A HINT OF MINT

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NOT EVERY HYDROPONIC HERBbusiness is a big one. In the Tampa, Florida, suburb of Brandon, Pat and Pete Barker manage a prospering eighth-acre herb greenhouse—right in their backyard.

The Barkers, like the Murphys, raised vegetables before switching over to herbs, but their production and marketing methods are on a much simpler, smaller scale. For instance, Pete starts his basil by sprinkling the seed from a saltshaker onto graveled rain-gutter beds. (Brian Murphy uses a mechanical seeder to precisely implant his foam cubes.) Instead of raising the crops in a completely enclosed environment, the Barkers grow theirs under an air-inflated plastic roof. During most of the warm Florida year, the sidewalls are kept rolled up.

Rather than deliver carefully packaged five plants in refrigerated trucks, Pat and Pete sbag cuttings (one basil planting may thus produce for as long as a year) and deliver them to wholesalers in a covered pickup. From there, most of their produce goes to restaurants, including many at Epcot Center, Disney World, and the Caribbean islands.

Of course, the Barkers' income is more "home-scale" as well. They gross $900 to $1,200 a week-instead of the $29,000 (and growing) in sales the New York business generates. But Pat and Pete aren't complaining. They're working together at something they like and that helps conserve resources. (Their operation uses less than 100 gallons of water a day-less than some families consume on showers.) Indeed, since they keep coming up with ways to make their jobs less labor-intensive, they've now reduced their workweek to just 40 hours-between them!

— Monica Brandies

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