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Over Thirty Years Ago Leo and Suzette Overgaag Left Santa Barbara For The Beautiful Coachella Valley To Start Their Own Family Farm
Their dream was to raise their family, support the community and grow the freshest living produce on the market
Over thirty years ago Leo and Suzette Overgaag left Santa Barbara for the beautiful Coachella Valley to start their own family farm. From a shoestring budget and borrowed equipment to break ground, our greenhouses have grown into more than 10 acres of hydroponically grown greenhouse space.
Their dream was to raise their family, support the community, and grow the freshest living produce on the market. Originally growing European cucumbers, the Overgaag’s enjoyed cooking with fresh herbs but noticed the cut herbs available at the grocery store often wilted in a day or two. In the mid-1990’s they delivered the first full line of living herbs sold in the refrigerated section of the grocery store lasting up to three times longer than their fresh-cut counterparts.
Delivering a premium culinary experience with our fresh, living herbs from our family farm to your family’s table is our passion. We have spent years creating the ideal environment to grow culinary herbs with detail to tenderness, exquisite flavor, enticing aroma, and enhanced shelf life. From our deliciously sweet peppery basil to our velvety smooth sage, fresh herbs are a simple and healthy way to make any beverage, appetizer, meal or dessert extraordinary. Enjoy some of our family’s mouth-watering recipes shared or add to your favorite recipes at home.
We are proud to be the first culinary herb grower in the United States to be certified as a sustainable grower by a recognized third party certifier. In order to receive this honor, standards on earth-friendly and labor-friendly practices must be met. We utilize renewable resources such as solar power energy to help power our production and geothermal energy to heat our greenhouses on cool winter nights. A hydroponic growing method enables us to use up to 70 percent less water than field grown crops at a time where the current drought in California is top of mind to so many of us. All our employees are treated with respect, have opportunities for growth, and competitive benefits. North Shore offers tuition reimbursement for higher education or language classes as well as an annual college scholarship for the children and grandchildren of our team.
We are passionate about educating children on where their food comes from and how to cook with fresh, healthy ingredients as well as utilizing agriculture to improve test scores.
In our own community we partner with the YMCA and local schools to donate products, provide monetary donations, educate, and provide greenhouse tours.
Equity Crowdfunding Is Underway To Roll Out A Fully Self-Sustaining Ecosystem To Bring Food From Farm To Table.
Americans today get their food from a supply system that is nearly 100 years old and woefully out of date. That's because much of the food we eat travels hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles from where it was grown to where it is wanted
Investors Are Invited to Explore Lettuce Networks;
Leading the Local Food Revolution in Delivering Very Special Meal Kits
Neighborhood by Neighborhood
Equity Crowdfunding is Underway to Roll Out a Fully Self-Sustaining Ecosystem to bring food from farm to table.
Austin, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 07/17/2019 --Americans today get their food from a supply system that is nearly 100 years old and woefully out of date. That's because much of the food we eat travels hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles from where it was grown to where it is wanted. This waste tremendous amounts of energy, compromises its freshness and nutritional quality and creates packaging waste that's filling up our landfills and contaminating our oceans.
Lettuce is a company with a solution that solves these problems simultaneously.
It is creating sustainable, hyper-local, technology-enabled food ecosystems in urban areas that turn unused urban land and resources into productive farms, package the produce into healthy, delicious and convenient products, and deliver them to homes in zero-waste containers, all while increasing awareness and engagement around nutritious, local food. Their evolving social, local, commerce technology platform is connecting and empowering local food participants including growers, artisans, and consumers to do what they do best at every point along the food chain.
Lettuce has reinvented the popular meal kit. Before Lettuce, meal kit services were more expensive, took more time to deliver and were more wasteful resulting in high customer churn among those services. Lettuce meal kits fix all these challenges - local ingredients, near zero-waste packaging and affordable pricing because of more efficient cost structures, resulting in a dramatic drop in the customer churn rate.
Staying true to the nature of equity crowdfunding, the minimum investment is very reasonable and in easy reach of the masses. All funds raised are devoted to rolling out Lettuce on a large scale.
Everyone is invited to carefully consider this investment opportunity - http://bit.ly/2J7xJnF
About Lettuce
Lettuce got its start in Austin, Texas in 2016. Co-founder & CEO Yogesh Sharma, an entrepreneur and avid amateur backyard farmer was on a run, gawking at the ample irrigated space in his new city – almost all of it growing grass. He had always been curious about why local food wasn't a bigger part of the modern food ecosystem. And right there, all around him was part of the solution – plenty of good dirt, sun and water to grow food that could feed cities.
