SEPTEMBER 2025
CELEBRATING 146 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
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INNOVATION
Leafy greens: from commodity to “clean” consumer packaged goods
Family-owned Haven Greens launched a fully-automated, greenhouse-grown leafy greens facility in February 2025, the first of its kind in Canada. CEO Jay Willmot oversees five acres of crispy baby lettuce during its 25-day cycle at King City, Ontario. Photos by Paul Novosad.
KAREN DAVIDSON Far from the greenhouse epicentre of Leamington, Ontario, a new automated five-acre facility is harvesting and packaging baby greens nine hours each day, seven days a week. It’s a personal vision come true for Jay Willmot. Growing up on Kinghaven Farms, King City, Ontario, Willmot was family to Canadian horseracing royalty. From this background, patience and not making foolish, uneducated bets became part of his DNA. After a successful legal career providing counsel to various renewable energy and agribusiness clients, Willmot decided it was time to take the family farm in a new direction. His aim was nothing short of a state-of-the-art, environmentally sustainable greenhouse. And he hit the
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mark in February 2025 with the launch of Haven Greens, a facility less than an hour’s drive north of Toronto. With ready access to millions of consumers and a full-time staff of just 40 people, the greenhouse is today offering Baby Green Lettuce, Baby Red and Green Leaf and Baby Spring Mix. They are currently marketed through three major retailers -- Metro, Sobeys, and Giant Tiger – along with a host of smaller independent retailers. Unsurprisingly, given the three-day shelf life of competitive product shipped by truck from California, the food service industry has quickly pivoted to Haven Green’s boxed three-pound bags, which represent the bulk of the company’s current sales. Global technology
Automation’s mobile gutter system that maximizes space, eliminates manual transplanting, and improves input cost efficiency for Haven Greens’ lightning-speed launch success. The innovative growing system guides 17-foot gutters through the entire growing process, from seeding to harvesting and mixing, then back to seeding in continuous 25-day cycles. The greenhouse uses integrated AI-controlled lighting, irrigation, and nutrient management to maintain an optimal, hands-free growing environment. Patrik Borenius, CEO Americas for Green Automation, predicts major adoption of this system for eastern Canada. He says, “I think with Ontario’s greenhouse experience and Québec’s inexpensive power, there will be a new epicentre of lettuce growing.”
Willmot credits Finland-headquartered Green
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