World Water Day

March 22, 2012 is World Water Day and what better way to celebrate than by building a basement aquaponics system?  During the course of the next several weeks, I'll be posting ideas, suggestions and links to plans for building an aquaponics system.  I will be building my own basement aquaponics system too.

My plans include a 100 gallon fish tank and approximately 3 x 6 feet grow bed.  The system I will be building can be scaled larger or smaller based on the amount of space that's available.

I could use a 150 gallon fish tank and two grow beds, or three grow beds and a 200 gallon fish tank.  Aquaponics offers flexibility and affordability because with a little pre-planning and creativity, it's an easy do-it-yourself project. Stay tuned for updates.

Using Worm Castings in Hydroponics

I've been using vermicastings (i.e. castings from worms) in my deep water culture bubbler system for a couple of weeks. The 2 lbs of castings are stored in a paint strainer bag and submerged in 9 gallons of water. The castings are generated by 1 lb of European Nightcrawler worms that compost my kitchen scraps and a large amount of coconut coir used as bedding material. The "bubbling" comes from aquarium air stones and an inexpensive aquarium air pump that aerates the water.

Today while removing the old castings and replacing them with fresh ones, I noticed something very interesting and somewhat surprising. Live worms! I counted 5 or 6 without really looking too hard. The worms weren't just living in the top of the castings, but there were several submerged deeply under water.

I've been keeping worms for 3 years.  Based on my experience, too much water in a worm bin is not healthy for the inhabitants.  When things get too wet in the worm bin, I often find "drowned" worms.  It's rare that I get that kind of water in my bins these days, but as a worm keeping newby it happened more often when I would overfeed them.

I can only guess that the worms were able to survive in the deep water culture bins because of the aeration being provided by the air pump. If worms can survive in that environment, then the plants must like it even more than I thought. :-)

Deep Water Culture Update

I took a few recent pictures of my basement hydroponics gardening project.



Collards

 The collards are thriving in my deep water culture bubbling resevoirs, but they took longer to get started than the lettuce and spinach.  I am sure the low intensity light generated by the T8 bulbs is a factor, but we've already had one harvest and judging from the health of the roots, we should get several more.



Kale

  Similar to the collards, the kale was a slow starter. We've had one harvest so far and it looks like we're due for another soon.


Lettuce

  We've had about 15 servings of salad from the hydroponic lettuce since I planted in in early November. One of the plants has slowed down, but the other 5 are still growing well.



Spinach

  The spinach is really doing well in the deep water culture. Some people told me that I would have trouble growing spinach in hydroponics, but so far I've had great success.



Spinach growing in vermicastings deep water culture

 This tub of spinach is being grown in a much diluted hydroponic nutrient resevoir.  Instead of 18 ounces of nutrient per 10 gallons of water this nutrient is being grown in 12 ounces of nutrient and about 2 lbs of worm castings in a paint strainer bag.It's an experiment to see if I can stretch the hydroponic nutrient farther and reduce costs. This the second week since I planted the seedlings and they are picking up speed.

Vermicastings for Deep Water Culture

In my basement gardening project I've been going through 1 quart of nutrient every 3 - 4 weeks. Because I am a regular customer, the local hydroponic store gives me a 10% discount, but it still costs me $19 and change. As a way to help offset some of that $19, I am experimenting with vermicastings in one of my deep water culture bins.

I've been using red wigglers and European nightcrawlers to compost my kitchen scraps, newspapers, and cardboard. I've used the castings successfully in my ornamental plants and backyard garden, so I put a couple of pounds of vermicast in a paint strainer bag and suspended it in one of my hydroponic bins.

It's only been a week so far, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Winter Kale and Spinach Harvest

Today we received our first significant snowfall of more than an inch accompanied by some of the coldest temperatures of the year for the Metro Detroit area.  But the cold temperatures didn't stop me from harvesting fresh kale and spinach for a dish my wife calls Easy Greens Bake from the Geraldson's Community Farm Farm to Table Cookbook.

It was 19 degrees outside when I harvested this collander full of hydroponic vegetables. Growing fresh vegetables outside in Michigan this time of year is impossible, but with hydroponics, efficient lighting, controlled temperature, and effective nutrients veggies these can be grown year round. I grew these in a spare room in my basement garden.





Hydroponic spinach and kale

It was 19 degrees when I harvested this collander full of kale and spinach today.  Growing fresh vegetables outside in Michigan this time of year is impossible, but with hydroponics, efficient lighting, controlled temperatures, and effective nutrients; veggies like these can be grown year round. I grew these in a spare room in my basement garden.

Kale, spinach, onions, tomatoes, and eggs = Easy Bake Greens for supper

It's a rewarding feeling to grow food, harvest it, and eat it within 30 minutes. Now that's fresh!

