One letter, one chef, one menu cycle.

I am writing to introduce IronRoost Farms, Inc. — a vertically integrated Virginia C-Corporation (SCC #12012225) headquartered at 2593 Cougar Lane, Locust Grove, Virginia — and to ask for a brief conversation about a Central Virginia hydroponic microgreens line that can rotate across the [FILL IN: Restaurant Name] menu ahead of our first commercial harvest cycle in August–September 2026.

IronRoost is standing up a 2,000–3,500 sq ft indoor Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) facility in Central Virginia, with a planned Phase 1 product mix built around the four microgreen lines chef-driven farm-to-table kitchens rotate across their seasonal and evergreen menus. The facility is on track for a 7–10 day harvest cadence off 50–90 4-tier racks, with cold-chain dispatch from an on-site walk-in cooler and trace-back lot numbering (plant date, harvest date, lot ID) on every case. Because we are intentionally keeping Year-1 volume on the conservative end of the equipment baseline, we are reaching out as a local producer that can commit, not a producer pitching a number it cannot yet hit.

The framing for a Charlottesville farm-to-table kitchen is different from a distributor framing: the meaningful year-one question is whether the same four lines can ride the menu rotation through a six-week planning window without breaking palette on the chalkboard. The conservative 200–400 lbs/week floor is the planning number for Year 1, and the door opens before the first commercial harvest so the kitchen can plug IronRoost into an August menu insert on day one instead of scrambling for a substitute mid-cycle.

The Phase 1 commercial offering covers four microgreen lines: pea shoots, sunflower microgreens, radish microgreens, and mixed brassicas (a combination platter of kale, arugula, mustard, and broccoli rabe micro). For a chef-driven farm-to-table line, these four map directly to the menu applications a Charlottesville kitchen is already working through on a weekly prep cycle: raw bar / salad (whole pea shoots, the brassica mix running under its “kitchen garden blend” menu label, sunflower as a stand-alone green), plate garnish (radish micro for heat-and-finish on plated fish / steak / vegetable entrées, pea shoots as the tendril pea menu line), prep-day micro-batch (the brassica mix picked at the cooler line, bagged for the salad station), and lightly cooked finishing micro (warm grain bowls, breakfast egg scrambles, flatbread finishes).

Two framing notes that reduce staff-training friction on the kitchen side: the brassica mix reads on the printed menu as a “kitchen garden blend,” which is the line most Charlottesville servers already recognize from existing local-producer menus; and pea shoots read on the printed menu as “tendril pea,” the term the same servers already use when guests ask what the green on the plate is. Sunflower and radish microgreens carry through the menu with no naming workaround. Phase 2 secondary lines — basil, cilantro, amaranth — are in the rotation queue behind the primary four; if a specific additional line has demonstrated pull-through in the current menu, that request folds into the Phase 2 queue ahead of the baseline schedule.

Case sizing. Two case formats, packed ex-farm to the kitchen’s prep-day par level: 1 lb retail-ready clamshells for menu tasting and à la carte garnish, and 5 lb food-service flats for prep-day par. The clamshell label carries the farm name, lot ID, and harvest date — usable on the kitchen side as a “today’s harvest” stamp on the menu insert without re-label work. Order minimum is 5 lbs per variety per drop; mixed cases combining the four varieties in an even split are available on request.

Delivery radius. Tuesday / Friday corridor drops to Charlottesville accounts, with same-day dispatch doable for emergency add-ons when 24-hour notice is given. The radius is sized so a chef can run a Tuesday morning special and harvest was on the dock less than 48 hours earlier — the “harvested this morning” framing a farm-to-table menu relies on is the actual supply story, not the marketing pitch.

Repeatability. The supply cadence runs as a weekly standing-order structure that lets the kitchen palette-lock the same four lines for a six-week menu rotation without depending on out-of-state brokers. Single farm, single state, single harvest cadence — the supply story farm-to-table buyers cite on the menu is the same supply story this cadence is built around.

Our equipment baseline is a 2,000–3,500 sq ft indoor grow environment with 50–90 4-tier racks — roughly 800–1,440 standard 1020 trays of canopy at full fill. At a 7–10 day harvest cycle per tray, that baseline can produce approximately 500–900 lbs of finished cut microgreens per week depending on variety density.

