You’re absolutely right — hydroponics is a dead end if you’re mostly or entirely off grid with no supply chain.

I’m very interested in soil-based gardening and cyclical systems too, but I don’t have enough space to really experiment. However, if I did have the space, I’d love to explore an aquaponic system in a large enclosed area. Perhaps a large geodesic dome partly dug into the earth to help stabilize temperature. The ability to generate a nutrient solution from a biological system is absolutely inedible to me.

Thanks for the link to Biosphere 2, this is really interesting.