Peach Boys Farm

The purpose of this Kickstarter is to fund a 100% chemical free greenhouse that uses only the very best non-GMO seeds and fish. Our goal is to provide the Portales and Clovis, New Mexico communities with access to locally grown, organic (pesticide and chemical free) food. Currently, the region's large scale farms concentrate primarily on Dairy production and provide little to no food for the local community. This being the case, most of our fruits and vegetables are primarily non-organic and come from long distances. Consequently, there is a demand for locally grown organic food. The new greenhouse will produce a higher yield than our current model, and thus allow us to provide more produce to the local Farmers Markets in both Portales and Clovis. Long term, we hope our greater involvement will bring even more families into the Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) network. I hope to be able to participate in the Local Farmers Markets as soon as June 30, 2014 and begin to grow the local CSA.

At the moment, we operate out of a 12' x 15' greenhouse, but need more space in order to produce a higher yield throughout the year. The new greenhouse structure will be 18' x 30' in size and consist of a dual layer 6mm UV thermal/anti-condensate poly-film with a inflated space between the layers. The additional insulation will extend the growing season and thus maintain a higher overall yield throughout the year. The greenhouse will use a single pump aquaponics system so as to keep the Zipgrow™ Towers at ground height allowing for easier accessibility at harvest and plant time. Finally, the fish tanks used will be two 275gal IBC's containing 30 to 45 blue gill fish. These tanks will drain into an easy clean 100 gallon sump tank using a Solids Lifting Overflow system. Once funded, the construction of the new greenhouse should take no more than two to three days and be operational immediately thereafter.

The basis of this system is "Aquaponics", which is the merger of soiless plant growth(Hydroponics) and the raising of fish(Aquaculture). This style of fish/plant growth has exploded recently due to the fact that you can grow edible fish as you grow fruits and veggies. The basic premise of the style of growing is, the fish constantly produce ammonia heavy byproduct, that byproduct is then pumped through the grow media you are using(rock, clay balls, media fabric) which allows for naturally occuring bacteria to form colonies that feed off of the ammonia turning it into Nitrite and Nitrates. Nitrates are what the plants then use to grow, and as such the plants are absorbing the chemicals and cleaning the returning water.