Posts from — December 2011

By David Toht
Creative Homeowner
December 5, 2011

David Toht has more than 60 how-to books to this credit. He considers harvesting a sun-warmed tomato from his own garden one of life’s sweetest pleasures. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in Olympia, Washington.

From the author David Toht:

We once had a flock of brown-egg chickens. We called them our “illicit biddies” because they weren’t strictly legal in town. My wife and kids and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, relishing the fresh eggs and delighting in the antics of the hens. They were great fun to work with, grateful for weeds and vegetable scraps, donating manure for the compost pile, meticulously scratching up insects and grubs.

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Part of map of Aurora, Missouri, 1891.

City manager in Aurora, Missouri explains urban agriculture as part of American history

By Tony Stonecypher, City Manager
Aurora Advertiser
Dec 05, 2011

Excerpts:

Aurora, Mo. —
Aurora is working to find a way for agriculture and urban living to be compatible again. When our zoning laws were written and the zones and their assigned uses were developed, it was decided that agricultural activities had no place in the urban area and they were banned entirely. If one looks at the way normal rural farms conduct their business, it is clear why this assumption was made. Consolidated feedlots and large machinery have no place in a congested city street, but is that really all that agriculture means?

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Digging In – urban agriculture grows vegetables – and community

By Kris Gallagher
DePaul Magazine
Getting Green
Winter 2012

Founded in 1898, DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the nation and the largest private institution in Chicago, serving over 25000 students.

Excerpt:

DePaul is ideally positioned to lead such an initiative, Rosing says, based on a survey his students conducted on how North American universities support urban agriculture. DePaul already offers nearly all the necessary core disciplines. He ticks them off:

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25 minute video discussion here.

Inside Town Hall – City of Sioux Falls – December 2011

Shawna Goldammer – Zoning Enforcement Manager
Rex Rolfing – City Councilor
Wyatt Urlacher – Urban Farmer

Chickens and turkeys in the backyard… Councilor Rex Rolfing takes on the topic of urban agriculture and what it means here in Sioux Falls.

Link here.

Creating a place where people can get fresh – really fresh – produce

By Jessica Clark
First Coast News
Nov 29, 2011

Excerpt:

“Really the goal was to create more of an attraction to the market,” Alexon explained.

So after a lot of research he built a one-acre hydroponic u-pick farm that grows about four acres of fruit, vegetables and herbs.

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Support an Urban High School Farm Project!

EcoStation:NY, Boswyck Farms, and the Bushwick Campus and its students are in the process of building an incredible greenhouse on the Bushwick Campus, and we’re raising $15,000 through Kickstarter to do it! We want to expand the greenhouse infrastructure and education programs, install both hydroponic and aquaponic systems, pay teachers, and create more opportunities to learn about food justice and community food production in the Bushwick area.

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Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. In more than 80 countries, CARE works with the poorest communities.

Piglet for a household

Perhaps you’re asking yourself: “What help is a piglet?” Piglets can be bred and sold, providing a new source of income. So now when someone asks you why you gave a piglet as a gift, you can tell them you helped someone start on the path of a sustainable livelihood. Or you can just oink at them, whichever you prefer. Link here.

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Vegetables growing on the roof such as eggplant, okra, peas, butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers and purple yard long beans.

Breaking Ground Contracting’s living roof is comprised of three main component ecosystems, including native wildflowers, shrubs and an intensive permaculture food and herb garden. The purpose of Breaking Ground’s living roof is an ongoing sustainability statement through support of wildlife biodiversity, affording economic development, offering educational opportunities to a broad range of people and providing a healthy, organic food alternative in the Urban Core.

See their website here.

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“We wanted to make a model for urban farmers to build it themselves.”

By Lucia Suarez
Rutland Herald
December 13, 2011

Excerpt:

POULTNEY — Students from professor Lucas Brown’s environmental build and design course at Green Mountain College had the challenge to build a replicable and transportable urban farm shed during the fall semester. They unveiled the 8-foot by 14 foot Occupy Vacant Lots, or OVaL, shed on Monday.

“I really challenged the students with the idea of a farmer with a pickup truck and a circular saw building this,” Brown said.

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Part 1, Urban Farming Detroit by Lisa Richter, Norman Anderson, George Parker, Ms. Peewee, Sweetie, L.J. Roberts, Malik Yakini.

In many ways Detroit has become the new ‘touchstone’ for urban agriculture, replacing Cuba. (Mike)

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Transforming a 3000sq ft. roof into an Urban Rooftop Farm. Georgia’s Place is permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless, mentally ill adults.

Seeds to Feed Rooftop farm in Brooklyn, NY

Seeds to Feed Rooftop farm is a community rooftop garden located at 691 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY. The Crown Heights CSA teamed up with Georgia’s Place, a supportive housing facility for formerly homeless adults. Through the expansion of our current rooftop farm this spring we aim to teach residents of Georgia’s Place and the Crown Heights community the art of food cultivation – from seed to harvest.

