Minnesota’s winter can break a person down, particularly on the ragged cusp of spring, when warm temperatures drift into the region for a week or two before being replaced by a cruel, cutting scythe of Arctic air.
One of the challenges is a lack of local edible greenery — the state’s vibrant farm system understandably tends to shut down between November and April. Revol Greens, a greenhouse farm located in Medford, Minn., is doing its bit to push back against the dearth of fresh produce. Founded by a team that includes three former partners in Bushel Boy, Revol looks poised to give wintertime greens a distinctly local spin.
The farm, which debuted its products on shelves in February, grows its greens year-round in an energy-efficient 2.5-acre glass greenhouse supplemented with LED lighting and irrigated with a gutter system that captures snow melt and rain from the roof and stores it in a water-retention pond. Revol’s product travels to markets that are four hours away (or closer), in contrast to the typical four to six days it takes for California produce to reach the Upper Midwest.
We tried samples of four varieties of the greens and found them universally crisp and vibrant, a step above most of the California-grown bagged salad mixes. The greens come in 4.5-ounce plastic tubs, in five varieties: Baby Spinach, Spring Mix, Mighty Spring Mix, Romaine Crunch, and Romaine Twins. They are typically priced around $4.
Revol Greens are (or will soon be) available at Lunds and Byerlys, Kowalski’s, Coborn’s and CobornsDelivers, Jerry’s Foods, some Cub Foods locations throughout the metro, and at local restaurants via Bix Produce.
I like buying Minnesotan products, so I tried “Revol Greens Romaine Crunch” and was very disappointed. Romaine lettuce has not been available for a few weeks due to a contamination elsewhere, usually it is a good choice because it keeps crisp longer than other types of lettuce. Unfortunately, the Revol greens were limp, there was much moisture in the package, beads of water, and the greens did not resemble Romaine. Salads should be crisp, this package of greens looked as if it had been par boiled. Due to my age, groceries are delivered, perhaps there were better packages to select, or perhaps the delivery got too warm, but this was my introduction to your product. At the price asked, I will not be able to afford it again.