Bruce F. left a comment on our Alemany Farm video last week and pointed us to a pretty amazing rooftop garden that he and his friends have built. After seeing the pictures, I think you’ll agree he’s being too modest. He says:
A few of us who live in the city of Chicago are trying to grow heirloom vegetables on our rooftops in cheap homemade earthboxes. It sounds more than a little preposterous to suggest that what we’re doing is a real solution to the huge environmental problems we’re facing, but it might be a tiny piece. We think they’re a great way to build connections in a fragmented social/political landscape. Not selling anything, I’m giving “it” away.
Here’s the Flickr link, along side the pics is a little how-to guide with plenty of relevant links.
We really love to see smart people start taking advantage of resources around them. Americans currently live in such abundance that making a rooftop garden, at first thought, might not make much sense. However, growing food is a great skill to learn and a valuable way to spend your time. Bruce has plenty of good info on his designs and links to online support.
Our friend, Erik Nelson, is famous for the Carp Caviar and Wreck and Salvage video projects. He has also recently bought land in Vermont where he starts a new life with his wife and kids. In a smart move, he plans to build with as much reused material as he can which makes financial and environmental sense. We live in such a country of abundance that it’s so easy to use what is just lying around as long as you are willing to put the time into it.
In this video, Nelson shows the old barn that he plans to tear down for lumber. Ryanne and I are planning to drive out there to help this April. Best plan is to just hitch a tractor to the foundation beams and pull it down. As Nelson would say, “Get ‘er done.”
Published by jay on February 28, 2008
in Blog and Energy.
Our friend, Mikey Skylar, recently bought himself a diesel car which he converted to veggie oil. He found that he wanted a better way to know when to switch his diesel tank to a the vegetable oil tank. You do this because the veggie oil must be warmed up before it can efficiently run the engine.
Being the builder he is, Mikey made a device called The Greasy Mon that tells him when his veggie oil has warmed up enough. You can either download instructions on how to build your own, or he is now selling these devices to other people who may want them for $100.
There are three thermistors which measure temperature changes based on resistance. Each of the thermistor sensors has four LEDs associated with it which the driver can see illuminate as the temperature increases. Each LED that turns on indicates that the grease has increased by 20 deg. fahrenheit in temperature. The temperature range is from 65F - 135F. Due to the sensors being placed on the outside of the fuel hoses the sensor range peaks rather low to allow for the insulation provided by the fuel hose.
Published by jay on February 25, 2008
in Blog and Food.
I ran across this mention of this subterranean farm in an old bank vault under the busiest part of Tokyo . This blog explains how the farm works has has lots of great pictures showing the different grow rooms.
Though walled in from sunlight, weather and geology, it’s unbelievably verdant. Tomatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs, are grown in an area covering almost a square kilometer(!!!). There is even a terraced rice paddy.
This kind of farming can’t be an efficient use of energy, but interesting to see how urban farming experiments are taking shapes in other parts of the world.
Our friend Chris at WannaFarm is now making videos about the details of farming. With his wife and new kid, they are farming FOR REAL up in Portland. We can’t wait to see more web savvy folks grow food or farmers using the web to share their experience. Can you imagine the practical farming knowledge we can share and archive with video?
Update: Chris’ farm is actually here. “We’re about 4 hours south of Portland about 20 miles from the California border.”
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