New Portable Farm Makes Most of Urban Gardening
Everyone knows the very tastiest tomatoes are homegrown, lovingly staked and watered at regular intervals until they’re big and red and ripe. Until recently, such simple pleasures were reserved for rural dwellers but the growing movement for urban farming is starting to change all that. While container gardens and green rooftops have made urban agriculture more common, a new system called a Portable Farm may take it a step further.
- » See also: Gluten-free Squash Pancakes
- » Get Eat. Drink. Better. by RSS or sign up by email.
The system, invented by Colle Davis, offers a simple way to grow food for families, schools, businesses, or even commercial growers in hot or cold climates and produces food year round. The unit combines fish, water and plants in an integrated environment to raise vegetables and fish in very small space, with less water, no soil and the power of the sun. The idea is to bring the benefits of self-sufficiency (read: fresh, organic food) to anyone who wants it.
The farms come in several sizes and even the smallest model, a 6′ x 8′ unit, will produce an estimated 400 vegetables and 100 pounds of fish annually. By using Tilapia, a warm water fish, which circulates 80 degree F water through gravel trays the farm encourages rapid growth for both the fish and the vegetables; such a high level of efficiency makes the scheme particularly well suited to an urban setting.
I’ve long advocated growing edibles to anyone with a stoop, a patio or a fire escape, but for those with a little more space and some sunlight, this modern farm will bring the most bang for your buck and your time. Just think: fresh fish from your backyard. Local, sustainable, yum.
This is a good article to burn to CD and tuck away just in case! The (GRD) great republican depression, initiated by mortgage thievery and dishonest manipulations by the shysters and shylocks on Wall Street is not fading away as hoped! We may see the day when property owners will lease lawn space to the poor for sustainance gardening! Monsanto will come forward soon, with super-veggies, designed to grow larger and bug-free in Urban gardens, and able to survive without synthetic fertilizer. Sweden has developed and is using dry toilet systems that provide humanure and topsoil for gardens, and since Americans have few animals they have little animal fertilizer to feed food crops!Composting may turn from gardeners pastime to necessity for food crops! Oil based fertilizers and pesticides are being driven out of price range by greedy OPEC countries and the Saudis, who will maintain their standard of living at our expense, by cutting supplies of oil to the world, driving prices ever upward, as they run out of oil! Get your backyard “greened up” and perfect growing veggies and aqua-culturing fish just in case this doesn’t turn around soon! Learn to dry, pressure can and freeze your produce, brew beer, make wine, make sauerkraut and get a sewing machine at a yard sale, just in case!
[...] a glimpse into the future of urban farming, take a look inside a Hell’s Kitchen high school campus, a former public school in the Bronx, [...]