Project Pomona

Greenhouse foundation is nearly ready for construction! We actually trenched these rows almost a year ago while we had the machine rental to put in our rainwater collection from the barn roof. has had to do some digging the past few weekends to clean out the trenches, but he’s almost done!

Why the trenches in the foundation? We’re installing in ground cooling/heating for the water and air. This greenhouse will house another aquaponics system. We’ve learned a lot from our first system and better conditioning the water temperature for the fish and air temp for the plants is high on our list. And we wanted to do so with as little energy as possible. Lots of pictures to come on this project!!

Elder Hill Farms will be showcasing our efforts in Regenerative Agriculture at Camp Lucy’s BBQ and Bourbon tomorrow evening. Come eat some wonderful food, sip on cool drinks and learn about our projects which include new partnerships with local businesses that are helping to make amazing things possible!!!
See you there!
PS: we’ll have an aquaponics demo, kunekune piglets, and even a microscope set up for viewing all the cool things in soil.
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About a month ago when we were still waiting for the power to come back on after 4 days of not, Ben and I escaped to a wine tasting event featuring and
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These wineries discussed the evolution of their wines and chatted about the Texas wine industry. Of course the conversation ended on a high note: what it takes to grow organic grapes in our fluctuating environment. It’s no easy task for these farmers, but they try to be as responsible as possible. Now if they could only get more government support to do so.
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Sometimes just a simple shot of lots of green is all you need.
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Land regeneration is our passion, but wine is Ben’s job. It’s amazing how he can be dressed in farm clothes, working on a skid steer all weekend and then find himself dining at the Palace of Versailles a few days later. This is our life. It’s a crazy life, a blessed life. Everything comes back to the land however. Really hope to partner with European vineyards one day on land projects.
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Project Pomona will have an info booth at the Driftwood Heritage Festival again this year. Come learn about our regenerative land projects and how you can do it too! Also fun for all ages: kids crafts, great food and beer, and live music. See you there!
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It’s about to get real ya’ll!!!!!
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Week after week we are planting different varieties in the DWC. The ‘Deep Water Container’ is only about 12 inches deep, but it provides all the nutrients these little plants need to grow in nothing but water and gravel container pots. We use fish waste water to nourish the plants; the plants clean and filter the water; the water is returned to the fish tanks. It’s a pretty straightforward system. Complex yet simple. Here we are with three weeks of growth, seeds that were first planted on Jan 2nd.
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Wanna hear some back story on Project Pomona and Elder Hill Farms. Head to and click on link in bio for an amazing podcast featuring Ben. Did you know that his full time job is a wine importer? We’re not even full time ‘farmers’. Yep! We we just have passion and bust it. And the kids help a lot now too!!
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I’ve teased about these new puppies….here’s a group of them. There are 9! Mama is a registered , and we’ve sent off a DNA test to get the rundown of Daddy. So exciting!!!

I’m late posting photos from our pre-Christmas deep freeze, but the greenhouse made it through well. It’s always a worry that we’ll lose the plants when we reach temps of 7 degrees……but we do what we can and hope for the best. This year we put up insulation over the water wall opening and covered the fan output vents with the same polyCarbonate siding used on the sides. With walls fully inflated and a small camp stove of boiling water putting warm steam into the air using a small propane tank, we kept the air above freezing inside the greenhouse even when it reached 7 degrees outside. Being in central Texas, we never intended to outfit our greenhouses with heaters. Hopefully these severe cold temperatures will change with the weather pattern this upcoming year. If not, we will continue to adapt!
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It’s been a super busy month….so much to catch up on! We’ve had a few new additions to the farm. The bull, Trouble, is actually visiting for a few months. I’ll give you one guess as to why. The three heifers couldn’t be more excited for a visitor. The two lambs are temporary….until Ben has time to process them. It’s been a busy month of processing and food prep
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