Growing lettuce in January may seem impossible, but not for Coeur Greens.

The local produce company is not only able to grow year-round, it can grow as much produce in a shipping container as can be grown on a 2-acre farm.

Coeur Greens operations manager Drew McNabb saw the need for fresh, local produce in the area, and decided he could help.

Coeur Greens bought a Freight Farm earlier this year and starts growing its first batch of lettuce this week. The Freight Farm, a 320 square-foot shipping container, is climate controlled so it doesn’t need chemicals to control pests and it uses about 90 percent less water than conventional agriculture.

“This is a fun new way of farming,” McNabb said. “It’s hyper local and we are able to seed, plant, transplant and harvest food on a weekly basis.”

Seeds are grown under LED lights until they can be transplanted into “towers” that hang from the roof of the Freight Farm. A water drip system and LED light strips feed the plants.

The Freight Farm can host 4,500 mature plants and 2,500 seedlings. However, in order to keep a rolling harvest, McNabb will plant about 1,100 plants at a time.

Coeur Greens wants to take part in the Farm to School program created by the Idaho Department of Agriculture, which encourages schools to buy local produce.

“We don’t want trucks coming from California driving 800 or 900 miles to drop off produce,” said Thomas McNabb, a Coeur Greens farm hand. “We want to be a great resource for the Coeur d’Alene region.”

Within its first few batches of produce, Coeur Greens will donate about 800 heads of lettuce to both the Community Action Partnership Food Bank and St. Vincent de Paul.

Drew McNabb said another great highlight of vertical farming is that everything is organic and fresh.

The plants aren’t actually harvested until the consumer buys them. Instead of cutting off the heads of lettuce, McNabb will be uprooting the entire plant.

“When we deliver plants, they still have their roots on them, they are still living,” he said. “It preserves quality of freshness, taste and crunch. By the time our produce gets to someone’s home, it’s only 12 or 14 hours out of harvest, rather than a few days if it were transported here from California.”

Coeur Greens will be growing varieties of butter lettuce and romaine as well as experimenting with other types of greens, microgreens and herbs.

The company’s goal is to sell food to local school districts, at local farmers markets and in local restaurants.

“In winter, no one is growing anything here,” Thomas McNabb said. “But now we are.”