Seed Starting Guide & Checklist
Get an early start on your garden by starting your seeds indoors. This in-depth guide features all the supplies and steps needed for successful seed starting.
Tag: sustainable living
Aeroponics Recap: Lettuce – Mesclun Mix
Let’s recap what stood out to me about this growing method. I’ll weigh in on how it differed from growing outside and judge how it tastes. You’ll also see what we plan to grow next!
Food Justice Friday – What is a CSA?
On our last Food Justice Friday, we took a look at co-ops, stores that are redefining the typical grocery store system. Today, we will examine another effort to connect consumers to producers within our food system: community-supported agriculture, or CSA. Keep reading to find out why you should join one and how to find a CSA share near you.
The community supported agriculture movement began in the United States during the 1980s with The CSA Garden at Great Barrington in Massachusetts. Currently, there are over 12,500 CSA farms in the United States.
A CSA is a subscription based service, where a consumer will subscribe to a share of a local farm’s harvest. In general, a CSA subscription entitles a subscriber to a weekly or bi-weekly box of produce from a local farm. However, some CSAs will also include items such as dried goods, eggs, milk, meat, honey, flowers, etc. This “mix and match” market style is becoming increasingly popular.
This community supported model comes with many advantages to both consumer and producer.
Consumer advantages:
- Exposure to fresh, local food – Because food is coming from a local farm, it is going to be fresher than food typically offered at a conventional big box store.
- More diverse fruit and vegetable consumption – CSAs encourage consumption of a variety of produce, especially since produce will be picked out for the consumer. This process can encourage subscribers can try new recipes with in-season produce.
- Community support and relationship building with local producers – CSAs are a method of bridging the gap between an average consumer and a farmer. This community based agriculture method gives consumers greater insight about how and where their food is grown.
Producer advantages
- Advance marketing – CSA shares are marketed and sold prior to the growing season, allowing for advance revenue streams and exposure prior to the busy season.
- Discourages food waste – CSAs are another method to mitigate crop waste, aside from traditional markets.
- Community support and relationship with local consumers – CSAs allow for relationship building between farmers with the people who eat the food they grow.
The CSA model is based on the concept of shared risk. In this model, members pay up front for the whole season (typically $300-$500 for four months) and the farmers do their best to provide an abundant box each week. However, this is not guaranteed. If offerings are slim or crops do not fair as well as farmers hoped, members are not reimbursed from the farm.
This risk (along with the upfront subscription payment) can discourage a food insecure household from participating in a CSA, especially if they are relying on the CSA as their primary source of produce. Some farms have worked out payment plans and/or volunteer hours in exchange for the subscription fee.
If a CSA seems doable for your household, you should absolutely give it a shot! This time of year is perfect for finding a CSA near you and signing up.
To find a CSA near you, use the Local Harvest search by using the QR code below, or visiting bit.ly/CSAsearch
Food Justice Friday – What is a Food Co-op?
If you’ve ever looked into an alternative to your traditional “big box” grocery store – whether you’re shopping for bulk items or natural foods, you’ve probably heard of a “co-op.” What makes these grocery stores different than your traditional stores? Let’s take a look.
Food Justice Friday – SNAP, WIC & EBT
SNAP, WIC and EBT – what’s the difference? Take a look at how these federal programs to address a big question – How do we give Americans access to nutritious food?
Everything you Need to Build an Aeroponics System at Home
I’ve included a guide of all of the supplies you need to get started, with info on where to purchase.
Last week, we explored Aeroponics 101 and why this new, innovative growing method is taking off among farmers. Are you wondering what you need to build a system at home? To get started, check out our Home Setup Tour Video below on YouTube.
Tub: Some people will say you can use any tub, but to be safe, you want to get one that is as close to food grade as possible. When shopping for a plastic tote, you will need to look at the bottom of the tote and refer to the number. This is important because you are going to eat the food you grow and you don’t want to leach any harmful chemicals into the water and then subsequently into the food.
Look for either: Number 2 aka High Density Poly ethylene or Number 5 aka Polypropylene
Our tub is a 27 gallon Sterilite brand tub that we purchased at Target. It is a number 5 plastic. It holds about 10 gallons of water in it at any given time.
Another important thing to make sure when you are looking for your tote is that it is opaque. Translucent totes will allow sunlight in, which will cause algae to grow.
Light: We use a 600W Full Spectrum LED light hooked up to your standard outlet timer. We use a stand to help adjust the light and move it up and down as needed. The stand, which we purchased on Amazon, included a smaller light, which you can use for starting the seedlings. You can find the light, outlet timer and stand on Amazon below:
Currently, we are using a reflective shade that you would put on your dashboard in your car to reflect the light onto the plants. There are more professional and better looking alternatives. I have one linked below if you’d like to explore a better option. These options give your system more climate control, increasing humidity and reducing light loss. Depending on what you are growing, some plants may require complete darkness, and a tent can help achieve that.
App for measuring light
Each plant requires different light measurements. Korona is app you can download to measure the amount of light your plants are receiving under your current conditions
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/korona-grow-light-meter/id1450079523
Growing Medium: Our growing medium is a combination of rockwool and clay pebbles. Inside of each of the 12 nets, we have one cube of rockwool which contains our seedling. We then have some of these clay pebbles on top. The clay pebbles are there to help give the pod a little more structure, but also to keep out light from entering the tub and causing algae to grow.
