Some months are about big single moments. September was about volume — a steady stream of meetings, documentation, and construction work that doesn't make for one flashy headline, but adds up to real progress on every front.
Wholesale buyers. Chefs. Local candidates ahead of the upcoming Richmond civic election. A stack of new paperwork. A hallway full of wires.
Let's walk through it. 👇
🤝 A Month Full of Meetings
If September had a theme, it was sitting across the table from people and listening.
Wholesale buyers, Chefs — We continued building relationships across Metro Vancouver, walking through our full lineup and getting direct feedback on what's working and what they wish we offered differently.
Local candidates — With Richmond's civic election approaching, we also had the chance to sit down with a few candidates running for city council. These weren't endorsements or political statements — just conversations about local food production, small business support, and what it takes to run an agricultural facility inside city limits.
What came out of all these conversations:
The feedback from these meetings was genuinely useful. A few consistent themes came up: people wanted clearer information on our website, improved packaging, and better labelling.
We're already acting on it. Expect to see improvements across our website, packaging, and labels in the coming months.
✅ Food Safety Certification: Small Steps Add Up
Our PrimusGFS certification work, kicked off back in July, kept moving steadily through September.
This month was about the unglamorous but essential groundwork:
- 📄 Documenting every procedure — from seed intake to harvest to packing, we're putting our existing practices into formal, auditable, written form
- 🐛 Setting up a pest control program — a structured, documented approach to monitoring and prevention, even in a facility where pest pressure is already extremely low by design
- 💧 Kicking off our water testing program — regular testing of the water our greens grow in, with results tracked and logged over time
- 🪧 Putting up food safety signage throughout the facility — visible reminders for staff and visitors about hygiene, illness reporting, and safe handling practices
None of these are dramatic milestones on their own. But together, they represent real, tangible progress toward certification.
🔧 Facility Expansion: Still Pulling Wire
The Phase 2 build continues. Our contractor spent much of September doing exactly what it sounds like: pulling wire, one run at a time.
If you saw our July update, you know the electrical work was at 50%. That work has continued steadily.
It's slow, unglamorous work. But every wire pulled is one step closer to more growing capacity, more variety selection, and more flexibility for our partners.
🌟 Looking Ahead to October
September didn't have one big headline. It had dozens of small ones — meetings that build relationships, documentation that builds trust, and wiring that builds capacity.
That's the nature of growing a business the right way: most of the real progress happens in rooms nobody's filming and behind walls nobody sees.
We're heading into fall with a clearer picture of what our partners need, real momentum on certification, and a facility that keeps getting closer to full capacity.
Thank you for growing with us. 🌱
— The Oh Micro! Team, Richmond, BC