New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'

Urban farming jewelry by le FabShop.

FabJam event theme: ‘Urban Farming’

Projects such as:

Veggiecoaster:
Garden planted in a wagon which can be shared between neighbours via balconies / windows plants seeded in eco flower pots made from ironed plastic bags.

FabLab Farm:
Bee-hive-shaped automated window farming for fish, herbs, veggies.

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Ron Finley practices what he preaches at home in Los Angeles. Photo by Emily Berl.

“I want to turn shipping containers into healthy cafes where customers can pick their salad and juice off the trees.”

By David Hochman
New York Times
May 3, 2013

Excerpt:

The talk show host Carson Daly, the actress Rashida Jones and the celebrated Danish chef René Redzepi were among hundreds of new admirers issuing shout-outs on Twitter.

Alice Waters stopped by Mr. Finley’s house, Russell Brand put him on his late-night talk show, and corporations like Reebok, Disney, Stihl and Toms Shoes had collaboration ideas. A graduate student asked to write a dissertation about Mr. Finley, who, to his credit, has kept an eyebrow arched over his newfound fame.

“All the attention in the world won’t do my dishes,” he said.

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Photo by Camden Bauchner.

Sunflowers, a plant well known for its ability to absorb and mitigate harmful soil toxins through the process of phytoremediation.

By Zachary Goldhammer
Chicago Weekly
April 25, 2013

Excerpt:

Past the intersection of 114th and St. Lawrence, across from the House of Hope, a 10,000-seat Baptist megachurch, and over the historic tracks of the Pullman railroad, a two-and-a-half-acre plot of land, has been left—like so many other South Side lots—completely vacant for years. The area’s soil has long been poisoned by waste from its former resident, a Sherwin-Williams paint factory, and the few remains of wildlife that may have once grown alongside the railway have been killed off by pesticides and herbicides that the rail company sprayed along the length of its tracks.

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Design A Stylish Outdoor Space Using Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs

By Leslie Bennett, Stefani Bittner
Ten Speed Press
Feb, 2013

Leslie Bennett And Stefani Bittner are co-founders of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening, a San Francisco Bay Area landscape design firm focusing on aesthetic edible gardening. At Star Apple, they bring together ecologically sound landscape design principles and small-scale urban agriculture, working with both ornamental and edible plants to create integrated landscapes.

From the Introduction:

This is a book about edible garden design. It is also a heartfelt invitation to join us in the practice of gardening. For us, gardening is a way to connect with the land, our community, and, perhaps most importantly, ourselves. It is also an opportunity to create and to be inspired. When you pursue food production and beauty together, you form meaningful spaces that have the power to both ground and uplift.

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Interview with Will Allen

By Lynne Rossetto Kasper
The Splendid Table
May 2, 2013

Excerpt:

LRK: But instead you ended up producing 40 tons of food a year from those 3 acres.

WA: You could quantify it in a number of different ways. We grow enough food there to feed about 10,000 people in a very intense and integrated food system. We grow about 150 different crops in an unusual way.

We started out as a for-profit for the first 2 years. I was working with kids in the neighborhood, teaching them about where their food came from. Some of my friends said, “Why don’t you start a nonprofit?” I said, “No, I like working with kids. If we start doing this nonprofit piece, I would need help.” They volunteered to be the first board and do the administrative piece, because I said, “I don’t want to sit in the office and write grants.” That’s how we got started back in 1995.

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Bristol permaculture guru Mike Feingold has four plots which he uses to demonstrate, trial and teach permaculture principles. Photo by Mark Diacono.

What began as book research – to find beautiful and interesting allotments – became a pilgrimage to Britain’s top plots

By Lia Leendertz
The Guardian
12 April 2013
Last year Lia Leendertz and Mark Diacono tracked down 30 of the most beautiful and interesting allotments in the country for their new book My Cool Allotment.

