A HINT OF MINT

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Hydroponics is also space and resource efficient. The Murphys claim it would take 60 acres of outdoor growing area (in chilly New York State) to produce the same annual output their one acre of greenhouses does. They add that they use only 500 gallons of water a day, while outdoor crops can demand several thousand gallons.

The rub? Vigilance. Both Murphys work 80 hours a week. Brian: "The crops have to be watched all the time. If a pump shuts off on a summer day without our noticing it, we could lose $20,000 worth of crops in an hour." He tests everything by hand twice a day, refusing to go to a fully automated system.

Each plant grows in a small foam cube that sits in a U-shaped trough. (Brian designed these canals himself. They're thin, so he can squeeze in more rows, and they have wide overhanging lips to reduce evaporation.) One minute out of every 10, a recycled nutrient solution is flushed through the canals. (The roots absorb oxygen the other nine minutes.) After two weeks, that batch of solution is discarded, and for one day the crops are given plain water. This cleansing "fast" helps prevent disease and encourages the plants to concentrate essential oils.

Brian doesn't use any chemical pesticides and uses botanical ones only as a last resort. Goodness Gardens' crops thus fit current standards for "pesticide-free" produce. However, since they're raised with chemical fertilizers, they can not be certified as "organic. " Murphy argues that his crops are just as wholesome and nutritious. "Plants don't use organic matter; they use inorganic nutrients. We just skip the breakdown process and directly feed them the 16 nutrients they need. Look at it this way: A lot of 'organic-diet' people take chemical vitamins regularly. We're just popping daily vitamins to our plants."

The product: Timeless Thyme and friends. Brian's greenhouse systems are so efficient that it takes only two employees to manage all 11 units. The real labor comes in packaging: Fifteen workers man the assembly line. There, each individual plant is cleaned, boxed, labeled (with such names as Magical Marjoram, A Hint of Mint, and Oh-Oh! Oregano!), and then refrigerated. The result?

Three thousand cases of Goodness Gardens herbs are shipped each week. That's an amazing 36,000 half-ounce packages of living herbs, each one retailing in grocery stores for anywhere from 99¢ to $1.49.

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