Grower Teams Up with Whiskey Company to Fuel Biomass Boilers
Nature Fresh Farms recently teamed up with Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd. – the whiskey producer is now providing the greenhouse operation with a renewable fuel source in the form of whiskey cull barrels.
In 2018, Hiram Walker & Sons reached out to Nature Fresh Farms seeking help in reducing its surplus of whiskey cull barrels. To date, Hiram Walker has provided the grower with more than 25,000 barrels as fuel for its biomass boiler. The companies have expanded the program, where Hiram Walker now also sends other scrap wood material including used bungs, wood shavings, and damaged pallets.
Every month Nature Fresh Farms receives approximately 400 barrels that are shredded and stockpiled for the colder seasons. The wood chips are fed to the biomass boiler’s fire box, heating the water that is pumped through rails throughout each row of plants to warm the greenhouse.
To date, Nature Fresh Farms has burned over 25,000 barrels (approximately 1,125 tons of wood), producing the equivalent of nearly 520,000 cubic meters of natural gas. That would heat the average home in Canada for 192 years, saving 1,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
The two companies will continue to work together to recycle wood and the metal whisky barrel rings, thus reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. This partnership allows both companies to maintain their values of sustainability while finding new opportunities to integrate eco-friendly alternatives within their operations.
“We are in an industry that has the capacity to produce significant positive change,” said Dave Froese, Energy Manager at Nature Fresh Farms “Teaming up with Hiram Walker & Sons gives us the opportunity to continue to make a difference by reducing the amount of materials that end up in landfills.”
Video Library 