Excerpt:

The allotmenters on whom photographer Mark Diacono and I eventually settled ran the complete gamut, from the old boys doing things the traditional way – all sharply edged and weed-free beds – to the permaculturists seeking out a new and more sustainable path, with not an inch of bare ground to show for themselves. Each would be horrified by the other’s plots, but each starts from the same basic point: the same-sized plot of rented land and a desire to grow. Artists, jam-makers, a prize dahlia grower and a grower of dye plants had all turned their plots to their own particular needs. We found orchards, vineyards, cut flower gardens and national plant collections, all as different as can be, all homed in plots of roughly 10 poles (to use the medieval word that lingers on purely for the measuring of allotments) or about 250 square metres.

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Emmanuelle Chriqui, Amy Smart, and Carter Oosterhouse Make Garden Visit to Cochran Middle School

By EMA Staff
Environmental Media Association
April 19, 2013

Excerpt:

The garden was built in late 2011 and is sponsored by EMA and Tiffany & Co. and supported by the LA Conservation Corps. The garden was recently harvested so Amy, Carter, Emmanuelle and the student gardeners spent the afternoon replanting some herbs and inspecting the plants (like watermelon and tomatoes) that should start to bloom in the next few months.

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Photo By A. Schechter.

The “produce” from the garden will be making appearances on the room service, restaurant, and cocktail menus

By A. Schechter
Hotel Chatter
May 2, 2013

Excerpt:

If your first thought is ‘Mojito!’ when you see this picture, then you’re on the right track.

Since last summer, the Westin New York Grand Central has quietly been working on a modest but respectable rooftop veggie garden way up on the hotel’s 41st floor. Located smack in the middle of midtown (the Chrysler Building is so close you can touch it), it seems like an unlikely place to be growing…well, anything. But urban farming is trendy these days, and a hotel’s gotta go what a hotel’s gotta do, right?

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The unofficial community garden at Robert Mills Manor on Logan Street in Charleston where 20 mairijuana plants were found.

“The plants didn’t appear to have been there long.”

Glenn Smith
Post and Courier
May 2, 2013

Excerpt:

Charleston police are trying to determine how 20 marijuana plants ended up growing in a community garden near a downtown public housing complex.

Police were tipped off Monday that someone was growing the pot in a plot near 105 Logan St., in Robert Mills Manor, home to 222 families.

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A Green Champion in the Making

By Josephine Wilka
In collaboration with Iwona Bisaga
UCL Blog
2 May 2013

Excerpt:

When asked about the reasons why they have decided to focus their efforts on bringing the idea of urban agriculture to life at UCL in an interview, UAS members Maria, Martin and Thomas unanimously answered: because there is something in it for everyone! Some, such as Martin, find it important to increase food autonomy in urban areas and import less agricultural products from overseas, especially since the diet of about 2 billion people does not contain sufficient nutrients or calories and the exported food is needed elsewhere.

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“Chickens are a symbol of urban nirvana, their coops backyard shrines to a locavore movement.”

By Michaeleen Doucleff
NPR
May 01, 2013

Excerpt:

When Julie Baker’s backyard birds started spending more time inside, it was tough to keep them clean. So she got innovative.

She sewed up a cloth diaper — chicken-sized, of course — added a few buttons and strapped it onto her little lady.

One thing led to another, and eventually, a business was born.

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49 Myrtle Street in Somerville

Each unit has two 4 by 8 raised bed/imported-clean-soil garden beds. At this time no one is raising chickens and or beekeeping. I am very open to this happening and am willing to help pay for any infrastructure that will stay-with-the-house. Any chicken or beekeeping needs to be approved prior to installation.

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River School Farm wins USDA’s Value Added Producer Grant

By Jason Hidalgo
rgj.com
May 1, 2013

Excerpt:

Score one for urban farming.

At least that was the mindset for Monique Monteverde, who sounded like a lottery winner after realizing that Reno-based River School Farm was awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Really?” said the River School Farm director over the phone. “That’s so cool!”

