new heights of freshness at Microsoft

The technology news site GeekWire reported yesterday that Microsoft may be in the market for rooftop greenhouses at the company’s Redmond campus.  The technology giant is in preliminary talks with UrbanHarvest, a Seattle-based rooftop farming startup company, to evaluate the feasibility of rooftop farming at the corporation’s main facility.

photo by Lauren Mandel

UrbanHarvest was founded recently by University of Washington MBA candidates Chris Sheppard and Chris Bajuk.  The two won first place on Thursday at the University of Washington’s annual business plan competition, where they received $25,000 to propel UrbanHarvest into the next stages of development.  The company’s website does not yet show any built projects, which means that UrbanHarvest could jumpstart business with an extremely high profile project.

Microsoft currently imports produce from California for its cafes and cafeterias.  Growing food within the campus would minimize transportation costs and maximize freshness for cafeteria fruits and vegetables.  UrbanHarvest and Microsoft identified three buildings for evaluation: a parking garage, Building 121, and Building 122.  Bajuk estimates that the Microsoft Farm will cost approximately $1 million to build, and construction could start as early as next year.

Rooftop agriculture could add a flare of freshness to Microsoft and propel the corporation’s sustainability initiatives to new heights.

got organic? you betchya.

Chicago has something to brag about.  Uncommon Ground, a restaurant on the north side of town, houses the country’s very first certified organic rooftop farm.  The farm was founded on the restaurant’s Edgewater location in 2007, and became certified by the Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA) shortly thereafter.

Greens basking in the sun at Uncommon Ground || photo by Lauren Mandel

The 2,500 square foot rooftop contains an intricate patchwork of raised beds, containers, and gathering space, with a lower roof area reserved for bee keeping.  The farm’s innovative design drips with sophistication, and great care was clearly taken in both layout design and material selection.  One key innovation involves a railing system that integrates raised planters into the perimeter fencing.  Additional design features include a rainwater harvesting system (to capture roof runoff), drip irrigation, and solar thermal panels (to heat  water within the building using sunlight), which provide an extra pinch of “green” to the rooftop farm and the building below.

Earlier this week I visited Uncommon Ground for the first time, and was delighted by the farm’s spring bounty.  Radishes, mustard greens, and lettuces were out in full force, as were blossoming chives and spring peas, climbing toward the sun.  An idyllic setting?  Yes.  An example of how a commercial agricultural facility can build community and empower people?  You betchya.

Radishes ready for the chef || photo by Lauren Mandel

Before diving into a fiddlehead and asparagus salad down below in the restaurant, I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Snyder, Uncommon Ground’s full-time farmer.  Dave’s official title of Rooftop Farm Director is as comprehensive as it sounds.  In addition to crop planning and tending to seedlings, Dave spends almost half of his time tending to people.  Whether it’s leading rooftop farm tours or training interns, coordinating with the chef or meeting with partner organizations – it’s all part of the job.

As Dave and I chatted, he sat on a bar stool beside a pile of papers ballasted with Felco hand shears.  When discussing Uncommon Ground’s decision to go organic, Dave explained that “we use our farm as an education and outreach tool… to get people more aware of the food they’re eating.”  One benefit of the farm’s organic certification is that it opens the door to conversation about organics.  If you can get people talking about organic veggies, they are more likely to try them, love them, and support the cause.

Sign up for a rooftop farm tour at Uncommon Ground’s Edgewater location next time you’re in Chicago, and see what all the fuss is about!

the value of visibility

Rooftop farms and gardens are intoxicating when you’re up on the roof, but how the heck are you supposed to know they’re there from down on the ground?  Visibility is a powerful tool in spreading the word about a rooftop gem (well, maybe “emerald” is more accurate), and empowering people to start their own skyline initiative.  Visibility can be achieved through communication, such as media coverage, blogging, or word of mouth, or it can be achieved by physical means.  Here, we focus on the latter.  What simple steps can you take to ensure that your rooftop farm or garden is visible from the ground?

1|  Location location location!  When selecting the building on which you’ll build your rooftop haven, pick a busy neighborhood – the more foot traffic the better.  Some rooftop farms are visible to cyclists and motorists, but when operating a vehicle it’s best to keep one’s eyes on the road, and not in the clouds.  Pedestrians are more likely to look around while they’re in transit, and it’s safe for them to do so.

