On the cover of Florida Grower!

Robert Tornello's 3 Boys Farm was the cover story of the December 2010 issue of Florida Grower magazine (a popular trade periodical serving the produce industry). From the accompanying article:

When arable land is scarce and climate is a challenge, growing food becomes threatened — if not impossible. That’s why countries like Israel and Japan have become pioneers growing crops under protected structures like greenhouses.

In Florida, during the summer months, fresh produce production pretty much shuts down. But, in the greenhouses of 3 Boys Farm in Ruskin, winter greens flourish while the heat of summer sizzles outside. Robert Tornello, 3 Boys owner, has channeled his passion, ingenuity, and knowledge gained by studying other greenhouse pioneers into establishing an operation that could be a model future farm.

The project, which started two years ago, combines old and new to produce hydroponic crops with an eye toward conservation and energy efficiency. So much so that this year, 3 Boys was among those awarded the 2010 Agricultural Environmental Leadership Award from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Time Tested

While in some ways a visit to 3 Boys might feel like a scene out of “The Jetsons,” one of its most important tools used to conserve water dates back to ancient times. Cisterns have been used for millennia to collect rainwater, and Tornello has installed them to supplement water requirements.

The cisterns have 150,000 gallons of storage capacity, which are fed by industrial gutters that collect rainwater from the greenhouse buildings. This water, along with groundwater, is used for the greenhouse cooling pads and as the base for the nutrient-rich solution that feeds the plants. If the main well goes offline due to a weather event, the stored water alone could keep the greenhouses in operation for a minimum of three weeks.

Pristine Waters

A reverse osmosis plant is being installed at 3 Boys Farm to ensure pure waters are used as the base for carrying the nutrients of the hydroponic solution. The plant will be capable of treating 15,000 gallons per day.

“If you start with 100% pure drinking water for the crops, you are less likely to ever have water borne contamination,” says Tornello. “So we want to start out with purified neutral pH water and the plant allows us to do that. In certain crops, this also will help us lower the costs of nutrients.”

“Hydroponics is a water-intensive practice,” says Tornello. “When I bought the property here, the water permit was for 98,000 gallons per day. But, as pressures have come on, our permit is now for 42,000 gallons per day. That is when we went totally to Netafim microjet and cycle irrigation. With that change, we found we were nowhere near our permit threshold just by proper water management.”

Those adjustments and the use of cisterns have allowed Tornello to cut his draws from the aquifer by 10 million gallons annually.

Read more here.

3 Boys Farm welcomes Hawai'ian Fusion Cuisine innovator Roy Yamaguchi

L-R: Roy's Restaurants Corporate Chef Kiel Lombardo;
Robert Tornello;
Roy Yamaguchi

It has been an exciting and busy October at 3 Boys Farm. Last week, we had the honor of welcoming Roy Yamaguchi (of Roy's Restaurants fame) to the hydroponic facilities in Ruskin.

Yamaguchi, along with Corporate Chef Kiel Lombardo, Robert Tornello, and 3 Boys' Greenhouse Manager Michael Lenas, toured the wildly productive shadehouses, where our guests were able to see the kind of quantity--and, most importantly, quality--that 3 Boys Farm can produce, consistently and year-round, without needing to use dangerous pesticides or genetically-modified seeds; without draining Florida's threatened aquifer; and without the large carbon footprint traditionally associated with the vast majority of commercial food-growing operations.

Chef Kiel Lombardo;
3 Boys Farm Greenhouse Manager Michael Lenas;
Roy Yamaguchi

One of the many nice things about growing hydroponically and organically is that visitors can sample a crispy, sweet pepper, a juicy cucumber, or a firey arugula leaf right where they're standing--there are no worries about soil or pesticides needing to be rinsed off.

Yamaguchi was especially impressed with the current eggplant crop:




Still, it's hard to not be in the mood for a lovely fresh salad after walking through rows of tables like these:

Congratulations Robert! 3 Boys Farm receives Environmental Leadership Award (with VIDEO link)

Last week, Robert and Deborah Tornello traveled to sunny Daytona Beach, and at a breakfast ceremony on Friday, October 15, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson recognized 3 Boys Farm, Saturiwa Conservation Area, and Arapaho Citrus Management with his 2010 Environmental Leadership Awards.

Be sure to see the fantastic video that Rick Lurding--Radio & TV Producer/Director for the Florida Department of Agriculture--made of 3 Boys Farm, which premiered at the breakfast (in Flash). You'll be so impressed, with both the farm itself and the lovely filmography and well-written narrative.

