Monday, April 9, 2012

Hydroponics

A six hour drive north of Sydney, near Port Macquarie, is a fabulous hydroponics farm that grows tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce. I visited this place over the Easter long weekend and enjoyed the best strawberry smoothie I've ever tasted.

Unfortunately the tomatoes weren’t available, but here are some pics of the strawberries and lettuce.




Have you ever gone fruit picking or visited a hydroponics farm?


Note: For the month of April during the A-Z Challenge I am pausing from my usual blogging theme of writing and social media tips. Instead I hope to share with you my photography. Much of it is inspired by the fabulous and helpful site, The Bookshelf Muse. Please check it out and enjoy.

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44 comments:

Denise Covey said...

Hi Lynda! Well it's just we Aussies out and about. What a shame the Easter weekend is about over. Just had a huge walk with husband and dog and feel like the holiday is fast coming to a close.

I used to live opposite a hydrophonics farm when our chillen were smaller. At the time they used to use a lot of chemicals in the water. I hope that's gone by the board in this more enlightened age. I still tend to avoid hydrophonically grown fruit and veg. That smoothie makes me want to go and make one for dinner! Why not? I've got passionfruit, strawberries and rockmelon in the frig.

Denise

Old Kitty said...

Oh yes!! When I used to go rambling in the wilds of Hertfordshire - we'd always stumble across one of these and sample their fruit and veg - I'll always recall with fondness traipsing across muddy fields and overgrown pathways while munching on my fresh from the hydroponics farm cucumbers and tomatoes! Take care
x

Meradeth Houston said...

This looks like a really neat place! I love going berry picking. There's an organic farm down the road from my mother and I love their fruit. I try to make it there at least once a summer, and love to make berry pies. Also, there's just something extra tasty about fruit just off the vine/tree--tastes so much better!

Theresa Milstein said...

I've seen hydroponics at a preserve on a small scale, but never on a farm. Very cool.

Nick Wilford said...

My parents used to take us strawberry picking all the time on holiday when we were kids. I'm not sure if they were hydroponics places. I visited Port Macquarie during my travels and wish I'd been to this place!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's wild how they are grown! Never visited a hydroponics farm.

Creepy Query Girl said...

There's a pick your own farm about twenty minutes away. We like to go when the weather starts to warm up and pick whatever's reached its peek. Great pics!

Jemi Fraser said...

We don't have any hydroponics farms around here. I bet one would do well though - we do have several pick your own type farms and they're very popular!

Bish Denham said...

I have seen/visited hydroponic farms. And, my Puerto Rican uncle was in agriculture and taught people how to grown hydroponically on their roofs.

Unknown said...

When I lived in Canada, I used to visit a neighbouring province where they had orchards. We used to pick our own fruit. Peaches, pears... yum!

Unknown said...

Never visited a hydroponic farm, but I have picked strawberries! Blueberries, as well. When I was a little girl, my great grandfather often grafted fruit trees. He could make apples and pears grow together. Amazing stuff.

Unknown said...

When I lived in Canada, I used to visit a neighbouring province and pick fruit from the orchards -- peaches, pears, apples. Yum! Now that I live in Mexico, where fruit grows on trees everywhere, I just pick fruit when I'm out and about.

DEZMOND said...

I've no idea what hydroponics are, but my grandma was a farmer and I've never tasted a fruit or vegetable bought in a supermarket until I was twenty or something :)

Murees Dupè said...

Everything looks just amazing. You are so lucky. I wish I could have tasted the strawberry smoothie.

Marta Szemik said...

The only place I've seen hydroponics is in Disney. It left such an imprint on me, that I had to use it in a novel too:)

Mary Aalgaard said...

I took the tour at Disney World. I found it fascinating. I'm a farmer's daughter, what can I say?

There's nothing that can compare to fresh produce.

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Betty Alark said...

Now I desire one of those smoothies! yumm!

Looks like a great place to visit!

http://bettyalark.blogspot.com/

Suze said...

