Harvest season is in full swing for hundreds of local growers in Southern Colorado. Many are closer than you may think. The Palmer Land Conservancy created a Local Food Guide last summer to help shoppers find farm stands and farmers markets who sell locally grown and raised food.
Their interactive map shows shoppers where to go to buy locally. One local grower from Black Forest is Emerge Aquaponics. They grow thousands of heads of lettuce year-round inside of a greenhouse.
"It's actually taking aquaculture, which is fish, and hydroponics, and it meshes them together," explains Josh Imhoff. A series of freshwater tanks are stocked with Tilapia. The water from the tanks is filtered and cycled through the hydroponic irrigation systems, feeding the plants.
"We feed the fish, and then that breaks down into ammonia," Imhoff said. "The ammonia turns into nitrites, and the nitrites break down into nitrates, and the nitrates are what the plants want." The process eliminates the need for fertilizers. The facility produces between 7 to 8 heads of lettuce per square foot. Imhoff harvests roughly 4,200 heads of lettuce per week in the summer when days are longer. In winter, production drops to roughly 3,200 heads per week.
Read more at koaa.com