Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘research + interviews’ Category

goat à la roof

Posted in food for thought, local initiatives, research + interviews, tagged on September 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »

While some skyline growers tinker with beets and collard greens, others push the limits of hoofed farm hands.  Rooftop goats are all the rage in Sister Bay, WI, where a small herd has grazed the grassy roof of Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik since 1973.

Installing the Goat Cam || photo by John Nelson

Restaurant founder Al Johnson explained in a 2007 interview that sod roofs are common in Sweden, where he was born, as a means of moderating a building’s indoor temperature.  Johnson decided to install a sod roof atop his Wisconsin restaurant, and rather than mowing, he  introduced a herd of goats to keep the lawn at bay.  As it turns out, the goats draw large crowds to the now iconic restaurant, particularly during the summer months.  In addition to providing utilitarian services like mowing, rooftop goats are fully capable of supplying milk, meat, and even wool.  Their milk can be used for drinking, making dairy products (like cheese and yogurt), and also for crafting soap and other value-added products.  These rooftop ruminates sure do give you a lot of bang for your buck… er, ah, for your billy?  A little goat humor.

Check out Al Johnson’s goats for yourself, through this live feed to the restaurant’s Goat Cam.

Read Full Post »

got organic? you betchya.

Posted in local initiatives, research + interviews, tagged , , , on May 14, 2012 | 1 Comment »

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!

Read Full Post »

the value of visibility

Posted in local initiatives, research + interviews, tagged , , on May 8, 2012 | 2 Comments »

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

Read Full Post »

West Philadelphia pilot garden

Posted in local initiatives, research + interviews, urban agriculture, tagged , , on April 30, 2012 | 2 Comments »

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!

Read Full Post »

fishy business

Posted in research + interviews, urban agriculture, tagged , , on April 4, 2012 | 1 Comment »

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.

Read Full Post »

3… 2… 1… action!

Posted in food for thought, local initiatives, research + interviews, tagged , , , on March 27, 2012 | 2 Comments »


Australian film crew at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm || photo by Lauren Mandel

While standing in the spotlight may be uncomfortable at times, the strategic rooftop farmer embraces the media and “eats up” it’s marketing potential.  Simply put, media coverage can be instrumental in disseminating a farm’s brand.  Print and broadcast media coverage can go a long way, and social media may go even further within certain demographics.  Regardless of whether a newspaper journalist, cinematographer, or blogger visits your rooftop farm, it will behoove you to be accommodating and put your best foot forward.  The media’s relationship with a rooftop farmer, as with any public figure, can be either helpful or harmful in building the farm’s reputation, so be prepared!

Over the past few years, Trey Flemming from Urban Apiaries has learned how positive media relations can go a long way.  Trey and his urban honeybees often appear in magazine and newspaper articles around Philadelphia, as well as in online articles, blogs, and documentaries.  With all the attention, the Urban Apiaries brand has reached new heights: corporate America.  While once available only at local co-ops and specialty stores, Trey’s honey is now available at Terrain – Urban Outfitter’s garden center.

Annie Novak, from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, similarly embraces media coverage.  When I visited Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in 2011, Annie welcomed me to the roof while in the middle of a photo shoot on the other side of a kale patch.  With a warm air and magnetic disposition, it was no wonder that Annie simultaneously engaged a film crew, a foreign journalist, and myself (the aspiring author).

Annie welcomed each person to the roof with the same friendly smile, before she figured out who they were.  Just remember, out on a roof you never know to whom you may be speaking.

Read Full Post »

farming in the sunshine state

Posted in local initiatives, research + interviews, tagged , , on January 24, 2012 | 2 Comments »

I Grow My Own Veggies || photo by Lauren Mandel

Despite Florida’s abundant sunshine and rainfall, there is a surprising lack of rooftop agricultural activity throughout the state.  The growing conditions are perfect for food production at any altitude, and yet, most growing is reserved for the ground plain.

The one exception is I Grown My Own Veggies in Sarasota, FL.  This 3,000 sf open-air hydroponic farm rests atop a glass factory in a light manufacturing area of the city.  The farm’s Founder, Vincent Dessberg, began growing food on the roof of his factory in 2009 in an effort to grow food as locally as possible and empower his neighbors to follow suit.  His original concept was to build a restaurant below the farm, with the slogan “Your food travels 15 feet, not 15 miles.”

While the restaurant never materialized, the farm continues to produce an impressive variety of crops, including strawberries, chard, kale, tomatoes, basil, watercress, onions, and several varieties of leaf lettuces.  The hydroponic facility contains over 6,000 plants, which are grown in  stacked Styrofoam containers and drip irrigated from above.  Holes in the bottoms of these lightweight containers allow for water to drain from one pot down to the next, thereby minimizing water loss.

The farm produces three to four crop cycles per year, but according to Dessberg, growing during the summer months is tricky.  Marketing to local restaurants has also been tricky, since most of these businesses rely upon large quantities of a few select crops rather than the large variety that Dessberg has to offer.  Due to these difficulties and others, Dessberg brought on Don Gamin to manage the farm.  Gamin is poised to take over completely within the next few months, and is sure to bring some fresh ideas to the table.