SHARE Food Program || image by Google Earth, diagram by Lauren Mandel

SHARE Food Program, in North Philadelphia, has plans to turn its warehouse roof into an active farm.  While raising the funds to do so, Bill Shick, the non-profit’s on-site farmer, won a grant to build a handful of rooftop raised beds.  Shick, with the help of the volunteers from the grant’s donor company, framed the beds two weeks ago, on the northwest corner of the 160,000 square foot (3.7 acre) roof.  Their goal?  To make the beds as visible as possible.  They selected a corner of the roof that is virtually eye-level with an adjacent bridge.  Both pedestrians, and in this case cyclists and motorists, can see the pilot project while in transit.

Pilot site next to an adjacent bridge || photo by Lauren Mandel

2| Build up, not out.  Most roofs have a low perimeter wall, known as a parapet.  When rooftop visibility is sought, you may decide to introduce vertical elements into your farm or garden design.  This may involve trellises, bean poles, sunflowers, fruit trees, or any other element that extends above the parapet.  Shick opted for bean poles in his pilot project to ensure that bridge travelers get a glimpse of green.  The poles themselves are simple: 2” x 4” pressure treated wood that extend six feet above the raised bed framing.  Each raised bed is equipped with six bean poles, which leaves plenty of real estate for climbers.

An army of bean poles extends above the parapet || photo by Lauren Mandel

Volunteers secure the 2x4s with screws || photo by Lauren Mandel

3| Advertise.  Even though your rooftop farm will be obvious to some, others will walk right by without noticing.  Get creative with street level advertising!  I recently met the founder of Walk Raleigh, a grassroots initiative focussed on promoting urban walkability through pedestrian-oriented signage.  The movement, which started as a guerrilla sign-hanging graduate thesis project, has gone viral.  With the help of a Kickstarter campaign and attention from the BBC and other media giants, Walk Raleigh has expanded to cities around the country.  Signage encouraging pedestrians to look up at your farm can take advantage of the same principles.  Draw arrows on the sidewalk with chalk; hang signs pointing up to the roof; do whatever it takes to grab people’s attention!  Just remember to keep it legal, and respect your neighbor’s property.  Hey, if you neighbors get hooked, maybe they can plant some signage too.

Street-level advertising would boost the visibility of SHARE’s pilot project (right) || photo by Lauren Mandel

West Philadelphia pilot garden

Elderly residents sit on their front stoops watching tattooed hipsters peddle by on fixed-gear bikes.  This cultural juxtaposition runs rampant throughout West Philadelphia’s Cedar Park neighborhood, while grit and urban decay provide a strange sense of continuity form one block to the next.

Lightweight soil mixing || photo by Lauren Mandel

One row house is different from the rest, although you would never guess it when looking from the street.  This two-story building is home to a rooftop gardening pilot project, built by a local group called the Philadelphia Rooftop Farm (PRooF).  PRooF volunteers gathered on the roof this past Sunday to bring a spark of green to the neighborhood.

The goal: to build two vegetable planters (out of a series of four), each measuring 3′ x 3′.  The volunteers first inserted corrugated plastic foundation containers into a wood frame, which they had previously built.  Next, they installed a plastic drainage layer, two layers of separation fabric, and planting soil.  One volunteer looked up several soil recipes on her iPhone, and the group decided to vary the mix in each planter in order to see which blend yields the healthiest crops.  After laying the soil, the volunteers covered the planters with black plastic, in order slow desiccation (soil drying) and stifle weed growth.  They slit the plastic and planted a variety of seedlings, including lettuces, chard, cucumbers, eggplant, and herbs.

Separation fabric installation || photo by Lauren Mandel

The planter design was a long time in the making.  Back in 2010, PRooF worked with a team of volunteer design and engineering professionals from the Community Design Collaborative (CDC) to further the group’s rooftop planter vision.  The final CDC design combined base irrigation techniques that are common in Canadian rooftop planting bins, with wood framing construction, which is more typical of raised beds.  The hybrid proved easy to install, and was made, in part, of salvaged materials.

Soil installation || photo by Lauren Mandel

PRooF’s plans for rooftop greening extend beyond this first installation.  The active group intends on evaluating the performance of the West Philadelphia pilot project, and then building more planters around the city.  Home owners are welcome to volunteer their roofs to the group, along with a commitment to water and occasionally tend to the crops.  It is important that each roof is structurally sound enough to bear the weight of the planter, although the CDC design included a strategy for distributing the planter’s weight across a row home’s party walls.

This is an exciting time for rooftop gardening in Philadelphia.  Thanks to organizations like PRooF, we finally have the “proof” that rooftop gardening on Philly row homes is easy!

harden off those youngins

Greenhouse seedlings at SHARE Food Program || photo by Lauren Mandel

With spring upon us, greenhouses across the country are full of eager seedlings.  Sheltered greenhouse environments are ideal for sprouting seeds and providing a head start for young veggies, but the real growing occurs outdoors.

