The owner of Good Feeling Farms would feel a lot better if he could stay in Asbury Park and add cannabis cultivation to his microgreens business, however, litigation has the city's hands tied, so the business is leaving for neighboring Neptune Township.
Good Feeling Farms has specialized in microgreens, edible plants the company describes as "more than a sprout and younger than baby greens." They are grown indoors, using LED lights, and grow on vertical hydroponic soil-free towers. This technique allows them to control both climate and weather and offer their distributors a set price and quantity year-round.
"We sell wholesale to produce distributors who then sell to restaurants," Chris Chiappetta, the owner of Good Feeling Farms told the Asbury Park Press. "Microgreens are used as a flavor and visual component of a fine-dining dish in a restaurant. It is not cannabis."
Open since 2017, the farm doubled its business from 2017 to 2018, then doubled again from 2018 to 2019. However, in 2020 the pandemic hit the business hard, and three years later, Good Feeling Farms is still trying to recover because serving restaurants during the pandemic was "horrible" for the business.
Read more at app.com