After living on our farm for
a couple of years, I vividly remember asking my husband when we’d be done
building and expanding our operation. Chris looked at me with a puzzled
expression and replied, “Never.” True to his word – true to his
entrepreneur spirit – there is always something new going on at Rivendell
Farms.
Some additions such as raising rabbits for meat have come and
gone. It was hard to kill something so cute. On the other hand,
raising grass-fed beef has been a great business for our boys. Last year
we began growing hydroponic lettuce. This venture is also a keeper.
Hydroponic vegetables are
grown in nutrient-rich water, not soil. We use a system called Nutrient
Film Technique, which means the water is continually moving past the roots of
the vegetables … in our case, lettuce. I call it lazy lettuce. In
regular gardening, after a lettuce seed is planted in the soil, it germinates
and then all of the plant’s energy goes into finding nutrients within the soil.
In a hydroponic system, the lettuce seed is first placed into a cube of
rockwool medium and then placed into a channel which has water continually
moving past it. The lettuce roots just need to absorb the nutrients from
the water. In essence, the lettuce can just sit back and let the
nutrients come to it, instead of having to go search for food. Thus, lazy
lettuce.
On the other hand, the hydroponic operator can’t be lazy. There has been tons to learn concerning Ph levels, types of nutrients,
cooling methods, etc. Lots of trial and error, but it’s been fun and
rewarding.
To get a nice head of
lettuce from the garden takes from 8-10 weeks. The hydroponic system will
produce a head of lettuce in 6 weeks. There are also less bugs and
diseases to deal with. In addition we can grow vegetables all year round
in our greenhouse.
Just the other day I was
thinking how great things were going with our hydroponics, and then Chris
mentioned he thinks it’s time to expand our operation. Oh, life is always
an adventure around here.
About Jeffie and Chris Hardin
– The Hardins left suburban life in 2001 for an 8-acre farm near Mountain
Island Lake. Now the Hardins and their children seek to grow half of their
family’s food and help others grow food, too.
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