Endless Summer Harvest: the name of this hydroponic garden says it all.

The Purcellville, Va. facility produces 4,000 heads of fresh lettuce and other greens a week for sale to area restaurants and farmers markets and is quickly gaining a reputation as the “premier grower of gourmet lettuces and salad greens” in its area.

One of the more unique features of this operation is not only the wide variety of greens available, but also the manner in which some of the lettuce is sold. Heads of “living lettuce,” which are sold still attached to roots in a compact cube container for $5, have a shelf life of about three weeks. This is much longer than traditional store bought lettuce mixes because it’s sold locally and therefore is fresher on arrival, rather than a lettuce mix bought at a traditional super market that can turn south within a week because of the travel time associated into the shelf life.

“There is no deterioration that comes from being cut off from its root source,” co-owner Mary Ellen Taylor explains in a recent Washington Post article covering Endless Summer Harvest. And because it’s grown hydroponically, the lettuce isn’t exposed to excess water from rinsing or pre-washing because there’s no dirt to wash off to begin with. This helps to stop unnecessary decomposition that occurs with other lettuce that is grown traditionally.

Endless Summer Harvest greenhouses cover 12,000 square feet, or the equivalent of 12 acres of traditional farm production. Greens are grown using a nutrient film technique and a state-of-the-art computer system. And the biggest bonus: no pesticides are used on any of the produce and water is reused in the hydroponic system, so the entire operation is extremely sustainable.

If you live in the Purcellville area, you can check out their complete list of available produce at their website. Or check out some photos of the garden and an interview with Mary Ellen in the recent Washington Post article.

Check back next week to find out what truck trailers and gardens have in common (answer: quite a bit if you’re in Atlanta).