We found out this week that, in partnership with Jellum Farms, we've been awarded a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant to build hoop house #4 that will be heated using a geo-thermal heat exchange system!

From a high level, this means that in this new hoophouse, we’ll have better control of temperature and humidity year round without using expensive and environmentally unfriendly heating sources. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, here’s how we’ll achieve this: we’re going to bury a water pipe to store and extract ground heat beneath the hoophouse. Water-to-air heat exchangers will be installed at the surface which will heat the inside. When you live in a cold climate like Iowa, a system like this protects the growing greens when subzero winter temperatures strike. If we were to attempt to heat our hoophouse in another way, it would be exorbitantly expensive to run when January and February come around. We’re excited about the chance this gives us to provide fresh greens year round, while also doing our part to be friendly to Mother Earth (and our wallet).

Too long, didn’t read? What this means for you is that once this new hoophouse is built and running later this year, we'll be able to offer you year-round salad greens (with the added bonus of using a fraction of the energy and money that it typically takes to do so). Sustainable, fresh, local greens all year round!

We're eager for what's to come! We’ll keep you posted on developments here (Check the SARE Grant category for easy to find updates), as well as on our Facebook and Instagram pages.