Real Fresh Fields: Endless Summer Harvest

May 8, 2008

By Suemedha Sood

Friendly Faces at the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market.

EVEN ON A COLD SUNDAY, Washingtonians swarm the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market.

Customers walk from booth to booth, smelling produce and asking questions. Everything from free-range pork sausage to hot cider made from six varieties of apples to greens — plenty of glorious greens.

But these aren’t just any greens. They’re hydroponically grown lettuces and herbs from a farm about 50 miles away. Endless Summer Harvest in Purcellville, Va., is recognized statewide for its innovative farming techniques. Farmer Mary Ellen Taylor calls the operation “beyond organic.” The farmers and their computer grow 25 varieties of lettuce, basil, New Zealand cilantro, dill, and mint using no soil and no pesticides.

Hydroponic greenhouses employ solutions of mineral nutrients instead of dirt to grow food. The seeds start growing in a dark barn with overhead lighting before moving into climate-controlled greenhouses. Loud music blasts from a stereo; as a handwritten sign says, “Plants grown on Rock & Roll. Never turn off music.”

The plants are also grown with a whole lot of water. But Endless Summer recycles 90 percent of that water. It also uses recycled cooking oil from area restaurants to fuel the operation. By next year, Taylor says, the farm will be fossil fuel independent.

The idea for Endless Summer Harvest originated at Disney World and became a reality at a high school reunion. President Dennis Lentz, an advertising director at AOL, was inspired by “The Land,” a hydroponics exhibit at Disney World’s Epcot Center. He wanted to start a farm but he needed partners with agriculture expertise.

Everything came together at his wife’s 20th high school reunion. Kathy Lentz’s best friend from high school, Mary Ellen Taylor, happens to be married to a third-generation horticulturalist and curator for the U.S. Botanic Gardens, Wally Reed Jr. One brainstorming session was all it took to bring the idea to life.

At the Dupont Circle market, Taylor’s sister Kathleen does the selling. About 70 percent of her customers are repeat buyers, she says, so Dupont shoppers know her face well.

Mary Ellen and Kathleen say their greens constitute a specialty niche. That’s why some of Endless Summer’s biggest buyers are acclaimed restaurants like the Tuscarora Mill, Poste Brasserie and Equinox.

“I want to be the Tiffany & Co. of lettuce,” Mary Ellen says with a laugh.

Article Source: http://www.readexpress.com/

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