Malabar Spinach

I'm always on the look out for ways to maximize yield in the smallest foot print possible. As far as spinach goes, the Malabar variety seems to fit the profile perfectly.  I've seen many pictures on the web suggesting that this type of spinach grows like a bush and reaches 6 feet tall. It sounds perfect for an Earthbox.

GrowingGroceries.com has a detailed review of this spinach. Based on his impressions, it kind of sounds like most other types of greens. It's probably an aquired taste, but for me most greens are. The older I get, the more I like them.

Spinach is normally a cool season vegetable, but this variety reaches maturity in 50 - 60 days and will grow in warmer weather. Now if I can just find some seeds....

Beekeeping?

My brother-in-law has been keeping bees for more than a decade.  We usually buy at least a 6 pack of 2 lb jars of honey each year.  The availability of honey from my private source has declined these past couple of years due to increased work duties cutting into his part-time beekeeping endeavors.

I know very little about beekeeping, but I do know it can be pretty difficult to manage honey production realiably year-in and year-out. As is the case with most types of agriculture, some years are simply better than others. Several thousand honey bees do most of the work, but there are environmental concerns and pests that must be managed.

I have never really lived in close proximity to my brother-in-law, so I haven't had the opportunity to learn any of his beekeeping secrets.  I've performed a few "beekeeping" searches on the Internet and have learned a little bit about beekeeping as a hobby and/or part-time business. People keep bees for the honey, making candles, skin care products, soaps, lotions, potions, and some even harvest queens to market to other beekeepers.  There are thousands of resource websites, retailers, blogs, wholesales, education courses, etc. on beekeeping.

Linda's Bees is one of my favorite blogs about keeping bees in the Atlanta Area. She has provide a detailed list of equipment needed to get started. There are many local beekeeping associations and there is a website that lists hundreds of beekeeping links. There's also many, many sites that provide quality beekeeping equipment.

Will there be a bee hive or two in my backyard this spring? Time will tell I guess, but the benefits for my other gardening endeavors are plentiful. They might also help cure my sweet tooth :-) I have may hobbies already, so my first task will be convincing my wife that I need to add another.

Advantages of Vacuum Sealing Food

We've been using a vacuum sealer to extend the shelf-life of food for several years.  We got the idea from friends on the competition barbecue circuit.   Brisket, pork butts, ribs, and chicken thighs are cooked for the competitions. It's not uncommon for contest cooks to prepare two pork butts (14 - 15 lbs), two beef briskets (25 - 26 lbs), six or nine racks of pork ribs, and 20 - 24 chicken thighs. After a weekend bbq contest, there is a lot of leftovers. Vacuum sealers make preserving the extra meat quite easy and the meat can be safely frozen for several weeks and eaten at a later date without losing much of its' flavor.

This method also works well for buying meats, vegetables, and other food items in bulk.  Due to a lack of freezer space it's not very practical to store plastic containers of food in a normal sized freezer. With vacuum sealing, you can save a lot of space in the freezer. Plus, normal plastic containers store oxygen inside the container with the food. Oxygen inside the storage container gets the process of breaking down the food started quicker, which will lead to eventual spoilage. By removing the oxygen from the storage bag with a vacuum sealer, the food remains fresh for a longer period of time. The food will eventually decline even if vacuum sealed, but it will remain viable for a much longer period of time.

A vacuum sealer can be a handy tool for eating home grown or locally grown foods.  You can purchase fruit in bulk when it's "in season" and preserve it 3 - 5 times longer than by popping in a regular plastic container and storing it in the refrigerator.  We recently ate some strawberries that were vacuum sealed and frozen for four months. They tasted great on several bowls of ice cream.

We bought a commercial vacuum sealer like to one in the link at the beginning of this article, but there are less expensive sealers available at most of the big box discount retailers.

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

Hydroponic Spinach

One of the advantages to growing spinach hydroponically....You can eat freshly harvested spinach for supper, even if the outside temperatures are much too low to grow it in a traditional outdoor garden.  It was 24 degrees last night outside, but 68 degrees in the spare room I use for my basement gardening project.



I grew this spinach in my basement. 

We sauteed the spinach in a small frying pan with a little vinegar and salt. 

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

Gardening to Reduce Hunger

According to AmpleHarvest.org, "an estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States."  AmpleHarvest.org is working with food pantries to help put extra produce to work helping to feed those who are hungry, improve health, and help the environment. 

There's a nice tool on the website to help gardeners find food pantries near their home that accept donations of extra food. You can search by zip code to find contact information for these local organizations.

And since we live in a litigious world, I wanted to look into the potential liability considerations.  USDA.gov provides a link to the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act passed during the Clinton Administration that addresses the issue. Here is an excerpt from the USDA website:

A person or gleaner, shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner  donates in good faith to a non-profit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.

(I hesitate to add the following, but feel that I must.) 

I am not a lawyer. I don't play a lawyer on TV and I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night (badumbump), so please do your own due diligence regarding the potential liability issues.