Hal Roberts, who grew up on an urban farm in San Antonio had already been setting up urban farms in Austin. And Ved Prakash was writing software that streamlined hyper-local logistics, enabling digital visibility and commerce across people, products, locations, and millions of other potential nodes.
The three of them got together, and collectively said, "Enough is enough, let's do something about this!" and started Lettuce. Now Lettuce meal kits serve hundreds of thousands of locally sourced meals every year, with a rapidly growing network of farmers, artisans, distributors and consumers.
Urban Agriculture May Uproot Traditional Farms in World of Food Ethics
Even though urban farms are more sustainable, they may encourage gentrification
Photo by Gabriella Holm | The State Press
"Gentrification in cities is changing farming as we know it." Illustration published on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019.
By Katelyn Reinhart | 02/28/19
Family-owned farms are decreasing as community gardens and urban agriculture find their footing in a world of food ethics.
In Arizona, it is not atypical to see farmland sold for urban development. Arcadia, a neighborhood located 10 miles from ASU's downtown Phoenix campus, was originally known for its citrus groves before the land was sold for development.
Similarly, the ASU Polytechnic campus hosts the Morrison School of Agribusiness, which was given its name to honor ASU alumni Marvin and June Morrison, who donated farmland to the school in 1998.
David King, an assistant professor in the School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning, said larger farms may be suffering from a shifting economy that relies less on citrus and more on housing.
“Agriculture is very resource intensive to grow here,” King said. “A lot of the agriculture that supported the economy in earlier stages just isn’t as critical to the economy now.”
He said that there are people in urban planning who see a future in urban agriculture, which is popular due to its sustainable appeal.
Kristen Osgood, a program manager for the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, said supporting local farmers could save travel time and quality in the foods people eat. She also said protecting farmers is extremely important as farmland is sold for housing development.
“We saw this happen in Mesa, where people were buying land next to a well-established feed-lot and then complained about the smell and tried to have it shut down — farmland isn’t something that grows back, once it’s gone, it’s gone, and that’s something we need to protect,” she said.
UN highlights role of farming in closing emissions gap http://bbc.in/174DJT8 #climate #agriculture
@ClimateNow As organic becomes more mainstream, the need for BigAgri, MonoCulture farms will decrease.
The priority must be the family farm
Osgood said that while farmers should be protected, growing food in a community garden setting could be valuable sustainably, physically and mentally as well.
Greg Peterson, owner of the Urban Farm in Phoenix, said his urban farm takes up a third of an acre and offers free webinar classes and other tools for users to educate themselves on sustainability topics.
“Something we think is important is growing food where we live,” Peterson said. “We have classes, tours and everything we grow here is grown organically.”
Peterson said that while there has been an increase in younger visitors, the most common visitors are baby boomers who want to know more about the way their food is grown.
Even though urban agriculture offers a more sustainable, local option for produce, it may bring gentrification.
Daoqin Tong, an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning who has studied community gardens and urban agriculture said that in her work, said she saw that it was more difficult for community gardens to be successful in low-income areas.
“For a lot of community gardens, people will pay fees to keep it around,” Tong said. "A problem with that is, in the summer, it’s very hard to grow anything, so that money goes to an empty garden. For wealthier families, the pay just doesn’t seem like that much.”
She said lower income families often cannot dedicate the time to maintaining a garden if they are working multiple jobs to support themselves.
Danielle Vermeer, a junior majoring in sustainability and urban planning, said that community gardens and urban agriculture have unreached potential in providing for communities.
“I volunteered at the Tiger Mountain Foundation through ASU," Vermeer said. "What we did was work on an urban farm for people who were incarcerated and are trying to integrate back into the community. As much as I think it would be nice for people to use gardens as a food source, at the moment I do see gardening as more of a privilege.”
Reach the reporter at kreinha3@asu.edu and follow @ReinhartKatelyn on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
Convert Your Hydroponic System To An Aquaponic System
As we rush towards a greener tomorrow, techniques that have been given to us by mother nature are being revived with modern methods. Aquaponics has a long way to go but both economically and environmentally speaking, this path with have many rewards.
