We recently featured the innovation of Denise Pieratos in creating the Harvest Nation farming concept in northern Minnesota. In this week’s installment of the Ecolution series, we feature the voice of her daughter — one of the four women family members leading the company.
My mother got into motion on figuring out how aeroponic farming would enable us to grow food at home — as a Bear clan we love our berries and wanted to know we could eat strawberries in the winter even if the food distribution system failed. It was not long before she realized this new system should not simply be for growing food at home for subsistence.
Being from an Indigenous community, our way of life is to share food — it is part of our survival story.
She started thinking bigger than household use — creating a whole farm concept in our community. It is incredible trying to keep up with her. She’s a tech whiz. She is the mastermind behind the concept that aeroponics can grow anything.
Once we have our space, we’ll be growing the highest in-demand fruits and vegetables. Heirloom tomatoes. Black chickpeas from Turkey. Blue potatoes, red potatoes. Greens rotated in shares. Romaine, spinach, leafy lettuce. Bulb onions, carrots, green beans, cherry tomatoes. Herbs: cilantro, sage, basil. It takes 2-3 years for fruit seeds to reach full maturation.
We are working with a professor in Duluth who is from Trinidad — the university is the largest holder of seeds in cacao varieties.
We could have 40 crops in the first farm, but we will focus on 12-15 items in rotation for our community-supported agriculture yields.
Also in this series: How aeroponics, aquaponics, and hydroponics work
Dani Pieratos wrote at Blandin Foundation
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