The farm was one of 110 producers across the country who were awarded the annual grant on Wednesday through the USDA’s Value Added Producer Grant or VAPG program.

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Link to video here.

See this news video about Stephen Ritz

A whirlwind of energy and ideas, Stephen Ritz is a teacher in New York’s tough South Bronx, where he and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery — and jobs. Just try to keep up with this New York treasure as he spins through the many, many ways there are to grow hope in a neighborhood many have written off, or in your own.

Link to video here.

Link to Stephen’s TED talk here.

‘iQ by Intel’ is brought to you by the employees of Intel

By Luke Kintigh,
iQ Managing Edito
Aug 16, 2012

Excerpt:

Referring to BrightFarms hydroponic greenhouses.

Sensors throughout the greenhouse will feed information back to a central computer system, which is programmed to make intelligent decisions about growing factors such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed. If the greenhouse becomes too hot, roof vents will automatically open. If it remains overheated, fans switch on; and if that’s still not enough, a shade will draw down. The computer even knows what conditions are like outside, so it won’t open the roof if it’s raining.

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SoilWeb App.

Who Let the Bugs Out, SoilWeb app, ID Weeds app, Growing Degree Days app

By Frank Gublo
Michigan State University Extension and MSU Product Cente
April 27, 2013

Excerpt:

Technology can help the urban grower manage their market gardens

Technology has become increasingly important in agriculture production in recent years. With the advent of portable devices, technology can be taken to the field and used for a various production management functions with regard to weed and insect management, growing degree days, and soils characteristics. Mobile applications on smart phones and other devices are another tool to aid in a grower’s decision-making process.

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Click on image to enlarge.

64 community garden beds (2 wheelchair accessible beds & 4 kid-friendly height beds)

By Chris Reid
Shifting Growth
April 28, 2013

Shifting Growth and The Foothills at Burke Mountain proudly unveiled the new Burke Mountain Community Garden this Sunday April 28, 2013. The garden is a growing space for the community with a goal to build healthy, resilient, and welcoming communities in and around the garden.

The garden was created as a temporary garden. The long-term future last use will be evaluated at a later date, allowing an opportunity to create a temporary community garden for residents of Burke Mountain. All infrastructure and garden beds were filled off site and simply placed pre-assembled on-site.

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One advantage of using a Crop Crate over planting vegetables directly into your yard is that much of the local soil may be contaminated.

By Elyse Andrews
Sommerville Beat
April 30 2013

Excerpt:

Crop Crates are orchard-style crates used to grow vegetables, herbs or flowers. The company builds them in two sizes, 4-feet by 5-feet or 2-feet by 3-feet (both are about 36-inches high), then delivers them to your house, school or business and fills them with organic material.

“Living in the city, I’ve always wanted to have my own garden and wasn’t able to do that,” said Chris Nicholl, Crop Crate founder and Arlington resident. Nicholl has find memories of being a kid in Medford growing vegetables with his family in their yard. He wanted to bring that same experience to people living in the city today, so The Crop Crate Company was born.

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Jana Kinsman transports her beekeeping equipment on Bullitt cargo bikes. Photo by Jana Kinsman.

Chicago beekeeper wants to provide the community with a visual example of bees, because so many people grow up being afraid of them.

By Janet Rausa Fuller
DNAinfo
April 25, 2013

Excerpt:

Last year was rough for Jana Kinsman’s bees.

Kinsman, 27, set up 10 beehives in community gardens and other spaces across the city last summer, the first step in her fledgling urban farming project dubbed Bike a Bee.

She traveled to the hives by bicycle. Residents welcomed their new neighbors.

That was the easy part.

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Five courses are being offered online through Ryerson University’s Food Security Certificate

The courses start on May 4th, 2013

Two of those courses are particularly relevant for anyone interested in urban issues: Urban Food Security, and Urban Agriculture Policy Making. Instructors include leading experts in these topics, among them the coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council, the director of the Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security, and the manager of the Vancouver Food Strategy.

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