EAT UPSouth Philadelphia High School is moving UP!
What if your school served fresh produce, grown just yards away from the cafeteria? What if that food came from the roof? This vision is inching toward reality as South Philadelphia High School administrators and local neighborhood association representatives collaborate with the Philadelphia-based green roof firm Roofmeadow (where I work) and a hot new crowd-funding website called Projexity.
South Philadelphia High School || photo (left) and rendering (right) by Lauren Mandel
In August 2012 Kim Massare, elected president of South Philadelphia’s Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, pitched her idea of a greener school to Roofmeadow. The idea was simple: take advantage of South Philly High‘s mammoth roof to build curriculum, improve student and faculty health, and manage stormwater. Key components such as productive agricultural plots, outdoor classrooms, and even solar panel arrays could provide endless fuel for innovative coursework for the school’s 1,400, plus students. Ground-level landscape improvements could further the school’s ‘greening’ initiative, while fostering a fresh escape for neighbors who lack nearby park space. It’s a win-win situation.
Now I’ll be honest; I was intrigued by the idea. But how could a public school in Philadelphia’s crumbling school system possibly raise the funds for a project of this magnitude? In steps Projexity. This brand new fundraising website – which is scheduled to launch within the next month – capitalizes upon the ability of many small donations to create a big impact. Kickstarter proved this concept successful by facilitating fundraising for artistic projects world-wide since 2009. According to Kickstarter’s website, “over $350 million has been pledged by more than 2.5 million people, funding more than 30,000 creative projects” since the website’s launch. President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns utilized similar fundraising tactics to raise record amounts of capital. Projexity is built upon the same principal, but this website specifically targets crowd-funding for public landscape and urban design projects.
South Philadelphia High School’s ‘greening’ initiatives (supported by the Lower Moyamensing Civic Association and Roofmeadow) will proudly appear as Projexity’s first Philadelphia project. Stay tuned for more news as this exciting project moves forward!
sky-high winter greens
While rooftop farms around the country lay fallow for winter, one skyline gem continues to churn out greens. Noble Rot, a restaurant and wine bar in Portland, OR, supports a 3,000 square foot (0.07 acre) farm that fuels the kitchen below. The upscale restaurant occupies the sixth floor of a LEED Platinum building, providing a panoramic view of the city.
Noble Rot’s rooftop farm in winter || photo by Jake Stein Greenberg
I travelled from snowy Philadelphia to the City of Roses last week, and saw for myself how crops continue to grow – albeit slowly – in Portland’s mild winter climate. Kale, lettuce, endive, cabbage, arugula, parsley, thyme, and garlic sprouted from the roof’s raised beds and steel containers. A fig tree with small buds stood near the roof’s bee hive and compost bins, and to my surprise, restaurant co-owner and manager Kimberly Bernosky explained that the tree remains uncovered year-round.
Insulated planters || photo by Lauren Mandel
How do the growers at Noble Rot keep their crops warm in winter? Fig tree aside, they elicit the help of insulated containers. The steel containers were wrapped in a thin layer of insulation, which helps to moderate soil temperature fluctuations. Several of the steel containers were additionally retrofit with opaque lids – resulting in vessels known as cold frames – in order to retain heat from the sun. By trapping solar radiation, cold frames act like miniature greenhouses and moderate or warm both soil and air temperatures.
Hoop house greens || photo by Jake Stein Greenberg
A handful of the farm’s raised beds were covered with plastic to keep the greens inside toasty. Ground-level farmers and gardeners often use plastic or garden fabric to cover crop rows or raised beds, but on a roof, the wind may blow the covers off your crops! Noble Rot keeps their plastic in place with the help of wire framing, attached the the wooden raised beds. These low-stature “hoop houses” prevent air temperatures above the greens from swinging down to uncomfortably chilly levels at night. A rather clever approach to crop warming.
Of course, Portland is blessed with a relatively mild climate that allows for year-round production. Farmers in less utopic regions (like the Northeastern US or Canada) may not be able to grow throughout the whole year, but they sure can extend their growing seasons by expanding upon Noble Rot’s clever innovations. What tricks do you use to keep your crops warm?
livin’ on the ledge
Today’s quest for local food brings us to Ledge Kitchen & Drinks, a trendy restaurant in Dorchester, MA, 15 miles south of Boston. Chef Uri Abragimovich aims to provide guests with the freshest, most local ingredients possible. The source? You guessed it: the roof.