Of course, we're terribly proud of Robert, who's been tirelessly working toward this very green dream for many moons. And in addition to thanking Commissioner Bronson, we'd also like to thank Rick Lurding, as well as Gemy Hinton, and of course, our intrepid crew at the farm.

A couple of snapshots of the breakfast:

Robert speaks about the importance of growing locally and
sustainably--not just in terms of Florida's farms,
but for the agriculture industry writ large

Commissioner Bronson and Robert Tornello

October skies and 3 Boys Farm

This is a shot of our new (yet old) windmill, photographed at sunset. Gorgeous fall skies are a not-too-well-kept secret here on the Gulf Coast--we've traveled around quite a bit, and have yet to see a sunset that compares to the ones we enjoy here in western Florida.

(Well, sunsets in the Big Island of Hawai'i and Tucson, Arizona *might* have come close--we're admittedly a bit biased toward our home state. Still...)

3 Boys Farm to receive Florida Agriculture Commissioner's Environmental Leadership Award

Executive Chef Jason Cline of Tampa's Bin 27, center,

selecting lettuces with Head Grower Michael Lenas (left)
and Robert Tornello (right)

The Florida Agriculture Commissioner's Environmental Leadership Awards will be presented this week at a state breakfast held in Daytona Beach. This honor is in recognition of 3 Boys Farm's innovative approaches to conserving rainwater and energy, and we're one of only three such honorees statewide.

Bravo, Robert!

From the Florida Agriculture website:

A model of conservation, the 10-acre 3 Boys Farm in Ruskin has integrated alternative energy sources with high- and low-tech systems to produce a hyper-efficient, sustainable 21st century farm.

While collecting rainwater in cisterns isn't a new idea, the way in which the farm uses the water is. Owner Robert Tornello harvests it from the roofs of his greenhouses to use as a base for the hydroponic growing solution and in the greenhouse cooling systems. Using rainwater reduces his annual draw from the aquifer by over 10 million gallons.

The hydroponic growing technique and greenhouse climate control system allows 3 Boys Farm to organically grow any vegetable or herb year round, a rare feat for a Florida farm. Customers -- including upscale, ethnic and fusion restaurants -- rave about the quality and variety of the produce and the ability to cook with vegetables and herbs, grown to their exact specifications, picked just hours before.

As others were leaving traditional agriculture, Tornello felt it was time to return with a new vision. Combining old techniques with advanced technology he wanted to grow a wholesome crop with little impact on the environment. At 3 Boys Farm he has succeeded.

If you build them, they will turn...

"Thou hast seen nothing yet!"
-- Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote

The windmill is up!

Iconic and nostalgia-evoking, the windmill has been the energy workhorse of traditional farms for many generations, and it remains so today. 3 Boys Farm will soon be installing state-of-the-art solar panels, but when it comes to harvesting the wind, why re-invent the wheel, so to speak?

(By the way, the earliest eggplants--a test crop--were outrageously delicious: we sliced and grilled them, then dressed them with a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Soon, tomatoes. Grown without pesticides, of course, and sure to be as intensely flavorful as our first crops of basil, lettuce, eggplant, and cucumbers.)

Another Cervantes quote, then:

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd."

Hope grows sustainably and irrepressibly in New Orleans

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated one of America's greatest cities, a hardworking and talented group of urban farmers are bringing vegetables and vigor to a part of town where fresh produce had long been unavailable:

When the levee along the Industrial Canal failed back in 2005 and the wall of water drowned much of New Orleans' Lower Nine, the area north of Claiborne Avenue - the poorest section of the neighborhood - was hardest hit. Not surprisingly, the stretch has been slowest to recover. Five years after the devastating hurricane, the area still does not have a supermarket or store that sells fresh produce. Today, where houses once stood, jungle-like growths have consumed the lands. Other homes, still abandoned, are slanted and Burtonesque.

But just as strange is another thing in the neighborhood, right on Benton Street between North Roman and North Debigny. "We call it 'The Volcano'," says Brennan Dougherty. "We just started the compost pile back in April, and it's already almost 15 feet tall and 40 feet long." Then like a proud parent she adds, "It produces the most beautiful soil you've ever seen." Dougherty is the manager of a farm in the Lower Nine where organic vegetables are grown and goats raised where drug deals used to take place.

What's more, Dougherty is inspiring young people in other urban areas to plant and grow. Do read the whole thing--it will brighten your day!