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Ned and Bobbi Jo Horsted with their son, Dean. Photo provided by the Horsted family. they started in Sioux Falls. Aquaponics is a food production system that couples aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to hydroponically-grown plants, where nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia into nitrates.(2)

Ned said their aquaponic system starts at the fish tank which includes hybrid bluegills. Fish excrement moves from the tank as a nutrient-enriched fertilizer and is then gravity fed into the chamber below the plants, allowing the roots of the lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, and celery to feed directly from the enriched water. The plants, in turn, clean the water before it is pumped back to the fish tank. Unlike most small produce growers, winter is Horsted’s most productive season in the greenhouse. When consumers are at their crankiest from the long winter months, Ned and Bobbi Jo offer a healthy and delicious selection of fresh, locally-raised fruit and vegetables. Bobbi Jo said the tomatoes are growing as perennials in the greenhouse and re-planting is rarely needed. “We just cut them back and they keep producing fruit. Sometimes we don’t do a lot of trimming and we just let things go wild.” She said lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries are their winter-time staples from the geothermal greenhouse. They do come up short on strawberries regularly because their 5-year-old son, Dean, eats them faster than they can sell them. Ned added, “We’re still experimenting to find the right crop mix for us and the system.” Nom Nom Gardens also produces seedlings for their customers. Bobbi Jo said, “Our sale of seedlings was

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