Husband and wife growing into business

Inspiration can strike at any time, as Sathya Vasudevan and Brindha Shayana, owners of Vertical Shoots Urban Farms in Westhill, Aberdeenshire, discovered.

“A few years ago while we were in a supermarket, a question sprung to our minds – where does the food we eat come from?” Sathya told The P&J this week, ahead of the husband-and-wife team notching up a year in business.

“We began to look into the origin of every product we bought and it amazed us how food was produced in different countries and distributed around the world in such massive scale. We also felt how important it was to grow food closer to the end consumer.

“We took up a hobby growing herbs and shared our produce with family and friends.”

The couple researched hydroponics – farming with plant roots suspended in water filled with nutrients – and vertical farming, which makes it possible to grow produce in substantial quantities in an urban space.

Sathya added: “We converted a shed in our garden into an indoor farm.

“We experimented for a year, then kick-started our journey with Vertical Shoots in March 2020.

“By using urban spaces we are able to grow fresh salads efficiently, closer to the end consumer and reducing food miles, which is key to a sustainable future.

“We currently offer a variety of micro salads, which are not only nutritious but also enlighten dishes with their unique flavour, colour and texture.”

For restaurants, Vertical Shoots grows varieties on request.

For at-home customers it offers boxes such as Spicy Mix, Rainbow Mix and Flavour Punch with greens of different flavours.

Sathya and Brindha are engineers by trade, working in the oil and gas and service sector, and overcame a number of obstacles besides the obvious challenges of lockdown.

“When we started to think of doing something related to farming, we had to start with no previous experience,” said Sathya.

“It was a learning curve. Although it was a challenge to learn something from scratch, it was fun too.

“With restrictions, it was difficult to approach other businesses and customers.

“However, we started to take baby steps, which got us going.

“Although we faced a lot of challenges in these tough times, we worked around it, finding new ways to get going.

“We now supply many restaurants, cafes and bistros and our customers have been really kind in spreading our name.

“The number of stores we have our product in is increasing.

“We stock fresh micro salad boxes at JK Fine Foods in Westhill and the city centre, Replenish in Stonehaven, Buchanan Bistro in Banchory and Refillosophy in the city centre.

“Each day is a new learning day and it is always a treat to see these beautiful greens grow up.”

Seedlings under lights and some of the company’s flavoured salad greens.

Sathya and Brindha at their Vertical Shoots Urban Farms business in Westhill.