Miniature herb gardens and compact hydroponic farms are headed to New Hampshire schools after the Executive Council approved using federal funds for the purchases last week.

For about $12,000 total, 1,200 mini herb gardens will be distributed to classrooms over two years. And, for a total of roughly $88,000, the department was also authorized to purchase more than a dozen hydroponic “flex farms” that can be used indoors, plus additional growing kits.

Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the Department of Education, said the mini herb gardens are table-top classroom items that will introduce students to growing and fresh food. The compact farms are standing units that connect to food service programs in cafeterias. 

“They will actually be growing lettuces, herbs, and different things that they will then use in the food service program in the actual school,” Edelblut said of the compact farms.

He highlighted the differences between the two products in justifying the purchase of the compact farms to Councilor David K. Wheeler, a Milford Republican, who felt they weren’t “a very good bang for the buck” compared to the herb gardens. He also questioned the use of a sole-source out-of-state vendor. 

Edelblut said they were “vastly different products” with different objectives. He said the department couldn’t identify an in-state vendor that sold something like the compact farms and cited a fast-approaching deadline to use up federal pandemic relief funds.

“We’ve been trying to land this plane relative to the remainder of the COVID relief funds,” he said. “Those funds expire on Sept. 30, and so this program will allow us to provide a value to the schools at the end of that contract period, so that’s why we’re going with it.”

The farms are vertical, portable, and can produce up to 394 pounds of produce a year, according to the company’s website. The vendor, Wisconsin-based Fork Farms, markets the farms as using only a tiny fraction of the water and land as traditional agriculture, while also being more energy efficient. The farms can plug into a standard electrical outlet and have an LED light tower.

Fifteen of these farms were greenlit for purchase, plus an additional farm “customized with the NHED logo” for training use at the department building in Concord, according to the department’s request. They cost about $5,100 each, with the customized farm costing just over $8,000. The farms come with three months of seeds and supplies, online resources, a K-12 curriculum package, and technical support. The department was also authorized to buy an additional dozen kits with a year’s worth of growing supplies.

The farms will be distributed to schools non-competitively through a pilot program, and the department will also keep a farm in its building in Concord for training purposes. If there are more requests for farms or kits than the department has of those items, then they’ll be awarded to schools with the highest percentage of students on free and reduced-price meals, according to the department.

The herb gardens, on the other hand, will be offered in districts with the National School Lunch Program on a first-come, first-served basis. Schools can get a maximum of two per year, with the aim to give students hands-on experience and learn more about plant growth, culinary uses of herbs, and balanced diets, according to the department’s request.