About Us

The Basics

Agua Dulce Farm is a certified Organic urban farm located in the heart of Austin, Texas, just 5 miles from downtown.  We specialize in intensive Organic vegetable farming, using the most most sustainable and productive methods available.  Part of what makes us so unique is our use of aquaponics.

Aquaponics is a hybrid food producing system that combines aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in nutrient-rich water). In Aquaponics, fish and plants exist together in one integrated, soil-less system and serves as a model of sustainable food production.  We're Texas' first certified Organic aquaponics farm and we've developed several innovations that make aquaponics even more productive and sustainable.

Agua Dulce Farm serves a number of fine restaurants and vendors in Austin and beyond:

• Uchi and Uchiko
• Barley Swine
• Lenoir
• Fixe, Austin's Southern House
• Bufalina
• Sway
• Komé
• Olamaie
• Dai Due
• Odd Duck
• Foreign & Domestic
• Jeffrey's and Josephine House
• Hillside Farmacy

Why Austin, Why Now?

Austin, Texas has a temperate-to-hot climate and is plagued by extreme weather—long, scorching summers with unpredictable winter freezes, devastating floods and long periods of drought. Local farms struggle during the hottest of the summer months (June, July and August), during the coldest of the winter months (December-February), and suffer from water shortages with frightening consistency. Also creating trouble are countless pests, molds, and various diseases that can destroy crops within days.

Agua Dulce Farm uses an innovative Aquaponic model to greatly reduce many of these obstacles to farming in Central Texas in a number of ways.

• Drought Tolerance. The recirculating Aquaponics system uses approximately 90% less water than a conventional farm.
• The clean Aquaponic system reduces the risk of pests, molds, and diseases, resulting in pesticide-free, herbicide-free produce. The resulting plants are organic, fresh, available year-round, and sustainably grown.
• The streamlined Aquaponic process produces plants in a controlled and soil-less environment, reducing the chance of contamination, and places plants at waist-height, making harvesting easier.
• The fish live in clean water with ample space in which to swim and grow.

At Agua Dulce Farm, local food production provides a large population access to healthy foods with minimal transportation, reducing the carbon footprint and benefiting the local economy.

Aquaponics has recently gained popularity as an environmentally conscious way to produce clean-water fish and organic vegetables. Agua Dulce Farm has created a controlled environment that will yield premium quality crops and fish on a year-round basis.