What Makes Your Lettuce Look and Taste So Good? It May Be the Fish

Karel Holloway, Special Contributor

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That perfect lettuce in the clamshell box at the grocery store may owe its deep color and rich taste to fish.

More and more produce grown aquaponically is pouring into the highest-end restaurants, farmers markets and grocery stores in North Texas. Hydroponics, a similar water-based growing method, is increasing as well, providing the perfect produce prized by chefs and consumers.

One innovation is "living lettuce." The lettuce is harvested with the roots still attached. The roots harbor water and nutrients that continue feeding the plant, giving it a much longer shelf life. Mostly green leafy vegetables, like lettuce, and some herbs are grown aquaponically or hyrdroponically. Microgreens and edible flowers also are part of the mix. Larger vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are grown in some bigger facilities.

These types of farms require far less space, water and artificial chemicals than traditionally grown produce. Entrepreneurs and enthusiasts see water-based growing as the future in supplying urban areas.

Profound Microfarms owner Jeff Bednar harvests lettuce inside the hydroponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms in Lucas. 

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

Fish or no fish?

Aquaponics uses fish, usually tilapia or koi, to provide nutrient-rich water that is circulated to plant roots. The plants clean the water, which is pumped back to the fish tanks.

Goldfish tank in the aquaponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms in Lucas. 

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

Please, no jokes about lettuce growing in fish poop. The solids from the fish are cleaned from the water before it ever reaches the plants. Ammonia in the water is refined into nitrogen that feeds the plants. Aquaponics systems can be outdoors, but commercial growers usually use greenhouses.

Hydroponics systems don't use fish, instead depending on a mix of nutrients that are endlessly recirculated. And, please, no marijuana jokes. 

The systems don't use herbicides or pesticides and are less subject to contamination.

Lettuce growing in the aquaponics greenhouse at Breeden Fresh Farms in Terrell. 

(Erin Booke)

Upstart ideas

Harrison Breeden, 27, is president of Breeden Fresh Farms in Terrell. His aquaponics greenhouse produces 6,000 heads of lettuce a week on less than an acre of land.

"I'm passionate about this," Breeden says.

He had an interest in alternative ways to produce high-quality food and studied agricultural resource management at Texas State University. There was no class in aquaponics, but it was presented in some class materials. Intrigued, he put together a small system to see how it worked and was hooked. He decided he'd like to start an aquaponics farm, and his parents agreed to help. 

"They believe it is the future," Breeden says.

The aquaponics greenhouse at Profound Microfarms uses koi fish and goldfish. 

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

'Let's move to the country'

Richard and Sharon Hastings of East Texas Aquaponics have a similar story.

They worked in technology and lived in a suburban home in an increasingly crowded Austin. Their kids were grown and they were thinking ahead to retirement.

"We certainly wanted to look at doing something different. We were getting more and more interested in food," Richard Hastings says. "I said, 'Let's move to the country.'"

While they thought it was a good idea, they weren't sure what to do. Neither had farmed and they weren't really interested in traditional growing. They had a large koi pond in their yard, which prompted them to look into aquaponics.

They studied it and decided it had potential as a business and bought a small farm in Mineola to begin their aquaponic adventure growing lettuce, herbs and edible flowers. They now have a 6,600-square-foot greenhouse and plan to expand. Most of their produce goes to East Texas grocery stores and farmers markets, and they also contribute to the East Texas Food Bank.

Profound Microfarms owner Jeff Bednar harvests lettuce  inside the hydroponics greenhouse. 

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

A sustainable option

It was a small aquaponics kitchen experiment with his daughter, Lily, that led Jeff Bednar to create Profound Microfarms in Lucas. 

He was working in real estate, tired of driving all over the area and missing his kids. He began researching and taking classes and decided an aquaponics farm was the business he wanted to start.

Growing crops traditionally didn't seem to be a viable business model, he says. Soil is depleted, it takes a lot of water, and is too subject to the weather, he says.

"I wanted to do something more sustainable for the future," he says.

He grows more than 150 types of produce, most of which goes to Dallas area restaurants such as Petra and the Beast, Cedars Social and more. Chefs are interested because they can get different types of greens when they want them and it's really, really fresh.

And because it's fresh, there is less waste.

"Chefs tell me that a typical box of lettuce from farms has about 40 percent waste. Ours is about 5 percent," Bednar says.

Swiss chard grows in a hydroponics system greenhouse at Profound Microfarms. 

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

A growing trend

What the three growers have in common is the desire to start a sustainable business that will help with food supply issues. The number of those like them is growing, though most of the evidence is anecdotal.

"We are seeing an uptick in young people looking to get back into agriculture," says Chris Higgins, owner and editor of Urban Ag News. 

Hennen Cummings, a professor at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, concurs. He teaches aquaponics and has seen an increase in enrollment. Classes have grown to the point that students jostle for position in the Hydrotron, the university's name for the aquaponics lab.

Bednar thinks water-based crops will always be a small part of the market, but already there are restaurants and some grocery stores that get much of their greens from local water-based farms. Breeden supplies several large chains and is working to provide produce to school districts.

And even though the product is more expensive than traditional lettuce, it makes up part of the difference with lower transportation costs and less waste.

"It's not going to solve world hunger," Higgins says, "but there is value there."