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

2012 Gardening Plan

To go along with my 2012 New Year's Resolution post from yesterday, I decided to make an Excel spreadsheet to plan our garden for the upcoming season.

It will likely change two or three times before I order my seeds in early March, but it feels good to put it down on paper.

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

New Year's Resolutions

'Tis the season for goal setting and sometimes it actually works. 

This time of year many New Year's Resolutions are made and, unfortunately, within a few weeks they're usually crumbled and broken. Simply setting a goal seldom works, but if we establish a step-by-step plan and implement it the chances of success increase dramatically.

A few years ago I decided that I would catch up on my reading instead of watching television. I resolved to read a book per month off the 100 most popular novels list published by the New York Times. For 10 months, I actually did it. I read for 1 hour per night while my wife watched her favorite television show that I did not enjoy.

This year my resolutions are going to be a little different.

I hereby solemly resolve that I am going to get serious about improving our household food security.

1. I'm going to learn to can vegetables. Canning is almost a lost art, but jars and instructions are readily available at most of the big box stores. A couple of Google searches later and it looks like I can be off an running lickety split.

2. I'm going to grow more vegetables. Afterall to preserve food for eating later, you've got to actually grow more of it.

3. I have 6 Earthboxes. I plan to purchase 6 more before growing season arrives.

4. We had 2 above ground beds last year. This year I plan to have 3.

5. I plan to extend the growing season and get 2 plantings from my efforts. By planting warm weather vegetables in spring time and then cooler weather vegetables in late summer, we'll be able to harvest food from our backyard well into the fall and early November. We might need some frost protection late in the fall, but that's relatively easy to overcome with some old bedsheets.

6. I plan to plant only heirloom varieties next season. I plan to avoid GMO's whenever possible.

7. Continue my home made hydroponics basement gardening project and add a basement aquaponics system to my spare room in the basement to begin harvesting fish too.

8. Build an outside aquaponics system using fish that can withstand the winters we get here in Michigan. This will take a little more effort, but after talking to a local backyard pond builder today it's not out of the question. Finding blue gill or yellow perch to use in this project may be harder than I thought.

Build an Aquaponic System

Hydroponic Vegetables for Christmas Week?

We've been out of town visiting in Tennessee for the past week.  On the drive back today I began to wonder how the basement garden had fared in our absence. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.



Kale close up

 The kale exploded with growth while we were away.  I think we'll be eating kale chips later this week.



Collards and Spinach


The collards were a little late getting started, but while were away they kicked it in gear. The leaves are now palm sized.


Four tub home made hydroponic system

I harvested lettuce and spinach 10 days ago. After a water change, some more nutrients, and some time under the lights, it's ready to harvest again.

Michigan Gardening for Growth Program

The State of Michigan has made a few properties available to lease as a part of the Gardening for Growth Program.  Canton Township, which is very near my home in Belleville, has several properties available for lease. If the application is approved, the property is available for 1 year for $25 or 3 years for $75. 

Since I living in a subdivision, it's exciting to learn about the possibility of gardening on a little larger piece of property. Of course the soil would need to be tested before an in ground garden could be cultivated, but I could use aquaponics, hydroponics, or above ground methods to overcome this issue if necessary. I have been aware of the program in Detroit for several years, but until today I knew nothing about the possibilities in other communities.

I need to figure out how to build a temporary structure, a method for securing it against intrusion, and a way to operate it off the grid.  Any ideas?  I have a feeling this might be the difficult part for aquaponics usage, but traditional in ground or above ground methods should still be possible.

Next though, I need to prepare a property plan so I can submit my application.

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

Living without Money?

How many us wish we had more money? I find myself falling into this way of thinking from time to time. But do we really need to have lots of money to live a meaningful life?

Earlier this week I was telling a co-worker about the One Red Paperclip website where Kyle MacDonald documented his methods for trading a simple paperclip and 12 trades later he traded for a house. These trades were all conducted without using traditional money to buy and sell things.

I'm not ready to give up on money just yet, but I think there are lessons to learn from those that have made the effort to find creative ways to trade and barter to obtain needed goods and services without using traditional money. There's a nice lady in Germany who has lived without money for several years and a blog about living without money.

With a little creative thinking, I bet we can all come up with ways to barter for things we want without using money to purchase them.  How about using our existing knowledge to teach others valuable skills, or trading elbow grease for items? 

After hearing that many of the employees in my office enjoy gardening, my wife suggested establishing a "trade table" where those who are interested can bring extra or unwanted vegetables to exchange for other vegetables they want or need. I mentioned this to a couple of the gardeners at work and they both agreed it's a nice idea they are eager to pursue. One said they always have extra tomatoes and another has extra ear corn. We had extra cucumbers last year as well that we would have traded for a few tomatoes.

Another idea...what if the three of us helped each other plant their gardens? With three of us working on it I bet could all add a few extra rows of production next year. I think we could reduce the overall time we spend doing it too. More for less sounds pretty good to me.