The future of food might just be aeroponic – growing plants indoors without the need for acres of and high water use.

“We believe it is the future, anyway,” Nic Geudtner said.

That belief in the science behind growing food indoors led Geudtner and his family, including his mother, Diana Geudtner, to open Living Roots farm in Fox Lake.

In a renovated warehouse, they have 50 aeroponic towers growing a mix of herbs, microgreens and several leafy green lettuce varietals. As their client base grows, they have another 150 growing towers ready to go, with another 3,000 square feet of space for future expansion.

They now can grow 500 pounds of food a week with 15,000 plants coming in at any one time – not counting the microgreens.

“Our capacity is very high, with a three-week turnaround” from seed to harvestable plant, Nic Geudtner said.

The aeroponic system trickles water infused with the minerals each plant needs over the roots. That means they use a fraction of the water that traditional farming needs. The plants are grown under LED lights, but those lamps are turned on through the night, when it makes for less strain on the electrical grid.

“We are growing 24/7/365,” Geudtner said.

Growing food did not come naturally to the family. While Diana Geudtner grew up surrounded by the farm fields of Iowa, she was not a farm girl herself. Most of the family has degrees in business, not agriculture.

She hears it all the time, she said: Why indoor farming?

“We have always talked about ... wouldn’t it be fun to have a family business, and we are all pretty hardworking people,” she said.

The vertical farm “is a positive for the environment, the community and us,” Diana Geudtner said.

Nic Geudtner and his now-wife were living in California when the COVID-19 pandemic started – about the same time they started talking about moving back to northern Illinois and finding a business they could run as a family.

“We started talking about starting a family business even before we moved home,” he said. “I was talking with my family abut it – what we would be interested in and the morals of what we were trying to do with the concept of sustainability and weaving into the community with an ethical business."

After months of research and planning, they settled on the indoor farm.

“We bought an old warehouse building in town, 3 miles from our house, and started renovating it,” he said.

Putting up a new facility was an option, too, but the circa-1965 brick building at 104 Sayton Road also fit another part of the company ethos – reusing, reducing and recycling, Nic said.

“The themes for us are sustainability and clean food,” he said.

Their first crops, started from seeds about two months ago, are just coming in.

In addition to selling to restaurants and other industrial users, clients can sign up for a subscription box. Living Roots will deliver, too, within a 20- to 40-mile radius of Fox Lake.

As of last week, they also began opening their doors for those who want to come in for their weekly fix of leafy greens. Market hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

With access to seeds, the farm can grow up to 60 varieties of basil – and on contract if a buyer is seeking a certain flavor of the herb.

“If a Tuscan chef wanted Tuscan basil, we can support that and dedicate more towers to it,” Nic said. “That is something that others can’t offer – customized growing.”

The basil the farm grows “is incredible,” Diana Geudtner said. And she’s fascinated by the romaine lettuce.

“You can buy romaine in the store, but ours is a dark green. I didn’t know romaine could look like that. We have a green butter lettuce, too, that looks like a giant rose and a redhead lettuce. The center is a dark green, and the leaves are garnet red. It is soft, buttery and sweet,” she said.

Because the plants are grown absent of soil, they are harvested root and all.

“We are selling live plants” that stay fresher longer, Nic said.

A menu of available produce can be found at livingroots-farm.com.