Grow Nets: We use 12 2 inch plastic grow nets; these hold your seedlings and the grow medium
Once we acquired our tote and knew how many plants we would grow, we then had to prepare it for growing. To do so, we had to drill out the circles on top for each of the pods. To do so, you will need a drill and a 2 inch bi metal hole saw, linked below.
Tip: you can drill the holes in reverse for a cleaner cut because the plastic is thin.
Okay, so that is everything we have going on on the outside of the box, now let’s take a look inside.
Manifold and Sprayers: Each tote is different, but to be safe, you will need at least 15 feet of PVC pipe to build what we call the manifold, system of 16 sprayers that delivers nutrient rich water to the roots of every plant. You can purchase PVC at the hardware store, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. There are twelve 180 degree sprayers and four 360 degree sprayers. This spraying system is what makes the entire system aeroponic. For more information on how to build your inner manifold, please refer to the linked video from The Family Plot. We modeled our inner system on theirs, and it worked out really well.
We purchased our sprayer heads from Lowes. You can also purchase them from Amazon below:
Pump: We happened to have a 25 w aquarium pump on hand and repurposed it for this project, but I have linked a submersible water pump below. The pump is needed to move the water around from inside the tub to deliver the nutrients to the roots of your plants.
Filter Bag: On the outside of the pump, we have a fine mesh filter bag that covers the pump to filter out and particles to prevent clogging. We purchased ours on Amazon.
Programmable Digital Timer Switch: We use this to control how often the pump goes off and pushes the water through the manifold. Currently, we have it set to go off every five minutes for twenty seconds. We purchased our timer switch on Amazon.
Nutrients We use these three from General Hydroponics. They make it super easy to mix them in the water by giving you the instructions right on the label for each stage of growth.
TDS Tester: Measures the number of total dissolved solids in the water. This allows us to make sure that the plants are taking up the nutrients in the water. We purchased our tester on Amazon.
PH Test Kit: We use this to regualry test the PH of the water. Optimal grow conditions for our lettuce are between 5.5 and 6.5.
Bucket: food grade 5 gal bucket to transfer water; we got ours at Home Depot. Firehouse Subs also sells their pickle buckets if you’re looking for another place to buy a food safe bucket
Notebook and Pen: This is pretty self explanatory, but these are good for tracking our TDS, our pH levels, etc.
Food Justice Friday: What is Food Sovereignty?
What better time to ring in the New Year with a new Food Justice Friday? Today, we’ll explore another food justice movement: food sovereignty. What is it, and what does it look like here in the United States?
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Did you know making your own vanilla extract only takes two ingredients and a little bit of time? Learn how to make your own and all of the supplies you need to for this great stocking stuffer, including free printable labels.
Food Justice Friday: What are Food Deserts?
Happy Friday, and welcome back for our second Food Justice Friday. Today, I’m talking about a term you’ve probably heard thrown around in the food activism world: food deserts. Let’s take a look at what they are and what they mean in America. At the end of the post, I’ll even show you how you can find one near you. The results may shock you. Let’s get into it!
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 2.3 million people (or 2.2 percent of all US households) live more than one mile away from a supermarket and do not own a car.
Why are food deserts problematic?
First, food deserts are a socio-economic issue. Food deserts are most commonly found in low income and black and brown communities. These often go hand in hand. Wealthy neighborhoods have three times as many grocery stores as poor neighborhoods. White neighborhoods have four times as many grocery stores as predominantly black neighborhoods.
Food deserts are an urban problem. Often, lower income families do not have access to cars or reliable transportation. In highly populated urban areas, grocery stores may be so sparse that one shopping trip may require you to take several buses or trains. Lack of supermarkets causes families to rely on corner stores or other convenient options for food. Urban residents who purchase groceries at small neighborhood stores are at the mercy of the store owners, and pay between 3 and 37 percent more than people shopping at suburban supermarkets.
On the other hand, food desserts are a rural problem, too. An estimated 20% of rural areas in the U.S. are food deserts. In rural areas, public transportation is either very limited or nonexistent. Big box stores come into rural areas, which drive out local grocery stores, thus eliminating residents’ choices and the overall number of stores. People living in food deserts tend to be older, have more health conditions, and have lower incomes than those living in urban food deserts.
Once again, because food deserts limit individuals’ access to fresh food, this creates a health problem. You’ll hear me repeat this very frequently, so get used to it.
People eat what they can access. Choices are limited by what is available and affordable. Processed foods offered at fast food chains, delis and corner stores are high in fat, sodium and sugar. Additionally, people living in food deserts are less likely to have access to quality healthcare.
Improving food systems in America’s food deserts ensures everyone lives a healthier life, in both rural and urban communities.
Interactive Food Desert Map from the USDA
Did you know the USDA offers a map that you can use to locate food deserts across the country? The interactive Food Access Research Atlas is linked below:
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas.aspx#.UUDARFtASgQ
The green spots are all the places that fit the traditional definition of food deserts: urban census tracts where a significant proportion of people live more than a mile away from a grocery store and rural tracts where they live more than 10 miles away. The yellow spots are low-income areas where a significant proportion of people don’t have access to cars or live 20 miles away from the supermarket.
Give it a try! I was surprised to find that I live in a green spot, which goes to show you that food deserts are more common than you may think.
Thanks for joining me on this week’s very important topic, and be sure to check out the recommended readings below.
Recommended Readings
Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
The Grocery Gap: Who has Access to Healthy Food and Why it Matters – Free PDF
Food Justice Friday: What is Food Justice?
Check out our first Food Justice Friday and learn the basics of food justice and why it’s important.
