Fresh Off the Farm, Not Off the Truck: How KingsOne Farms Is Rethinking East Coast Lettuce

Lettuce production on the East Coast is much less common than the West Coast. A handful of growers have tried their hand at the crop, but the large majority of lettuce in the U.S. and Canada still comes from California and Arizona.

The distance doesn’t only drive-up transportation costs. It also pushes lettuce on the shelf closer to its expiration date, two major inconveniences for grocery store shoppers on the East Coast.

“By the time you get the lettuce, it was already on a truck for four days and sat on a grocery store shelf,” says Cole Mucci. “So a lot of people on the East Coast don’t know what it’s like to buy and eat fresh lettuce.”

That gap is what led Mucci, an Ontarian and Mucci Farms legacy, to launch KingsOne Farms: cleaner, high-quality head lettuce grown closer to the people who eat it.

“I always knew I wanted to be in the industry in some way,” Mucci says. “I wanted to differentiate myself by using new technology and homing in on food safety.”

KingsOne Farms is a 6.5-acre greenhouse facility located in Kingsville, Ontario. Production began in January 2026, with its lettuce marketed under Naked Leaf, a Mucci Farms brand. Mucci says the business is off to a strong start.

Putting Quality and Food Safety First

Since most lettuce in Canada isn’t grown locally, Mucci makes “Canadian grown” central to his marketing efforts.

Now, Canadian customers can purchase lettuce that was just harvested yesterday or two days prior, ensuring a fresher and more consistent high quality product throughout the year.

Mucci also grows without pesticides. He emphasizes that this focus on cleanliness is what differentiates his indoor-grown product from lettuce and leafy greens grown outdoors.

A Smooth Start

Launching KingsOne Farms has gone smoothly. As with any new facility, there are always challenges during startup, but Mucci says the team is extremely happy with the quality of the lettuce and proud of the people behind the operation.

“We’re extremely happy with where we are today,” Mucci says. “Like any startup, there have been challenges along the way, but we’ve been able to work through them. At the end of the day, the quality of the lettuce has been outstanding, and that’s what matters most.”

The standout right now is a Romaine variety that is selling extremely well. It’s crunchy, sweet, and has a long shelf life.

“Even just five to 10 years ago, I would say the lettuce varieties in greenhouses didn’t perform very well,” he says. “Now we’re doing a much better job of growing lettuce that has a good crunch and exceptional shelf life.”

Outdoor lettuce toughens up from wind and rain, while greenhouse lettuce has historically been softer. Mucci says advances in greenhouse technology, climate control and improved varieties now allow KingsOne to grow lettuce with quality crunch, sweetness, and shelf life.

Looking Ahead

Mucci points to three milestones from the last year: producing a clean, safe product; building a team that’s engaged and growing; and getting the facility running the way it should.

The last one is no small feat. Since ramping up production at the start of 2026, KingsOne now produces 250,000 heads of lettuce per week. While he’s not considered a large-scale grower just yet, Mucci plans to get there.

“I want to be a large-scale grower who grows the right way,” he says. “There are some companies out there that don’t put the plant first, and that’s something we’re 100% doing at KingsOne.”

That ambition runs into a real headwind. High-profile bankruptcies and heavy capital bets across controlled environment agriculture (CEA) have made some buyers cautious—that’s the real dividing line in CEA: who’s actually running the operation.

“I think it’s great that people are passionate about CEA,” he says. “Technology has moved the industry forward in a big way. But at the end of the day, it’s still farming. You can’t forget the fundamentals of farming, and unfortunately I think a lot of people do. The best operations are the ones that combine great technology with great growers.”

“At the end of the day, we’re farmers,” he adds.

No four days on a truck. No week-long expiration date. Just lettuce, grown a couple hours away from the people eating it.

For an excellent organic product used in today’s CEA operations, check out the OMRI-approved BotaniGard line of products from OHP.

Tags: cea, greenhouse, greenhouse production, lettuce