Garden Fresh Farms
“Solar panels were a natural first step in starting our operation”, so says Dave Roeser, owner of Garden Fresh Farms, a new wave of urban farming. “We are an eco-system inside a building.” Garden Fresh Farms is all about producing healthy food, close to the consumer, with consistent quality everyday, using the latest technology as efficiently as possible. There is no waste, everything is used and reused in the process of growing healthy food products, “right in your backyard”
Aquaponic; is Sustainable Agriculture. Fish waste provides fertilizer to plants grown under ideal conditions indoors allowing for multiply harvests per sq ft per year. The plants strip the water of nutrients and the water is returned to the fish. Fish are grown indoors with continual feeding providing market ready trout in less than a year. Waste plant materials are fed to freshwater shrimp which are fed to the trout. Compost materials are managed to produce compost tea, organic fertilizer and worms. Worms recycle cardboard boxes and the worms are also fed to the fish. Water is recycled and the crops grow with little evaporation as compared to conventional farming.
The 10kW solar electric system produces about 12,500kWh of electricity on average per year. Producing 12,500kWh of electricity annually from coal emits about 25,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Preventing this much carbon dioxide from being released to the atmosphere is equivalent to adding 1,250 trees to our forests. Over a 30-year span, IPS expects this system will offset 750,000 pounds or 375 tons of carbon dioxide.