One letter, one distributor, one regional gap in the supply line.

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 buyer conversation about adding a local hydroponic microgreens line to [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name]’s wholesale-produce portfolio 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 wholesale produce distributors carry as table-stakes SKUs across the restaurant and grocer accounts they serve. 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 staging out on the night before each delivery run. 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 to a recurring delivery cadence, not a producer pitching a number it cannot yet hit.

The goal of this letter is a short conversation: what the Richmond-area wholesale-produce distributor channel is carrying on the microgreens category today, what would make a Central Virginia grower a useful addition to that line, and whether a conservative 200–400 lbs/week floor is a meaningful starting supply for the produce buyer’s category review. Two companion documents travel with this letter: the Microgreens Spec Sheet (per-varietal cut size, shelf life, and labeled-pack dimensions) and the Wholesale Offer Sheet (per-line ex-farm pricing, freight terms, MOQ, and pack-format options). Both are referenced inline below and are available on this site for download or can be forwarded as PDF attachments.

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). These are the four lines most wholesale produce distributors carry as table-stakes SKUs across the produce-department handoff — they substitute for one another in plated applications and are the most common source of the “in-consistency gap” between contracted and walk-in produce orders that the distributor’s produce buyer, like any multi-line regional produce distributor, will be familiar with. Full per-varietal cut size, shelf life, labeled-pack dimensions, and lot-coding format are documented in our Microgreens Spec Sheet (available at /microgreens-spec-sheet.html and attached to the email that accompanies this letter).

Additional herbs and specialty micro varieties — basil, cilantro, amaranth, and similar secondary lines — are in the queue for Phase 2 rotation once the primary four lines are at consistent volume and the Phase 1 harvest schedule has stabilized. If [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name] has a specific additional line that already has demonstrated pull-through in the Richmond end-customer accounts, that request will be folded into the Phase 2 queue ahead of the baseline schedule.

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. That is the number the produce buyer should plan around for Year 1. Year-2 supply scales as the facility fill-rate increases; we will not commit a higher number today than we are certain we can hit on a recurring weekly cadence.

Distribution is twice-weekly refrigerated delivery to the Richmond distribution dock. The primary drop windows are Tuesdays and Fridays, 7 AM–12 PM, with the second truck of the week staging out of our dispatch cooler from the night before. Orders need to be confirmed by 6 PM on the day preceding each delivery; emergency same-day add-ons are available with at least 24-hours’ notice. Detailed per-line ex-farm pricing, freight terms, MOQ, and pack-format options (clamshell vs. bulk foodservice flat) are in our Wholesale Offer Sheet (wholesale-offer-sheet.html); the figures below reflect the current indicative Year-1 range with a 12-month pricing hold for first supplier.

Indicative ex-farm pricing (year-one holds, held for a 12-month first-supply window; annual review thereafter): 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 (4 oz retail pack) or bulk food-service flats per distributor spec. Minimum order is 20 lbs per variety per delivery run; mixed cases combining the four varieties in an even split are available on request.

The 12-month pricing hold is intentional: for a wholesale produce distributor evaluating a new regional supplier, the meaningful first-year question is consistency, not price-point concessions. We compete on year-round reliability, two-day harvest-to-door transit time, and a true local producer-of-record name on the COA 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 so a reply can come in one pass. A response that addresses all three items puts the next step — a formal supply proposal — on the same five-business-day turnaround regardless of where the produce buyer is in the current category review.

(1) Current microgreens handling. How is [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name] currently sourcing the Richmond-area microgreens category today — broker pass-through from a Mid-Atlantic packer, regional CEA drop-ship, contract with a coastal CEA producer, or an internal line carried as part of the regular produce inventory? A one-line answer confirming any of those flows is enough; we are calibrating the gap, not asking for the figure.

(2) Wholesale-pack preferences. Does the Richmond distribution network prefer food-service flats, retail-ready clamshells (4 oz), or a per-line labeled pack for the produce-department handoff to grocer and restaurant end customers? The Microgreens Spec Sheet covers all three formats; we want to confirm the format that fits [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name]’s produce-department receiving and re-pack flow so the first delivery lands in a pack that goes straight onto a wholesale order, not into a re-pack queue.

(3) Decision-maker contact and meeting window. A preferred produce buyer / category manager name on the [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name] side for the conversation, and a 20–30 minute meeting window in August 2026 — either on-site at the IronRoost facility in Locust Grove (2593 Cougar Lane) or at the [FILL IN: Distributor Company Name] dock in Richmond. Either venue works; we will match the buyer’s preference. IronRoost will respond with a formal supply proposal — per-line volume tier, delivery-day aligned forecast, the Microgreens Spec Sheet, and the Wholesale Offer Sheet — within five business days of the meeting.

Thank you for the time. We will follow up by email to ironroost-farms@polsia.app early next week if no specific reply has been logged. The first commercial harvest is a fixed date on our roadmap; the conversation is the variable. Whatever the answer, the message gets a same-week written response.