Green City Growers’s Jason Price harvesting Ledge cucumbers || photo by Patrick Rogers Photography
The restaurant’s 4,000 square foot (0.09 acre) rooftop farm provides fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs for the kitchen below, thereby reducing the ingredients’ food miles to zero. Crops are grown in six to 14-inch deep raised beds, framed with naturally rot-resistant black locust wood. Recycled rubber mulch surrounds the raised beds. This material (which is often used in playgrounds) provides a soft walking surface while slowing runoff and protecting the roof’s waterproofing membrane. All-in-all, the design utilizes local, reclaimed materials to achieve a rather sophisticated design.
Rooftop Ledge fennel || photo by Patrick Rogers Photography
REcover Green Roofs, LLC designed the “food roof” and completed construction in June 2010. The local green roof company partnered with Green City Growers to manage farming operations and tend to crops. Green City Growers regularly coordinates with the restaurant staff to create a truly seasonal menu.
In fall 2012, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – the international green roof trade organization – awarded REcover Green Roofs with an Award of Excellence for the project. The award recognized not only the use of local materials, but also the farm’s water-efficient irrigation system and use of chemical-free farming techniques. I met with REcover Green Roofs’ director of operations, Mark Winterer, and project manager Brendan Shea last week. They expressed how pleased they are with the roof’s performance and stewardship. The duo plans to incorporate lessons learned from the Ledge into future food roof designs in New England.
Rooftop farms continue to sprout above restaurants in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. As more and more pop up, you may just find yourself livin’ on the ledge!
fancy plants
Designing and building a rooftop farm may come with a hefty price tag. While many ground-level farms offset costs by expanding acreage, rooftops are limited by the bounds of the building below. So how do you get the most bang for your buck with a slim budget and limited space? Some rooftop growers invest in “fancy plants” to attract business.
Uncommon Ground chef Patch Carroll admires his restaurant’s crops || photo by Lauren Mandel
Heirloom cultivars – diverse crop varieties that became scarce with the onset of industrial agriculture – are re-emerging and gaining momentum in restaurants, farmer’s markets, and backyard gardens around the country. Restaurateurs and foodies alike find the unique flavors of heirloom vegetables irresistible, but many of these crops are difficult to grow, or transport without significant bruising. The solution? Grow them close to the kitchen! There, you can keep a close eye on your babies and eliminate their transportation all together.
In north Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, the iconic restaurant Uncommon Ground fully embraces the cultivation of “fancy plants” in it’s 0.06 acre rooftop
Organic rooftop mustard greens || photo by Lauren Mandel
farm. In May I spoke with Dave Snyder, Uncommon Ground’s Rooftop Farm Director from 2008-2012, about his crop selection. Dave explained that he and the head chef work together to select specialty crops that the restaurant can’t source elsewhere. During the 2011 season, Dave grew 37 crop varieties on the roof, some of which were more rare than others. During our interview Dave pined over a rare tomato breed called the Purple Calabash, which he said attracted a lot of attention in the restaurant below. The cultivar bruises like a peach, and so other restaurants decline to carry the magnificent ingredient.
Uncommon Ground capitalizes upon its ability to grow specialty crops that are relatively unattainable by other storefronts. Guests with sophisticated pallets and encyclopaedic plant knowledge may know exactly what’s in each bite. Most guests flock to Uncommon Ground because the food simply tastes too good to be true.
Heirloom tomato at SHARE Food Program || photo by Lauren Mandel
In Vancouver, British Colombia, specialty crops similarly dot the roof of The Fairmont Waterfont hotel. I spoke with executive chef Dana Hauser in August, who rattled off a laundry list of crops grown on the roof for use in the hotel’s kitchens. She mentioned several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, six types of basil, and some unexpected rooftop crops like rhubarb, figs, and goosberries.
It’s safe to say that marketing the uniqueness of your rooftop crops is invaluable. Whether customers come for the superior flavors or for the experience of eating something they can’t get anywhere else, these “fancy plants” create something to brag about.
TED knows best
From a self-sustaining Lebanese town to Montreal’s urban center, Lufa Farms‘ founder and president Mohamed Hage pushes the limits of rooftop agriculture. In his 2012 TEDx Talk, Mohamed discusses how rooftop agriculture will change the way we eat.
the root of it
garden carrots || photo by Lauren Mandel
This year’s Thanksgiving dinner was something to write home about. A menagerie of vegetable dishes flanked my mother’s heavenly, rosemary-infused turkey: roasted bliss potatoes, braised fennel, sautéed Brussels sprouts, butternut squash soufflé. But the one side that got me thinking was the roasted rainbow carrots.
I grew these carrots from seed in my backyard garden. The colorful crop produced tall greens and long, spindly tap roots that plunged into the soil below the raised bed in which the carrots grew. But what about root crops that don’t have the luxury of growing endlessly downward? As depth-limited environments with thin soil profiles, rooftop farms and gardens present a unique set of challenges. Thankfully, we can pluck some useful knowledge from the green roofing world.
