These baby Sweet Basil plants are two weeks old. They are ready to be transplanted into the hydroponic tables where they will stay for another 3 to 4 weeks before they are harvested.
Samantha Berenschot-Bucciero, a Sustainable Agriculture student at the University of Maryland’s Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA), completed her summer internship at Envista Farms in Glen Burnie, MD, where she gained hydroponic farming experience and learned about hydroponic systems in general. Hydroponic farming, a type of farming that does not involve soil but rather where the plant roots are placed in a liquid nutrient solution, has become popular within the last decade. Envista Farms produces commercial sweet basil and distributes it to local markets, Whole Foods, Safeway, and a few other stores within a close proximity of their location.
During her internship, Berenschot-Bucciero used hydroponic systems and says she gained lot of patience with the growing plants. As she harvested, re-seeded, and transplanted crops, she enjoyed watching them go through different life stages/cycles. In a sense, Envista Farms is going through a life cycle of its own, giving Berenschot-Bucciero a glimpse into urban revitalization. The company is renovating older, abandoned buildings into indoor urban farms to revitalize the local area with jobs, fresh food. They are repurposing and refurbishing the old buildings/warehouses to become urban farms.
Envista Farms is a startup farm, and that attracted Berenschot-Bucciero to this internship. She was able to experience the beginning of the company as it really took off. With Envista Farms being a startup, Berenschot-Bucciero explained “we were really just trying to get everything organized and up off the ground. Our priority was to mainly meet certain quotas for the amount of basil we harvested and increasing that weekly.”
She also touted the Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) certification that Envista Farms has. This certification gave the operation credibility as it expanded and sold in bulk.
Meredith Epstein, Sustainable Agriculture advisor at the IAA, had great things to say about Berenschot-Bucciero, “Sam truly mastered the systems of hydroponic production at Envista Farms, and she will be able to build upon that wherever she goes next. It was impressive learning from her about the process from seed to harvest, as well as hearing her insights on the technology and market of this emerging industry.”
Berenschot-Bucciero believes her internship gave her a strong understanding of what it takes to get food into the grocery stores and food systems in general. Berenschot-Bucciero enjoyed diving into the food industry and urban farming, and plans to use this experience to launch a career in urban agriculture and community outreach projects.
