We’re Growing So Much Food, We Have To Create Products

Introducing Our zerO Label Products

We’ve evolved to the place where we can produce this much Butter Lettuce on our Vertical Lettuce Wall every 4-5 Weeks. But this is only half of the story. We’re showing you our Proprietary Agri-Tech that we are sharing here as you can only see WHAT we are DOING not HOW we are DOING IT! We’ll be sharing the HOW as soon as our Provisional Patent comes through.

Here’s the other half of our Vertical Lettuce Wall. This is the Romaine side of our Lettuce Wall. We’re looking for outlets for our Lettuce, as it’s plain to see there is no way we can eat all of this Lettuce by ourselves.

So we now need to Name and Package our Aquaponics Lettuce Product, and we created our zerO Label just for that!

This Label says a lot about what we think is important when it comes to growing food. First, we believe the ability to preserve refrigerated food as long as possible is important, and with that in mind, we keep our Lettuce Roots attached to the Lettuce, which is why we can label it “Living Butter Lettuce” because it’s alive and will last up to 3 weeks in cold storage.

Unless you’re growing your Lettuce in a water only System without Grow Bed Media, you cannot grow Living Lettuce with the Roots attached because the roots get tangled up in the Media making it impossible to leave them attached.

The next thing unusual on our Label are the words, “Certified Aquaganic™”. We have an “Aquaganic™” Trademark which we created ourselves complete with a Certification Certificate, which we also created that holds Aquaponic Growers to rules that are more stringent than “Organic” requirements.

Then comes the statement that our produce is “Locally Grown”. The Grow Local Movement is taking the agriculture industry by storm and large chain grocery stores are purchasing and featuring Locally Grown produce more than ever. Any time food miles are reduced, freshness, longevity and health are increased.

And finally, the words, “Shielded from Radiated Rain, Snow & Soil” bring to mind the unpleasant fact that Fukushima happened and is still happening and affecting the entire world. Growing food in protected, covered Greenhouses and Grow Houses is the only way to insure against radiated food.

Above is one of our Living Butter Lettuce Heads jammed into a Shell for sale. I use the word “jammed” here quite literally because our Butter Lettuce is so huge it barely fits in the Shells.

Our Lettuce Product is the easiest to deal with. You plant the seeds, move the Seedlings into Stage 1 Horizontal (a Proprietary Agri-Tech Horizontal Growing Area), move the more mature Seedlings into the Vertical Agri-Tech Growing Area pictured above and wait until it’s time for harvest. At harvest you wash the Lettuce and place it into a Shell for Sale. Wah Lah!

But dealing with the other Veggies like Swiss Chard and Tomatoes is a very different story and way more time consuming to turn the veggies into packaged Products. Let’s start with the Swiss Chard.

Swiss Chard grows like weeds in an Aquaponics System, and it’s very forgiving. By that I mean, you can leave it in the Deep Media or Vertical Growing Area for a long time before harvesting it. While I’m writing Blog and Social Media Posts, conducting Tours or soon Classes in our up and coming Classroom, the Swiss Chard will not spoil. It will patiently wait to be harvested while simply getting bigger.

And it will grow Horizontally like above or Vertically like below.

You can only eat so much Stir-fried Swiss Chard, which is delicious. But we had to come up with another way to process our Chard and created a freshly juiced Swiss Chard & Apple Juice using our Jack LaLanne Juicer.

Below is the processing table set up in front of the TV because it takes a while to do this job. There’s a wooden tray with a cutting board inserted into it. You also need a colander, a bowel, a large measuring cup to receive the juice, the organic apples cut into quarters (need to remove the seeds), the juice bottle and a funnel for pouring the juice into the bottle. It took some trial and error to come up with the ratio of Swiss Chard Juice to Apple Juice, and finally, we added some sweetener, which is about 8 drops of Stevia into every bottle.

Two standard garbage bags full of Swiss Chard and several hours of work results in five bottles of delicious Swiss Chard & Apple Juice like the one pictured below. Now this juice is not like Orange or Apple Juice. You don’t guzzle down an entire glass full of it. A little bit goes a long way and Does The Trick (if you know what we mean).

For our next Juice Product, we’ll be juicing Bok Choy, which also grows like weeds in an Aquaponics System. And, Yes, it’s a time-consuming job to juice down a couple of bags of Bok Choy or Swiss Chard, but the juice is so healthy it’s worth it. The cardinal SIN of any Aquaponics Grower is to grow food and either let it rot on the vine or throw it away because you don’t want to deal with it, or worst of all, actually processing the food and then letting it spoil in the refrigerator.

In our next Blog Post we’ll share the process of turning a massive Tomato harvest into Salsa and Spaghetti Sauce. Oh, YES, we had to learn to use a Pressure Canner.

Aren’t Coincidences Wonderful?

Here’s a really fun story to share about the location of our new Arizona Home and Greenhouse. Most people think of Arizona as dessert, but we’re not in the dessert. Actually, we left the dessert of Yucca Valley, California to come here.

We’re on a Plateau in the White Mountains of Arizona at over 6,000 ft. in elevation on a piece of land that is covered with Juniper Trees. Eight miles East of us is the beautiful little town of Show Low, Arizona, which is only a few hundred feet higher, but that few hundred feet make all the difference as Show Low is covered with Ponderosa Pine Trees. Certain species of trees require certain elevations.