For the first commercial cycle, we are committing to a conservative floor of 200–400 lbs per week across the four varieties — prioritizing reliable harvest-date accuracy and order confirmation over headline volume. For a Charlottesville farm-to-table kitchen running a recurring menu rotation across multiple sites, the meaningful constraint is per-line consistency: the same four lines arrive at the prep-day cooler on the same cadence. A useful starting split for a single-account farm-to-table kitchen is 40–80 lbs/week each for pea shoots and the brassica mix (the menu-locked lines), with 20–40 lbs/week each for sunflower and radish microgreens (the garnish / heat lines).

Indicative ex-farm pricing — held for a 12-month first-supply window, annual review thereafter; mirrored from the RRS Foodservice and CCCPS Farm to School outreach letters so the three buyer channels stay internally consistent — is built around the four Phase 1 lines: pea shoots $12–$14/lb; sunflower $10–$12/lb; radish $14–$16/lb; mixed brassicas $13–$15/lb. All pricing is ex-farm, packed in labeled food-grade clamshells (1 lb) or bulk food-service flats (5 lb) per chef spec. Standard terms are net-30; net-15 is available if the kitchen’s procurement cycle calls for it.

The 12-month pricing hold is intentional: for a chef evaluating a new regional supplier, the meaningful first-year question is consistency and menu-story reliability, not per-pound price concessions. We compete on year-round recurrence, two-day harvest-to-door transit, and a true single-farm Virginia provenance before we compete on dollar-per-pound.

IronRoost is operating on the VDACS regulated-facility filing path. The cottage food exemption does not apply to microgreens — microgreens are classified as Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) produce under the FDA Food Code, and the production floor and cold-chain dispatch have to meet regulated-produce standards, not cottage-food standards. The VDACS filing is in process; related regulatory registrations will be completed before the first commercial harvest.

GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) pre-audit is in progress. HACCP plan development is underway concurrent with facility commissioning. Trace-back lot numbering — plant date, harvest date, and lot ID linked to each case — is already implemented in our harvest SOP. Cold-chain integrity from the harvest table through dispatch is documented; the walk-in cooler maintains ≤41°F pre-dispatch. IronRoost will provide Certificates of Analysis from an accredited lab for the first three harvest cycles and on request thereafter. The full third-party GAP audit is targeted for Q1 2027 once the first harvest cadence has demonstrated stable, repeatable volume.

This section is intentionally structured as a three-item reply prompt so the kitchen side can accept or counter in a single email. A reply that addresses all three items puts the next step — a formal trial supply proposal — on the same five-business-day turnaround regardless of total volume.

(1) Trial menu insertion. A 4-week menu-rotation test starting in our first commercial harvest window — mid-August through mid-September 2026. The suggested cadence is 1–2 menu placements per week per line across raw bar / salad, plate garnish, prep-day micro-batch, and lightly cooked finishing micro applications, with the right for the chef to walk away after the trial block without an open-ended commitment. The trial is sized so the menu can cycle the four primary lines without flooding the prep-day cooler.

(2) Per-line pricing sheet & chef-pack spec. Ex-farm pricing per line, in line with the indicative ranges above, plus a chef-pack spec — labeled food-grade clamshells (1 lb) and bulk food-service flats (5 lb) per chef spec — ready for the prep-day par level the kitchen already runs on. The spec includes the lot-ID / harvest-date label that carries through to the menu insert as a “today’s harvest” stamp.

(3) Named chef / buyer & 30-minute tasting window. A named decision-maker on the kitchen side — executive chef, sous chef, or owner-operator — with the best 30-minute window in August 2026 for a sample-drop / tasting visit at the restaurant. The tasting visit is structured so IronRoost can show up with the four Phase 1 lines harvested within 48 hours of the visit; IronRoost replies within five business days with a formal trial supply proposal aligned to the kitchen’s existing menu cycle.

Thank you for the time. If a written reply has not been logged by the end of the third week of August, we will follow up by email to ironroost-farms@polsia.app. The first commercial harvest is a fixed date on our roadmap; the menu conversation is the variable. Whatever the answer, the message gets a same-week written response.