Produce business awarded $25,000 start-up grant

An incipient Wrangell business has won the 2017 Path to Prosperity business competition, which includes a $25,000 grant award for starting up.

Calling her business Mighty Bear Roots, resident Dixie Booker has proposed developing an aeroponic garden to cultivate and sell fresh produce. In this method plants would be grown in specialized tray towers, rooted in a soilless medium and sustained through a blend of mineral nutrients and water, and controlled lighting.

Booker said the idea for the business came to her out of a need for fresher produce. Plants begin to decompose after harvest, and leng...