Before transplanting seedlings to nearby raised beds and agricultural plots, the youngins need to be “hardened off.”  This involves acclimatising the seedlings to the sun, wind, and variable temperatures they will experience outside.  Farmers have different strategies for hardening off their plants, which usually involves introducing seedlings to the elements gradually.  Farmers may move young plants in and out of a greenhouse, leaving the seedlings outdoors for longer periods each day.  This gradual introduction often lasts for one to two weeks.

When moving seedlings to rooftops, extra care must be taken in hardening off the plants.  As discussed in earlier posts, rooftop environments are much more extreme than their ground-level counterparts.  Skyline farms and gardens are prone to high winds, desiccation (soil drying), and fluctuating temperatures.  So what does this mean for the hardening off process?  Well, the plants should probably be exposed to stronger elements.  This could mean leaving them outside on a particularly cold and windy night, or even bringing them up to the roof for short periods before transplanting.

Anticipating scenarios such as hardening off can help to inform the design of a rooftop farm or garden.  Enough foresight could lead to the construction of a sheltered rooftop area, designed specifically for acclimatizing seedlings.

What techniques do you use to harden off your youngins?

the hottest of hotspots

If the U.S. were a cupcake, and the rooftop farms and gardens dotted around the country were the sprinkles, then Brooklyn would be the cherry on top.  Thank you for bearing with me on that analogy.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn || Image by Google Earth

It’s true, though.  Brooklyn currently houses several of the country’s most innovative and inspiring rooftop farms.  Gotham Greens, a 15,000 square foot (0.3 acre) commercial greenhouse operation in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, leads New York City in rooftop yields.  With high-end distribution channels and a solid business model, the success of this rooftop pioneer may be inspiring other entrepreneurs to follow suit.  Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is another critical piece of the cherry.  As the country’s first rooftop row farm, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm plays an important role in building community and demonstrating farming techniques.  With a picturesque backdrop, this farm is arguably Brooklyn’s “greenest” icon.  Brooklyn Grange, while not actually located in Brooklyn, contributes to the local skyline network as well.  Ben Flanner, founder of Brooklyn Grange, co-founded Eagle Street and then spread his seeds of knowledge to the Grange’s rooftop in Queens.

It is with this proliferation and contagious behavior that Brooklyn is booming – I mean, blooming!  The New York Times reports that Gotham Greens is scheduled to open three new rooftop greenhouse operations in 2013, totalling 180,000 square feet (4.1 acres).  Brooklyn Grange is also expanding, and construction of the farm’s new 45,000 square foot (1 acre) location could begin as early as spring of 2012.

Then there’s the Sunset Park Greenhouse.  Brooklyn residents should expect to see this 100,000 square foot (2.3 acre) hydroponic operation atop a former Naval warehouse in the not-too-distant future.  According to the New York Times, the project’s greenhouse development company, BrightFarms, anticipates that the farm will produce 1 million pounds of food per year.

With agro-icons and big projects in the pipeline, Brooklyn is hot hot hot.

fishy business

Aquaponics || photo by Lauren Mandel

Does all this talk about lettuce and broccoli make you hungry for some real meat? Let’s talk aquaponics.

For centuries, people around the world have raised fish as a food crop. This cultivation occurs in ocean pens, large outdoor tanks, or sometimes in small tanks within greenhouses, in basements, and on roofs. A variant of the latter practice is called aquaponics.

Aquaponics is the symbiotic production of plants and aquatic animals in a closed-loop environment. This means that vegetables and herbs are grown hydroponically, while fish or other sea creatures occupy the water that fuels the hydroponic system. The symbiotic part of the relationship comes into play when the animal waste (fecal matter, excess food, etc.) is used as the sole nutrient source for the food crops, and in exchange, the plants filter the water for the fish. The clean water is pumped back into the hydroponic system, and the cycle continues – what a beautiful thing.

Bony fish (such as Tilapia and Perch), molluscs, and crustaceans are the most common aquatic animals cultivated in these systems. Variations in organism growth rates, compounded by the need for equipment adjustments, means that it can take up to six months for an aquaponics system to become fully operational. The Milwaukee-based agricultural organization Growing Power experiments extensively with aquaponics. Growing Power’s fish are sold to restaurants, direct customers, and ethnic markets.

While aquaponics is relatively new to the U.S., the technique has been practiced in Asia for many years. The concept of integrating farming with fish production is rooted in Asian tradition, and historic evidence suggests that this type of integrated farming may have existed 3,000 years ago in China.