Contributed by | GoblinHydro
01/08/19, 08:48 AM
For those of you who are seasoned growers, aquaponics might be an investment worth while. Aquaponics is all about your water and nutrients in your solution tank, so your not really "converting" as much as you are "adding." it doesn't matter how you choose to deliver water and nutrients to your plant, as long as it comes from the tank inhabited by the fish. Everything you have set up, however it is laid out, you're just a couple steps away from converting your hydroponic or aeroponic system to a aquaponic system.
Aside from the many benefits you will read below, teachers have been turning to hands on education using small aquaponic systems in the classroom.
Why convert?
Yes, it may require a little bit of extra capital, but the benefits far exceed the cost. Organic matter contained in fish feces and feed are used for the conversion of fish generated ammonia to nitrate. Bacteria breaks down the fish waste and converts it to plant food and nutrients. This is a huge cut in your nutrient upkeep. Instead, you will be supplying your fish with food and letting them take care of the plants.
Water is constantly being recycled instead of disposed of, which will give you a huge break when paying your hydro bill. Since the water is recycled, the only loss of water comes from evaporation and transpiration.
PH balance is very important to keep an eye on, in aquaponics or any other method. While you will still need to keep that eye on it, bacteria breaking down the fish waste should adjust the PH balance on its own.
Vegetation and fish happen to be healthiest choice in food, and your farming both! Once a fish has matured (depending on species,) you can remove and enjoy a healthy organic dinner while enjoying the freedom of being self sufficient.
Will my yield increase or decrease?
Many cultivators are reporting a rate of 400% - 500% faster crop turns. Not only that but crop density has been heavily increased for many. Every plant responds to aquaponics differently and certain fish seem to partner with plants just a little bit better.
Many different species of fish can be used. Which kind you select will depend on not only your plant species but tank size.
If this is a home project you might want to use ornamental fish like guppies, fancy goldfish, angelfish or even a swordfish. Some have even created environments for turtles, crayfish and even shrimp. If the purpose is not decorative, but still home based, pacu, koi and catfish get along with many different plants. Larger commercial operations use larger fish including larger mouth bass, salmon burramundi, this is to maximize nutrients per fish and to provide a cheaper upkeep solution.
Time to add in your aquaponics tank
Choose your tank - As mentioned above, the size of the tank will be dependent on your grow area and fish species you plan to manage.
Choose your fish - This should have already been decided at the time your obtained your tank. Proper research should be done on the species and the habitat required. Search for studies and/or personal experiences through blogs, forums and research papers on what fish people recommend for your specific plant.
Transfer your pump - Remove the pump from your nutrient tank and place it into your fish tank. The minute delay of water to your plants should not cause any stress. Make sure the pump is safe from any holes or crevices your fish can wedge itself into.
Maintenance - Now that the hard part is complete, a close eye will be needed to ensure your fish accept their new home and produce the bacteria required to detoxify the water. Fish feeding should start off gently so you don't overfeed the fish. Leaving traces of leftover food particles can contaminate the water and throw off the bacteria process causing a buildup of ammonia and nitrate.
The best solution to measuring the amount of food required by your fish is to start with a predetermined amount wait 10 minutes while the fish take their fill. Up to 10% can be left in while more should be added if less than 5%.
Oxygen must be dissolved, if the oxygen falls below 2 mg/l, denitrification can occur. For optimum fish performance, keep the oxygen above 5 mg/l but below 10 mg/l. PH should be kept about 6.0, just add potassium for a boost when needed. tools such as API or Tetra kits for measuring nitrate and ammonia are readily available and relatively inexpensive.
As we rush towards a greener tomorrow, techniques that have been given to us by mother nature are being revived with modern methods. Aquaponics has a long way to go but both economically and environmentally speaking, this path with have many rewards.
Teshuva Agricultural Projects (TAP) Is Proud To Present the TAPKIT
Mindanao, TAPKIT
TAPKIT is a 500 m2 Hydroponic unit.
The unit , produces 6-10 Tons of leafy vegetables per you on NFT system.
Mindanao, TAPKIT
TAP developed the unit as a solution for family farming, resorts, restaurant, senior citizens homes and more. It is called the affordable hydroponic solution because of its price- $60,000- 70,000US $.
TAPKIT Korea
Since its launching on May 2018, it has been installed in Israel, S. Korea, and The Philippines, the next two units will be installed in Mauritius next month.
TAPKIT Korea