing indoor farm technology — an ambitious goal that proved more challenging than anticipated. "It's really hard to know where to start when you're thinking about designing entire building systems when neither of you have experience in the thing that you're doing," Pearson explains. "We would have had to get an enormous amount of funding to do hardware development."

By 2019, reality set in. They had built the shell of what would have been a mini version of their growing system in a small building on the property, but funds were running low. "We were like, 'we're gonna run out of money. We're not gonna finish it,'" Pearson says. "So we were like, OK, why don't we just get a shipping container and use the rest of our funds to try to get something up and running. We need to make some money."

They decided on the shipping container in November 2019, got it set up by January 2020 — just before the world changed. "Then the world ended," Pearson notes wryly. "But it was actually kind of fine for us. People still needed to eat."

While Pearson had initially been skeptical of microgreens as a product, she was determined to create something different. Her approach challenges many of the assumptions about microgreens as an elitist garnish.

"I made a big effort to try to make a product that isn't all of those things that I hate," she explains.

Nexgarden grows their greens slightly larger than typical microgreens, making them "less of a garnish and more of a base for your food." They package them in 3.5-ounce containers rather than the industry standard 2 ounces, and despite appearing more expensive on the shelf, they're actually priced lower per ounce.

The strategy has worked. "A ton of people buy from us repeatedly," Pearson says. "They're like, 'I don't buy boxed arugula anymore. I just use this.' And I'm like, that is exactly what I hoped for."

Inside the climate-controlled shipping container, Nexgarden operates a sophisticated hydroponic system. Plants grow in coconut fiber mats, with roots extending into channels of a continuously circulating nutrient solution. Every aspect — pH, nutrients, temperature, and humidity — is carefully monitored and controlled.

"Plants don't need soil to live," Pearson explains. "They need the nutrients that they get from the soil, and they need water." The system delivers both more efficiently than traditional farming, using less water and eliminating agricultural runoff (Wastewater is filtered and treated before returning to the water system).

Nexgarden currently produces four distinct products: a "mellow mix" of cabbage, kale, broccoli, and bok choy; a "spicy mix" featuring arugula, mizuna, and mustard; straight broccoli microgreens; and "holy shoots" — a blend of peas and sunflowers that Pearson grows larger to provide more substance.

Despite the high-tech growing system, Nexgarden faces the same challenges that plague farmers everywhere: thin margins, long hours, and the constant pressure of dealing with living organisms that don’t subscribe to a 9-5 corporate timeline.

"The farm doesn't take any days off," Pearson notes. "When something goes wrong, I have to stop everything and fix it. There's no putting it off." 

The operation has grown steadily over its nearly six years. Nexgarden now sells at three farmers markets — Montavilla and Hillsdale on Sundays, PSU on Saturdays — and supplies three Market of Choice locations. "I sell everything that I grow for the most part. I wish I could grow more," Pearson says, noting the confines of the indoor growing environment.

As Nexgarden approaches its sixth year, Pearson is working toward a goal many small business owners share: creating systems robust enough to operate without her constant presence. "I'd like to get the farm operating and refined enough where I've got a handbook, and I've got a couple employees I trust, and it runs."

Whether that leads to expansion, replication, or simply a more sustainable work-life balance remains to be seen. But for now, Nexgarden Farms continues to prove that agriculture can thrive in the most unexpected places — and that sometimes the best farmers are the ones who never planned to farm at all.

The next time you're at Montavilla Farmers Market on a Sunday morning, stop by Nexgarden's stand. Try the spicy mix on your breakfast eggs, or add the mellow blend to a sandwich. You'll taste the difference that comes from a farmer who cares deeply about both the product and the process — even if she never expected to end up growing food in a shipping container in South Portland.

Happy saving!

Bryan,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings