Indoor growers sell sprouts, wheat grass from their warehouse in New Baltimore.
Maureen McDonald / Special to The Detroit News
NEW BALTIMORE -- Acid rain, freak frosts, drought and winged predators don't bother the sprouts and wheat grass Ryan Rowinski and Michael Cyplik grow inside their 4,500-square-foot warehouse in New Baltimore. He sells 120 trays a week of products grown under high-efficiency lights.

Wheat grass is the most nutritious food on the face of the earth; God put it here to nourish us," Rowinski said. "Wheat is the first crop domesticated by mankind."

Rowinski, 30, declares himself a 21st Century farmer who retails hydroponically grown products to chiropractors, restaurants and nutrition stores and teaches community groups how to turn abandoned manufacturing plants and warehouses into viable farms. The yield contains live enzymes, minerals and chlorophyll.

A graduate of Michigan State University's crop and soil science program, he did independent studies in hydroponics, a system of growing plants in liquid solutions supported by rock, wool, Perlite and clay. He worked his way through school at an indoor garden center. While in school he worked with a contractor for Frito Lay, converting its potato seed production to hydroponics.

After working a series of jobs in corporate farming around the country, Rowinski saved $50,000 to open his own hydroponic farm in New Baltimore. He also works a second job in landscaping for stable cash flow. Using only natural ingredients, he farms 300 square feet and envisions using the entire space in the next five years.

Ryan Rowinski and Mike Cyplik hold a tray of
hydroponically grown wheat. The two run an indoor
farm in New Baltimore.
(Clarence Tabb Jr. / The Detroit News)

For advice he looks to a veteran wheat grass grower in Wisconsin.

"Ryan has a tremendous background from his education in soil science and he has a strong desire to spread the nutritional food mission we're involved with," said Kevin Keune, of Make Scents LLC, a wheat grass company in Shiocton, Wis. "Hydroponics allows growers to remove the uncertainty of Mother Nature ."

Rowinski teamed up with restaurant consultant Cyplik in early 2007 to market his crops to wholesalers, who retail trays of products for $20 or single shot glasses of fresh wheat juice for $4 to $8.

"Mike and Ryan offer the best sprouts I've ever tasted," said Bob Pizzimenti, of the Innate Center for the Healing Arts.

Maureen McDonald is Metro Detroit freelance writer.

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