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In a new article, Macdonald Campus' 2024 Distinguished Young Alumni Award winner Ophelia Sarakinis (FMT’19) and her successful Montreal-based business, GUSH Farm.

In 2020, soon after graduating from McGill's Farm Management and Technology program, she used a grant from Ï㽶ÊÓƵ to start her business by growing strawberries in a Kirkland underground parking garage.

Four years later, the now-25-year-old entrepreneur moved her operation to an industrial sector of the city. With full staff, experience management, and a strawberry production of 15,000 plants in its first year of production, she can provide fresh, pesticide-free berries year-round.

Why strawberries? Because Quebecers eat a lot of them—but they’re usually imported from California or Mexico 10 months of the year. 

"They grow a strawberry that's not tasty. It has low sugar content so that it doesn't rot as quickly for shelf life," said Sarakinisi, who spent years studying and experimenting with the fruit.

GUSH grows its strawberries in a climate-controlled greenhouse. Ladybugs take care of parasites. Bumblebees pollinate the flowers. And because they're handpicked and shipped right away, they're as fresh as summer-time strawberries.

"We’re just a few kilometers away from the consumer, so we can afford to pick the strawberry when it's fully, fully ripe," Sarakinis told CTV.

Right now, the strawberries can only be ordered through Lufa Farm's website, a distributor that specializes in fresh, organic food.