Read Full Post »

indecent exposure

Posted in food for thought, research + interviews, tagged , , , on January 19, 2012 | 2 Comments »

As a Project Manager for the green roof firm Roofmeadow, I regularly travel around the country to perform construction oversight.  In December I had the good fortune of overseeing construction at a hotel in Lower Manhattan, which sits one block from the Hudson River.  From six stories up the view was unparalleled – and so was the wind.

During construction, the green roofs and raised bed production area experienced 50 mph winds.  A much milder microclimate could be found at the street level, but up on the roof, temperature fluctuations and extreme wind conditions reigned.

Lower Manhattan green roof construction ||  photo by Lauren Mandel

Exposure is one of the most significant obstacles to rooftop farming.  High winds cause winnowing (soil loss) and desiccation (soil drying), while temperature fluctuations can cause crops to bolt (flower) prematurely.  Each roof experiences a slightly different microclimate, but some basic rules of exposure are as follows:

1| Mind the water: Rivers and other bodies of water in cities often act as wind corridors.  Selecting a roof that is shielded from these channels can help to minimize extreme rooftop winds.

2| Stay low: Higher building stories generally experience greater wind speeds, which means that a farm will experience less stress on top of a 1-3 story building than on a taller structure.

3| Surround yourself: Take advantage of high neighboring buildings and taller segments of the farm’s own building, which can act as wind breaks. Positioning your farm directly south of a taller building wall can help to block gusts.  The wall may also capture heat, which will warm the adjacent soil. Be sure to avoid taller buildings to the south that will cast shadows on your farm.  Also keep in mind that building north of a vacant lot can be risky, because you never know if a taller building will be erected on that site.

4| Cover up: Temperature fluctuations can be minimized by covering your crop rows with shade cloth.  This thin cloth is used regularly on ground-level farms, and it benefits crops by capturing the heat that is released by the plants and soil.  Rooftop wind will fill the cloth like a sail, and so it’s best to build low hoop houses to frame the cloth.  These hoop houses should be screwed or bolted to the sides of raised beds, or ballasted by the walkways between farm rows.

Read Full Post »

the woman behind the farm

Posted in local initiatives, research + interviews, urban agriculture, tagged , on October 26, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Annie Novak from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm || (photo by Lauren Mandel)

Annie Novak is an absolute gem.  As the co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, NY, Annie gracefully juggles the responsibilities of food production, managing volunteers, answering to the media, marketing, and of course, what crops to plant next.  She masters all of these tasks, always with a smile on her face.  The rooftop farm was designed and installed by a local green roof company called Goode Green, atop a warehouse that is occupied by Broadway Stages.

I had the pleasure of visiting Annie’s farm on Sunday, and witnessed for myself what all the fuss is about.  The roof was busily occupied by an Australian film crew (shooting a documentary segment on Annie), a German journalist (writing a story on the farm), a Jamaican insect farmer (who raises insects as international chicken feed), an aquaponics practitioner (from Growing Power in the Midwest), volunteers, casual onlookers, and myself (the aspiring author).

When speaking with Annie on the roof, she explained how the goals of the farm are multifaceted: ”Food connects everything and all issues to everyone.  There’s nothing we do here that doesn’t have to do with food education, nutrition, and the environment.”  When asked about the desire to expand to other rooftops around the city, Annie responded that ”the need [for rooftop farming] is unbelievable.  It’s just a matter of finding the right chemistry between building owner and farmer… There should be one million Eagle Street Rooftop Farms in New York City.  They should be functional green roofs.  They should provide nutritious food.  They should be filled with passionate people.”

With her poise, generosity, articulate nature, and ability to connect people to one another, it is no wonder that Annie is a leader in the rooftop agriculture movement.  This is one farmer to keep an eye on.

For more information on Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, please visit rooftopfarms.org.

Read Full Post »

a li’l market research

Posted in path to publication, research + interviews on October 18, 2011 | 6 Comments »

At first glance, rooftop agriculture seems like a hyper-specific topic – a niche within a niche.  When you dig down into the subject matter, however, the topic’s vastness unfolds.  Some of the major talking points that fall within the rooftop agriculture discussion include:

- Food justice + equity

- Public health + organics

- Local food

- Policy

- How to build rooftop farms + gardens

- Economic viability

In order to act as the definitive resource on rooftop agriculture, my manuscript, Eat Up, currently discusses all of these talking points.  I wonder, however, if these points are too broad to capture a literary audience.  Does the manuscript currently contain a “liberal arts education,” when it should in fact have a more specialized degree?  Should the first book on a subject matter broadly discuss the new topic?  A little market research may help to shed some light on these questions.

This is where you, the reader, comes in.  The question that I pose to you, is what are you interested in reading?  I plan on conducting a few manuscript readings / market research groups around the Philadelphia area in order to collect more in-depth data, but for now, I want to hear what you have to say.  So don’t be shy, post a comment about what interests you.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 100 other followers