Meet Jeff Bednar of Profound Microfarms in Lucas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Bednar.

Jeff, please share your story with us. 
Lee Bednar and I founded Profound Microfarms in 2014. Profound grows over 150 varieties of leafy greens, rare culinary herbs, edible flowers and microgreens for Chefs in Dallas and Collin Counties. We grow in 17,000 square feet of technology controlled greenhouse environments utilizing Hydroponic and Aquaponic systems.

We didn’t start commercial sales to chefs until 2017 after 3 years of learning, experimenting and growing. During those 3 years, Jeff became a Collin County Master Gardener, a certified Permaculture designer and visited as many farms as he could. Before buying the farm we had no experience in agriculture, Jeff was in Real Estate and his wife Lee worked in telecom.

Profound Microfarms was started because we wanted to make a profound impact on the health of our family, a profound impact on the health of our community and the environment.

We have hosted over 1000 people out to tour the greenhouses at different events and tours for students, girl scouts and classes for adults. Profound employs 3 full time, 4 part-time people and a handful of interns who rotate to learn more about urban farming and sustainable growing practices.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Some of the struggles have been with North Texas weather… it’s a rough environment to grow in. It’s forecasted to be 106F next week and we grow leafy greens (they are more of a cold weather crop). Greenhouses offer a bit more control but they can only do so much. There is not a ton of people growing how we grow in Hydroponics Greenhouses that are open with their data and experiences to share so we could learn and it’s been tough to find local mentors that understand growing in North Texas.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Profound Microfarms is especially proud of the caliber of Chefs we partner with. In less than a year we’ve grown to provide over 30 of Dallas’ best restaurants. The Chef/Farmer relationship is incredibly rewarding. Getting feedback about exactly what chefs are looking for, flavor profiles, leaf size, and color makes it easier for us to know exactly what to grow and how they want it harvested and gives the Chefs much more access to exactly what they need all while making much less food waste.

We are also proud of the environmental footprint we have. While it’s true Greenhouse growing uses much more electricity than field growing we are able to use about 95% less water than growing the same crops in the dirt with zero fertilizer run-off.

What were you like growing up?
I’ve always been interested in environmental issues and living sustainably but really found my passion for food only about 5 or 6 years ago.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1020 W Forest Grove Rd
  Lucas, Texas 75002
• Website: www.profoundmicrofarms.com
• Phone: 2146808535
• Email: jeff@profoundmicrofarms.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/profoundmicrofarms
• Facebook: facebook.com/profoundmicrofarms

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