For decades, green roof designers have experimented with growing deep-rooted plants – even trees! – on rooftops. The key is selecting hardy cultivars, providing at least the minimum thickness of soil in which the plants can survive, and ensuring that their nutritional needs are met. Irrigation is also key in cultivating plants in depth-limited environments. Proper irrigation techniques often allow deep-rooted plants, like ornamental grasses, to flourish in unusually thin soil profiles.
In the case of rooftop carrots and other root crops, follow these 6 steps:
1| Make sure your roof contains adequate root protection (i.e. a polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride root barrier)
2| Select hardy cultivars that won’t grow excessively deep
3| Blend or purchase well-drained growth media
4| Mound enough media for each crop
5| Pay close attention to each crop’s nutritional needs
6| Provide sufficient drip irrigation
What’s been your experience with root crops? Have you tried growing them in a container or other depth-limited environment? We want to hear all about it!
the full monty
If you want to go all the way and feed the world, there’s no room for pooh-poohing hydroponics. Soil purists step aside; this is an important truth to urban agriculture.
Lufa Farms Growing Team || photo by and courtesy of Lufa Farms
Unlike outdoor farming, greenhouse hydroponic production offers complete control over growing conditions. This means that you can provide plants with exactly what they crave by catering to their temperature, moisture, and nutritional preferences. Since different types of plants prefer slightly different growing conditions, at least one hydroponic farm – Lufa Farms – provides varying micro-climates throughout its massive rooftop greenhouse. Reclaimed water mixed with carefully calibrated nutrients flows throughout the 31,000 square foot (0.7 acre) greenhouse, and then recirculates through the system. Nutrient solution recipes are key in hydroponic production, as plants are grown in soil-less conditions and depend upon the solution for nutrition.
How much food can a hydroponic greenhouse grow? Well, according to Lufa Farms co-founder Kurt D. Lynn, the company’s flagship Montreal farm grows approximately 250,000 pounds of produce per year. The location’s highly-engineered greenhouse allows for year-round production, which helps yields remain through the roof (pun intended). I spoke with Lufa Farms founder and president Mohamed Hage earlier this year, and he explained that the farm “can feed one person continuously with roughly 15 square feet” of greenhouse space. What’s more, is that the farm uses significantly less water and “about half the energy” of a conventional soil-based farm, says Hage.
Thanks to this cutting-edge technology, Lufa Farms feeds approximately 2,000 people every week. Since 2011, the company’s flagship farm has provided over 25 varieties of fresh, delicious produce to a city that imports virtually all of its fruits and vegetables. The approach is simple. Customers buy a 12-week subscription for roof-fresh produce, which is delivered weekly to one of over 50 pick-up locations around the city. Local Quebec farms supplement the larger baskets with additional produce that’s more difficult to grow hydroponically, such as root vegetable, squash, and berries.
Thanks to greenhouse hydroponics, urbanites can benefit from roof-fresh produce year-round, even in cities as cold as Montreal! What are your thoughts on the potential of greenhouse hydroponics?
Sandy beets
For quite some time now climate change experts have warned of doomsday scenarios with harsh storms, flooding, and general chaos. We’ve all heard the predictions, but no one was prepared for what Superstorm Sandy brought to the northeast seaboard last week. The downgraded hurricane wreaked havoc on cities like Hoboken and New York City, where surge flooding and tropical-force winds left over 8.6 million households without power, and countless buildings destroyed.
How did New York City’s rooftop farms fare? Well, Brooklyn Grange lost an entire apiary – located on a pier adjacent to the company’s Brooklyn location – at a reported loss of over $10,000. According to the company’s website, this value reflects only material losses, and does not include losses in anticipated revenue from the sale of honey. Brooklyn Grange is accepting donations through a Kickstarter campaign to replace the hives and rebuild their apiary program. The company’s website did not report on damage to either of its rooftop row farm locations, although it is reasonable to assume that damages were endured.
Employees and volunteers at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm worked overtime before the storm to prepare for the forthcoming winds, and harvest as much as possible. The farm’s website reported that the roof experienced 70 mph winds and a drop in temperature. Thanks to the roof’s green roof drainage system, most of the damage resulted from high winds, rather than from the multiple inches of rain that fell during the storm period. All chickens and rabbits were safely housed indoors when Sandy struck, and the roof’s remaining crops are beginning to bounce back.
If you’d like to help with New York City’s post-Sandy recovery, please contact these organizations to see how you can contribute.