This reminds me of a line from 'Freaks and Geeks.'

'Be careful with this stuff, it's hydroponic.'

'What, like the lettuce?'

'Yeah, yeah, like the lettuce!'

Donna K. Weaver said...

I have not. I usually think of hydroponics as the means to keep a spaceship going with both food and oxygen. Can't tell I'm a SciFi fan, can you? =D

Susan Fields said...

Strawberry smoothies - yum! I've never been a hydroponics farm, but it looks like a fun place to visit.

Precy Larkins said...

I haven't. Sounds interesting, though. And yum on the strawberry smoothie. Methinks I'll go make one right now. :D

vic caswell said...

wow! very nifty. never seen one myself.

Luanne G. Smith said...

I worked for a few months at a hydroponics farm years ago. I'd never heard of the process before and was amazed they could grow tomatoes in water without soil...all year long in a greenhouse too!

Loree Huebner said...

We have a smaller version of one these farms near by where I live. They grow annuals and some vegetables plants.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Joanne said...

I live in a fruit-picking area. It's cool to see the strawberry pickers squatting in the fields. We grow a small patch in our garden just for me and my husband - guess who's the greedy one? :)

Tonja said...

I like growing my own vegetables (in dirt) in the back yard. We have about 25 strawberry plants too.

Anonymous said...

Yummo fresh fruit and veg gets my mouth watering!
We have tomatoes growing in the gardena a the moment.
I haven't bee to a hydroponic farm to pick my own... Something I'd love to do one day.

Morgan said...

For fun!

Goodness, I need to get out more ;)

Anonymous said...

I just scrolled through your impressive photographs. Your wedding picture is lovely. Great A to Z theme.
Ann Best, Author of In the Mirror & Other Memoirs

Sidne said...

no I have never visit a hydroponics farm. years ago my daughter discovered this and did her science experiment on the plants. SHe received great reviews from the judges and placed first. enjoyed the pics.
http://sidnereading.blogspot.com/p/april-z-challenge.html

Jaycee DeLorenzo said...

I've never visited a farm but I've at food grown hydroponically. Tasty. :D

My A-Z

Laurie Peel, CRA-RP said...

My first job was picking strawberries at a local farm. Nothing tastes as good as a freshly picked strawberry, still warm from the sun. YUM! (And thanks for following me.)

Sarah Tokeley said...

I went fruit picking quite a lot as a little girl, but have never seen a hydroponics farm. There's nothing prettier and more inviting than a strawberry plant laden with ripe fruit - and I don't even like strawberries :-)

Kela McClelland said...

So, I had to go look it up to see exactly what hydroponics are. Now I know, I don't think we have any around here, but it sounds cool. And yumm to the smoothie, sounds really good right now. :)

Fairview said...

I've been cherry picking. It is fun if you go at the start of the season and all the low-hanging fruit is still there. Delicious but I think the farms add like a 100% mark-up for the pleasure of harvesting for them. lol!

BragonDorn said...

I learned something today :)

Leovi said...

No, I never visited a hydroponic farm, looks interesting.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

hydroponics is a way of growing fruit and veg without soil. And wow, to growing up without tasting supermarket fruit and veg. That must've been awesome!!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

lol, yeah, I can relate to that kind of thinking ;)

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

wow! I'm impressed. I'm not a very good gardener.

DEZMOND said...

awesome and sad too, since after that I've never tasted a real fruit or vegetable, things we get in supermarkets aren't the real thing.

Melissa said...

Ooo. This takes me back. My dad raised orchids in a greenhouse he built in our backyard, but he got into hydroponics for a time. He had a PVC set up much like one of the pictures above. No soil, just water with his homemade plant food running through at intervals. It was really neat to see. Great post! :)

Unknown said...

Wow, that's a lotta plants! Sounds like a blast, though I've never been to one.


Jamie
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Mithril Wisdom

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

yep, so true. I miss FRESH fruit and veg and wish I was a better gardener.