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robert alaniz
Planet Forward Contributor
February 14, 2014
The Lettuce Lady
The first time I met Mary Ellen Taylor of Endless Summer Harvest, it only felt proper to embrace with a hug. When Julia and I left, we had bags of lettuce, microgreens, and a wrapped salad each. Taylor, known as âThe Lettuce Ladyâ to many, treats her crops with that same southern hospitality she shows her friends and customers.
What sets her crops apart? Well, for one they are grown year round in âa controlled agriculture environment.â This means while other local farmers in Loudon County, Virginia are unable to grow, the Lettuce Lady still provides her products to top Washington, DC restaurants and chefs and local customers.
Taylor told us she got the idea from a visit to Disney Worldâs hydroponic gardens. âI never thought Iâd go into farming, but I have found it, just right now, the place to be,â the Californian raised Taylor said.
âThis is smart farming.â
â Mary Ellen Taylor, AKA The Lettuce Lady
Why Munch on Hydroponic Lettuce?
With lettuce flavors ranging from Arugula, and Romaine to Butterhead and Red Oak Basil to microgreens varying from onion to broccoli and more, chefs like Jose Andres and buyers at the farmerâs market refuse anything but Mary Ellenâs hydroponic lettuce. Why?
- No Pesticides no problems
Mary Ellenâs plants are grown using hydroponics, meaning pesticides that could contain harmful pathogens that would be used for those grown in soil donât have to be used. So it makes it a better lettuce for a better you! - Healthier Lettuce = Higher Productivity
Mary Ellen is able to match productivity rates to a 12-acre farm because of the controlled environment that her greenhouses create. Because Mary Ellen can depend on perfect conditions all year round, she can depend on perfect crop production too. - Smart Farming is Sustainable Farming
Mary Ellenâs hydroponic system recycles 90% of the water used for her crop.
– Julia Blakely
Endless Summer Harvest grows 4,000 plants a week using just 12,000 ft.2 of greenhouse space. That is the âequivalent of 12 acres of traditional farmland,â she said.
Her hydroponic farm uses no soil and she is able to recycle 90% of the water used back through her well into the mixing tanks that produce the solution used to grow her crops.
Endless Summer Harvestâs controlled environment hydroponics system could provide a way for farmers in climates unsuitable for growing crops to provide food for a growing planet.
Visitors from around the world, especially in developing nations including Afghanistan and Botswana have visited her farm seeing it as a model for future use in their less irrigable home regions.
The Lettuce Lady hopes to double the amount of greenhouses at Endless Summer Harvest from two to four within a year.
Is this the future of farming?
John Perrino is a senior majoring in Political Communication at The George Washington University. Julia Blakely is a senior majoring in Journalism at The George Washington University.
