The West-Central MN Climate Network is named as a community partner on the West-Central Research and Outreach Center’s (WCROC) Container Farming Project.
You can read the project proposal here: Solar Powered Container Farming-2025.pdf
The WCMNCN’s role in this project is to help community engagement in the project by leading tours, sharing information, and helping with local food systems knowledge.
Monthly updates:
- October 2025: Nic took pictures/documented the container as it was gifted to the WCROC by Great River Energy.
- Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2cxAFuUSEv76y5YZ9
- November 2025: The container is set in place with the final slope required for operation and electricity has been connected. There is a container growing lettuce west of Medina Route 1 that is excited about our project and would welcome a team visit in early December.
- December 2025: Water has been connected so the container is theoretically able to grow but still needs some mechanical repairs. The farmer position will be finalized and opened soon. WCROC team is hoping to take a trip to see an operating container farm in the cities within the next 2 weeks.
- February 2026: Container Farmer has been hired. Christina Helseth (Tina) has a PhD in plant science, but not a lot of experience with hydroponics. The team went on a tour of Frisk Fra Boksen - Mini Micro Farms LLC.
- March 2026: Seeds are on order, Tina has been cleaning the container, osmosis water system is going to be installed, they have been repairing the broken parts of the container. The container hopefully will be running in about 2-3 weeks. They ordered another 20 foot space to put at the front to work as a head house. They want to see if changing the amount of time that the light is on in the container will affect the biomass output. Nic will reach out to Tina to find a time to take photos!
- April 2026: “
- We got all the pumps in as well as seeds and other growing supplies. Pete and I replaced the pegs that the panels hang from and Pete got all of the panels mended with metal plates. I have been busy washing the panels, foam, and wicking strips. I was able to remove the broken parts of irrigation nozzles from the irrigation piping and got all of those cleaned and re-installed. However, we are waiting for the reverse osmosis system to be installed yet. We hope to get seeds planted very soon after the water situation is resolved. We’ll just need to test for leaks and clogs and then do some flushing of water to make sure everything is cleared out of the system.” - Tina
- “Tina has been doing a great job getting the container ready for plants. We should have a temporary water solution next week so we can start planting. We’ve also ordered a 20’ container (half as long as the grow container) to attach to the front for office/storage/cleaning activities. It should be here in May. A Mechanical Engineering capstone class on the twin cities campus is working on a solar array design for the container. I applied for 2 grants for the container farm, one at LCCMR and one internal to the U for research infrastructure. Either one would allow us to actually build the solar array. The LCCMR grant would allow us to keep running the container with Tina for another 3 years, so, fingers crossed.” - Eric