Some would say Seattle’s food scene is at its best when the impact stretches beyond the immediate benefits of nourishment and taste.

That’s certainly the case at Cherry Street Farm, where Hip Hop is Green founder Keith Tuckets uses a shipping container hydroponic farm to help feed Seattle families, with future plans to educate kids about climate justice, sustainability, and vegan cooking. Currently, a community kitchen is under construction and eventually, the space will host live music and other teaching opportunities.

Nestled on a small hill between the vibrantly colored houses of East Cherry Street is a farm capable of producing two-and-a-half acres' worth of crops, all in a metal freight container the size of a school bus.

To any passersby, Cherry Street Farm looks no different from a misplaced shipping unit. Indeed, the hydroponics setup, which grows plants in a controlled climate using a nutrient-enhanced water drip, is built within a converted shipping container by Freight Farms based in Boston, and it's Seattle's first Freight Farms hydroponics lab.

Stepping into the container is like walking into a completely new biome. First, the humid air hits the nose with the fragrance of fresh earth. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the intense glare of the red and blue LED lights before I could focus on the grow operation: four floor-to-ceiling sliding plant walls.

The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel and Residences has launched The Green House, a hydroponic glass house developed to support its sustainability objectives and strengthen its farm-to-table practices. Located within the hotel premises, this initiative brings hydroponic farming into the core of the property’s food sourcing strategy.

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using a water-based nutrient solution to deliver essential minerals directly to the plant roots. With this setup, the hotel is now producing fresh vegetables and herbs on-site, including lettuces, tomatoes, and aromatic herbs, which are used in its kitchen.

This initiative is designed to reduce the environmental impact of food sourcing while providing guests with direct visibility into the origins of their meals. Produce grown in The Green House is used in the preparation of various dishes, reinforcing the hotel's focus on traceability and freshness in its culinary offerings

Thanks to hydroponics, Neon Greens is bringing a fresh take on farm to table by farming along Manchester Road.

The vertical vegetable farm is located right next door.

Opened by Josh Smith in March 2024, Neon Greens isn’t your typical café or bistro. It takes the idea of farm-to-table a step beyond with an additional, next-door component: a hydroponic vertical farm.

Inside the farm and its attached “Harvest Capsule,” staff tend to crops like oakleaf, mizuna, sweet crisp, kale and more. Seeds are carefully sown before being placed in the plant nursery to grow; next, they’re plugged into a lush, living wall of lettuce, where water gently trickles down, nourishing the roots.

Located in a 40-foot shipping container, the hydroponic farm embraces urban farming and sustainable agriculture techniques such as rainwater harvesting to grow up to three acres of produce. Block & Drum visitors will be able to visit the farm, smell the fresh botanicals (mint, basil, dandelion, honeysuckle), and even pick some to create a custom bottle of liquor (think honeysuckle vodka).

“We wanted to connect people to the raw natural product,” Staples explains.