Our promise to put what matters most before convenience and profit.

Big Marble First is more than a sustainability program; it’s our mindset, our purpose, and our “why”. It places the well-being of our planet’s future at the forefront of all business decisions.

  • It’s why we grow in high tech greenhouses and produce more on less arable land.

    more

  • It’s why we use less water, less pesticides and less energy.

    more

  • It’s why we feed our clean CO2 emissions to our crops and capture waste heat for reuse.

    more

our sustainable growing practices

veg group
eggplant and kids

We're Farming for the Future

It’s why we are constantly exploring innovative ideas in sustainable packaging. Big Marble First is our promise to future generations to put what matters most before convenience and profit.

Group picture of packaging
Sustainable Packaging

Packing Big Marble Farms premium produce in protective packaging increases its shelf life and reduces food waste. Those benefits, combined with sustainably sourced, compostable and recyclable packaging materials, drive our Big Marble First packaging program.

Learn More
How We Grow
We’re hydroponic, greenhouse farmers, which means we don’t spend much time plowing the fields these days.

But we still love tractors, and we love our planet. We believe that if we just keep farming and marketing as sustainably as possible there’ll be plenty of great outdoors for our children to enjoy for years to come. And our grandchildren, too!

High-Tech Greenhouses
Big Marble Farms high-tech, sustainable farming greenhouses allow us to grow premium quality produce all year round—even through Alberta winters! That means we can deliver locally grown, vine-ripened, tomatoes and cucumbers to western Canadian consumers in February, just like we do in summer months!

  • Hydroponic Irrigation

    Our cucumber, tomato and pepper crops drink a lot of water! Ensuring they receive the perfect amount of water and nutrients exactly when they need it is as tricky as it sounds. Our hydroponic irrigation system delivers precise amounts of fresh water and nutrients to each plant, directly, several times a day. No water is wasted!

  • Integrated Pest Management

    “Biological Controls” sounds scary. We prefer IPM, or Integrated Pest Management. That’s when we avoid the use of pesticides by releasing predator insects into the greenhouse. These good bugs take care of (biologically control) any freeloading bugs that may be upsetting the crop.

  • High Wire Cultivation

    Our cucumber and tomato crops grow so quickly they keep us on our toes. We use a high wire system that allows the plants to continually grow upwards, while producing fruit at a consistent and easy to harvest height. It’s a daily managed, continual process, but those cucumbers and tomatoes are sure worth it!

  • Bumble Bee Pollination

    One of the best ways for us to increase the yield of our greenhouse crops is to use bumble bees to pollinate the plants. We place beehives at strategic locations throughout the greenhouse and leave the bees to get to the job done. They set their own hours, take breaks whenever they like, and work weekends. They’re born for the job!

  • Pruning & Deleafing

    Because we use a “high wire” process for growing tomatoes and cucumbers, we are constantly pruning and deleafing the crop. Vine height is adjusted as the plants grow, and all lower leaves are removed and composted. It’s labour intensive, but produces an incredible yield of fruit in a small, sustainable footprint.

  • Hand Picked Harvesting

    Big Marble produce is all hand picked at just the right time: not too green, and not too ripe. Crops like tomatoes and peppers are picked and placed directly into the sustainable packaging that protects the fruit all the way to market.

Water Management

  • Water conservation is a huge benefit of greenhouse farming, but it comes with the even bigger responsibility for food safety. We continually test and treat our recycled water supply to ensure that it is free of microbial pests and 100% safe for our crops, and you!

  • We collect all rainwater that falls on our greenhouses, as well as any irrigation runoff that our crops were not able to use. Our Big Marble First water circulation program uses low energy ultraviolet lighting to treat our irrigation water so we can keep unnecessary chemicals and fertilizers off our farms.