JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In this episode of First Coast Gems, we take you to 5 Points Farm to give you an inside look into how aeroponic farming works and why it might be a great option for you and your family.
Thurman Picarelli and Chloe Mallinson, both in charge of social media management at the farm, were the hosts of this fascinating tour.
“We wanted to be Jacksonville’s first urban, small-scale you pick, aeroponic farm!” Picarelli said.
Each batch has its very own flavor profile, which tells you the key nutrients and the time to harvest.
That way, when you walk through the farm, you have a better idea of what you’re looking at.
“So, we grow I think 12 or 13 sub-varieties of lettuce, and each morning we do usually pre-harvest and pre-package some of our spring mixes,” Picarelli said.
That spring mix then gets packaged and put in the refrigerator in the lobby for anyone who wants to come get their lunch to go.
And if you’re wondering about the use of preservatives — there’s no need to worry about that.
“Our nutrient mix is 100% ionic mineral solution and 100% water soluble,” Picarelli said.
It all starts by taking JEA water and running it through their reverse osmosis filtration system. Then, it gets mixed with their A & B stock solutions, which come from juice plus the Tower Garden supplier.
The mineral solution then gets pumped up to the gravity well, where it gets mixed, and flows down the floor pipes where it feeds water to the reservoirs of all 20 towers.
Fun fact: they are able to store over 100 gallons of water that they can use at any time within the farm.
“You can come on in, pick what you wanna harvest, and we’ll glove up and pick it for you fresh! It goes to your fridge first,” Picarelli said.
And the freshness goes from their refrigerator, straight to yours!
And why stop at just lettuce? Sauerkraut is also available and even some dressing.
5 Points Farm’s key word is freshness. They like to harvest their produce fresh, as compared to bulk harvesting.
The goal is to lower the fridge time and increase the amount of time that this food can be eaten. When you grow in aeroponic towers, there’s a longer harvest window. You can harvest the same plant between 2 weeks old and 4 weeks old.
“We wanna starve our landfills, and that’s really what we’re trying to do with all of the greens that we’re growing,” Picarelli said.
5 Points Farm is located on Post Street in Riverside.
To learn more about this amazing farm. visit 5pointsfarmjax.com/