Forest City Microgreens… a great addition to any holiday table!
As the holidays approach, Forest City Microgreens (a 2025 MLFPC Food Systems Champion) offers a simple and meaningful way to support local while celebrating good food. Their colourful microgreens make a beautiful and thoughtful hostess gift, add colour and freshness to holiday meals, and elevate everything from appetizers to mains. Forest City Microgreens has become a trusted name among both home cooks and professional chefs. You’ll find their products at The Market at Western Fair District, Unger’s Market, Common Ground Farm, Havaris Market (Covent Garden Market), Foodland Komoka, Komoka Community Market and Quartermaster. Their subscription service delivers rotating blends and recipe inspiration right to customers’ doors, making it simple to keep healthy greens in the kitchen at all times. They also deliver to local restaurants in London!
Let’s take a closer look at the story behind Forest City Microgreens.
For Cristina and Jaime Ramirez, food has always been more than fuel. It’s a way of life. Originally from Colombia, they’ve called Canada home for more than 30 years, bringing with them a love for fresh and local foods. They enjoyed buying produce at farmers’ markets, knowing where it came from and how it was grown. Over time, they saw an opportunity to complement what was already available by offering greens grown in the fresh, natural way they cherished.
With the encouragement of their son Santiago, the Ramirezes started a family experiment in growing their own nutrient-rich greens and this soon became a passion project.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Santiago saw an opportunity to turn that passion into something bigger. While others were scaling back, he was building up (literally) and launched Forest City Microgreens at The Grove which is located in Western Fair District in London, Ontario, Santiago embraced vertical farming, a method that grows plants upward instead of outward. Inside an environmentally controlled space, trays of vibrant greens stretch toward the ceiling, maximizing every inch. This approach allows them to grow up to ten times more than a traditional farm on the same footprint, producing fresh, high-quality microgreens all year round, no matter the weather.
The innovation doesn’t stop with space. Forest City Microgreens is deeply committed to sustainability. Their closed-loop recirculating watering system uses up to 95% less water than conventional farming. Virtually no water is lost to evaporation or drainage, and no chemicals ever touch the plants. There are no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or preservatives.
Over the years, their offerings have increased to more than 15 varieties of microgreens, each with its own fresh flavour and dense nutritional value. Whether it’s peppery radish microgreens, sweet sunflower shoots, or delicate pea tendrils, there’s something to suit every plate and palate.
And for everyday eaters, the appeal is simple: greens that taste like they were just picked (because they practically were). Grown locally, their microgreens stay fresher longer than imported produce, helping reduce food waste while elevating everyday meals. A handful on a salad, a sprinkle over tacos, or a garnish for soup — small touches that pack a big punch in both nutrition and flavour.
From their Colombian roots to their innovative vertical farm in London, the Ramirez family has stayed true to one mission: delivering food that’s fresh, pure, and bursting with life. With Forest City Microgreens, that mission is as tall as their growing racks and just as green.
Forest City Microgreens is one of our 2025 Food Champions — recognized for their leadership in building a healthier, more sustainable local food system. Discover more about their work and other Food Champions at mlfpc.ca/foodchampions.
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