25 Jul Please The Palate Pick of the Week: Lettuce Grow Farmstand

I live on the second floor of a building. I have a small concrete patio. I love fresh vegetables so I go to the farmer’s market every week. I never thought it was possible to grow my own vegetables or herbs but I am now able to thanks to Lettuce Grow, the Please The Palate pick of the week. The Lettuce Grow Farmstand is a self-watering and self-fertilizing hydroponic farmstand. It makes it possible to grow more than 200 varieties of veggies, fruits, and herbs and only requires 5 minutes of your time each week. And you do not need any farming or gardening experience. The Lettuce Grow Farmstand is made in the United States from ocean-bound plastic recovered from coastal communities. It is BPA free, FDA food grade and CA Prop 65 compliant. It uses 95% less water thanks to the advanced hydroponic technology. The automated waters and smart water distribution require a minimal footprint. It also does not use dirt, which means that you do not have to deal with weeds. All you need is a sunny outdoor spot that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight per day (or an indoor area with growing lights for 14 hours per day). You will need a power outlet and access to water for weekly water refills. As for the space needed, the Farmstead is 20″x 20″ and it is suggested to have a 3’x3′ area so that you can access all the plants. The Farmstand comes in different sizes. When you first sign up, you can fill out a survey that will help you determine how many plants you want to grow. You can choose, 12, 18, 24 or 30 plants. I got the 18 plant Farmstead. The great thing is that if you start with 12 or 18, you can always added additional layers to increase your Farmstand if you want to grow more. The Farmstand came with the water pump and timer. I set it up to turn on every fifteen minutes (and every half hour between the hours of 12am – 5am). Every time the water pump turns on, it sounds like there is a fountain on my patio and it is so soothing. The Farmstand comes with plant food for more than 130 plants. Each week I pour the suggested amount of nutrients into the Farmstand. It is that simple. The Farmstand also comes with a pH testing kit. Each week, after I add more water and feed my Farmstand, I measure the pH and make sure it is between 5.5 and 6. If it is not, I add the pH Down and retest until it is correct. The only thing that does not come with the Farmstand are the seedlings. Seedlings are $2 each. For my first cycle, I ordered strawberries (2), tomatoes (cherry and regular), zucchini, eggplant, jalapeno, green onion, romaine lettuce (2), butter leaf lettuce (2), watermelon, bok choy, cucumber, green beans (2) and sweet peppers. It was amazing to watch how quickly the leaves sprouted. And suddenly I had lettuce – both butter leaf and romaine! And it grew a huge head of bok choy which I made a delicious stir fry with mushroom. Then I saw zucchini flowers and next lots of zucchini. The green onions sprouted and did green beans. And I have some small green tomatoes that are starting to ripen. With the Farmstand, the growing times are accelerated and the cycle is typically 4-5 weeks. I saw a few small cucumbers and am still waiting for some of the other vegetables, such as the eggplant, watermelon and strawberries, to grow but I will be refilling a few vegetables now. Everything I have picked so far has the most delicious flavors. And it great knowing that these vegetables have a higher nutritional content!