Our sustainable farming practices have a simple litmus test:
Honor
Does it honor the creation?
Economics
Is it economically feasible?
Efficiency
Is it efficient?
Our specially designed aeroponics preserve land, save water and eliminate agricultural runoff. Our decision to build greenhouses allows us to offer efficient, locally grown, sustainable year-round food production.
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a method of growing in structures with nutrients delivered in solutions pumped and re-circulated. Water is never wasted and is used by the plant roots or for evaporative cooling. We would never claim that the environment is sterile because we love bacterial and natural microbial interactions. The soilless media vastly lowers the risk of pathogens and food-borne illnesses typically associated with fresh veggies.
We watchfully apply organic carbon, organic acids and microbial life into the hydroponics systems to ensure optimal plant nutrition, flavor and quality.
Practical Approaches
There are many approaches and methods when it comes to farming sustainably. We want to lead the way for others, guided by our core practices.
To us, that means we keep things practical. We will not go to unusual lengths to meet absurd requirements, but we will think our way into alternative, natural solutions to natural problems. After all, we were founded by our parent company, Southland Organics, which exists to supply farmers nationwide with natural solutions to natural problems at a molecular level. More on that here.
Food Miles
Freshly harvested, local produce has tremendous advantages for health, community and the environment. One of the largest benefits is the way it liWe seek to know our customers and eliminate long-haul food transportation. We certainly realize that our food system currently depends on long-haul food miles, but we do not want to contribute to the problem.
Water
We are blessed abundant water at our location. We have three ponds and a beautiful stream that flows into Bear Creek. We are extremely mindful of our neighbors downstream, just as we hope our neighbors upstream are stewards of these shared habitats. We also have two very powerful and efficient wells that are capable of 100+ gallons per minute. Even with all of these water resources, we are mindful that water is a precious natural resource and conservation must be a top priority throughout our operations.
Agriculture is the largest consumer of water. We chose aeroponics to do our part in conservation. Our greenhouse system utilizes 10x less water than conventional agricultural practices.
In field operations, we utilize drip irrigation and wobble stakes. We hand fertilize with our unique spray rigs from SpraySquad.com.
Land
Currently, our outside food plot is just under 2 acres of well cared for farmland. We never apply synthetic materials of any kind. All of our field production methods use non-GMO seeds and NOP approved materials.
We are very keen on intensive farming practices that include the use of broadforks, composting, vermiculture and solarization of beds. This approach has zero negative impact on the soil or local environments.