From their website:

The Power of the Farm

Today two of our residents most devoted to tending the farm pursued Yemi and I during the day because they felt the urge to water, (see preceding picture). With all the glorious sunlight, there was a definite need. As we were heading up to the roof, I was stopped by another resident who wanted to complain about something. She accompanied us in the elevator to the roof, moaning about some perceived slight. Once we got to the roof, she followed us out to the farm, continuing to blither.

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Mariah examines a spider web in Eddie Harris’s garden. Harris, a local artist, has converted his lawn into a unique garden in which he paints on trees and creates art with found materials, in addition to growing fruit, vegetables and flowers. By Emily Schiffer — Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund.

Securing Food in Chicagoland

By Emily Schiffer,
a Brooklyn-based photographer
Time LightBox
Dec 12, 2011

Excerpt:

Halfway through my first month of shooting, I met Orrin Williams, the founder and director of the Center for Urban Transformation. Born and raised in the South Side community of Englewood, he is familiar with Chicago’s problems and invested in finding holistic solutions. After 30 some years advocating urban agriculture and sustainable communities, Mr. Williams is convinced that building chain grocery stores won’t fix the problems. Instead, Mr. Williams has devised a holistic community redevelopment plan. Williams seeks to convert abandoned buildings into locally owned businesses that will enable the community to thrive.

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By Twigs Way
Shire
2008

The humble allotment has a surprisingly turbulent history. Initially the right to an allotment was proposed as a charitable means by which the poor could grow their own food and stave off starvation, but it quickly entered political and social debate. During the World Wars the allotment became the focal point on the home front, as families took part in the Dig for Victory campaigns. The post-war years saw a decline in the popularity of the allotment as the supermarket took over from home-grown produce. Successive governments condemned allotments in favour of new housing.

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Seeds@City Urban Farm: “Shoots” Greenhouse

Excerpt from their Kickstarter food project appeal:

Seeds was formed in June 2008 through a partnership between San Diego City College and San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project. Since its inception, Seeds@City––an approximately 1-acre farm on the City College campus––has offered apprenticeships three times yearly, and the student demand has consistently been beyond our capacity. The farm provides students with hands-on experiences necessary for learning the skills of urban farming and is the first of its kind at an institution of higher education in San Diego County.

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The Plan

40′x8′ Recycled Shipping Container:
Fabrication of the unit begins by insulating the interior walls with high R-value to eliminate unwanted air flow and heat loss.
Constructing an entrance will include an environmental barrier, much like a spaceship, to keep the climate in the growing area at a constant temperature. The top of the container will be equipped with photovoltaic cells, additional panels can be added to the side of each unit to reach desired power requirements or to compensate for the location of the unit.

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535 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver.

Unit to be installed on the roof levels of the EasyPark parking lot at 535 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver

By Terry Brodie
Globe and Mail
December 12, 2011

Excerpt:

Slated to be Valcent’s first ‘VertiCrop’ system in North America

Vancouver-based Valcent Products Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding to install its first “VertiCrop” high-density vertical growing system in North America on the top level of a parkade in the city’s downtown core.

The vertical farming system allows leafy green vegetables to be grown all year round in urban environments in much smaller spaces, using much smaller amounts of energy and water while generating higher yields.

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By Twigs Way & Mike Brown
Sabrestorm
December 2010
240 pages

Beans as bullets’, ‘Vegetables for Victory’ and ‘Cloches against Hitler’: these slogans convey just how vital gardening and growing food were to the British war effort during the Second World War. Exhorted to ‘Grow More Food’, then to ‘Dig for Victory’, Britain’s ‘allotment army’ was soon out in force, growing as many vegetables as possible in suburban allotments, private gardens, even the grounds of stately homes.

Richly illustrated with contemporary photographs and ephemera relating to the ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign, this expertly researched, highly engaging and informative account also includes archive images of home front gardening, garden produce and advertisements.

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Roof garden presently grows watermelon, rockmelon, tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, garlic, kale, rocket, herbs, corn, blueberries, peaches, pear, apple, goji, rhubarb and more, as well as a living wall of strawberry bushes.

Health messages include healthy eating, the importance of physical exercise and the dangers of smoking

By Adam Dwyer
Senior Project Officer – Primary Health Services
GP Plus Health Care Centre Marion

Description of the project:

The clients were involved in the planning of the building, through engagement with the landscape architect commissioned to design the roof garden. The building was designed to include the roof garden due to the success of a previous community health engagement/food garden development with these clients. The community engagement is based around healthy lifestyle choices (food, physical activity, stress/mental health, quit smoking/substance abuse), promoting access to free health services, empowerment and social inclusion. Actively growing food brings a lot of these together.

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Window Farming founder describes her project

Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles — researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious.

It is a passion for this city-girl-turned-farmer, whose farm is making a mark on the plates of Oklahoma school children

By Doris Wedge
The Norman Transcript
Dec 12, 2011

Excerpt:

Her 330 acres near Stratford are producing tons of vegetables, with some being harvested throughout the year. There are more than 20 vegetables, from lettuce mix to green onions — available to her wholesale clients today — plus five culinary herbs, all of them grown without chemicals.

She was told that she couldn’t do it by folks who supposedly were in the know, she said.

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