Fresh greens from a shipping container in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands? Believe it.
A young family has begun selling the first year-round, locally grown commercial produce in the unforgiving climate of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands. Aleutian Greens co-owner Blaine Shaishnikoff said last week that two storms had just blown through the community — and the lettuce and herbs, nestled inside shipping containers set up as hydroponic farms, were unscathed. "You wake up and there's a couple inches of snow on the ground, and it kind of makes you think about it for a minute," Shaishnikoff said. Shaishnikoff, 28, and his wife, Catina, grew up in Unalaska, the treeless island community where fresh produce is shipped in from Seattle, more than 2,000 miles away. "It takes a lot of shelf life off of the product," Shaishnikoff said. Sometimes grocery stores run out of certain vegetables. Members of the community have long discussed how fresh produce is hard to come by, he said. The Shaishnikoffs started Aleutian Greens [...]