Now I want to point you to the Brown Outcroppings in the picture above. Those are the Big Volcanic Boulders that are popping out of the greenery. There are a lot of these Boulders, but buried in the greenery are thousands of Little Volcanic Rocks that cover our land. It would be difficult to cultivate the land without using some heavy duty earth and rock moving machines. Right now we’re not considering venturing beyond our Greenhouse.

If you would like to get an exterior Tour of our Greenhouse Click over to our AquaponicsUSA YouTube Channel and watch our new Video after a LOOOOOONG Break with Oliver Introducing Our Arizona Greenhouse.

But here is why we named this Post “Aren’t Coincidences Wonderful?” Our land is covered with Volcanic Boulders and Rocks because 1,000 years ago, what is now the Sunset Crater in the image below was an erupting Volcano that sent the Volcanic Boulders and Rocks over to our property in a dramatic explosion of Mother Nature’s tendency to vent. Our Property is actually sitting in a Volcanic Field.

Enjoy Your Saturday,

Sustainably,

Grace

What’s Happening Today at Aquaponics USA?

‘There are 3 Seed Trays of Seedlings in the Greenhouse that need daily watering. We don’t need to water our Aquaponics Crops that are in the System because the System takes care of that, but when you’re germinating Seeds you need to water everyday.

Below are 3 Standard Seed Trays that have been growing Seedlings for about 2 weeks. We cut holes in our Humidifying Lids to allow more air flow into the Trays as it’s getting quite hot here in our Arizona Summer.

Below is what I call my Seed Tracker Sheet. As I plant the Seeds into the Seed Plugs, I fill in the Sheet with the Code Letters that tell me which Seeds are located where in the Seed Tray. For example BLC means Butter Lettuce Charles and RR means Romaine Red.

As an aside, here’s a little Cat Diversion. We can always depend on Magic for that.

Oh, and then there’s the Bee. He flew by me on the porch yesterday so now I have a clear glass jar waiting for that to happen again. My plan is to capture him and put him into the Greenhouse. I’ll let you know when that’s been accomplished. Did I just hear a Buzzing Sound?

Thank You for following us. We Write and Post to you and for you.

Sustainably,
Grace

We’re Also Doing More Blog Posts!

Our Arizona Greenhouse and our STEM Teaching & Food Growing System Orders have had us so busy we didn’t have time to talk about it. But what is the point if we don’t share what we’re doing with our Followers, so besides Videos, we’ll be sharing more Blog and Social Posts, too.

Check back to see what we’re up to now. You’re going to be amazed. The circled words in this announcement are the most important words of all starting with our “Followers”. Without you, we’re up here at 6,000 ft. in the White Mountains of Arizona without a rudder (not exactly connecting my metaphors), but you know what I mean.

Thank You for Following Us. We’ll be sharing our newest Seedlings later this week. Newly germinated Seedlings are like little Plant Children, adorable and in need of daily care. They can’t wait to show themselves off.

Sustainably,

Grace

Our Aquaponics USA Fish and Veggie Road Show!

We just did our first Fish & Veggie Road Show and what an experience that was. Getting our act together to go on the road was a way bigger job than we ever imagined it would be; but the result was impressive. We think we may be the first and only Aquaponics business that is doing shows and now we know why. It’s a lot of hard work. As a multi-media artist, I (Grace) did Arts & Craft Shows for many years selling a hand-crafted jewelry line, photography and even a line of resort wear. So I know what it’s like doing road shows; but I’ve never done a road show that was this challenging. Our set up took us one full day and a night; and our tear down took a full eight hours. EGAD! And “Yes”, we need to make it easier. But the experience was great. We introduced Aquaponics USA’s Food Forever™ Growing Systems to lots of amazed and curious Californians. Below are three photos of the 3 vehicles it took to get our set up to the Los Angeles Design Center. If we keep doing Shows, we’re going to need a big Truck because packing and unpacking these three vehicles was very time consuming.

It’s amazing how many people in California still haven’t even heard the word, Aquaponics; but our aim is to change that; and we started changing that this past weekend, October 12-14, 2012, at the first annual KNOWPHEST in Los Angeles. The KNOWPHEST was billed as the place to go to learn what you didn’t know you didn’t know; and Aquaponics USA fit perfectly into that unusual theme because most of the people who saw our Exhibit had never even heard the word, “Aquaponics”, before they entered our space. The KNOWPHEST featured an eclectic group of Exhibitors and Lecturers including the famous artist couple Alex Grey and Allyson Grey. Alex showed his mural-sized original works from the famed Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. These paintings were awe inspiring as I had only seen them in photos. You may recognize the image below entitled “Praying” as it has been featured in lots of venues.

And we prayed a lot as we traveled up the Interstate 10 to Los Angeles from the High Desert above Palm Springs. Mostly we were praying that our live fish and plants would make the trip and stay that way, alive, as this was our first experience of moving fish and plants in vehicles.

Among the various Exhibitors at the KNOWPHEST who were selling everything from  jewelry to portable saunas, Aquaponics USA was a real phenomenon; and we were thanked and congratulated over and over for being there and introducing the people of Los Angeles to the concept of sustainable food growing systems that can be set up in a backyard, garage, basement or school room. And, of course the stars of our Show were the fish. Below is a photo of our baby Tilapia happily swimming around in their fish tank that is part of our new Plug In & Grow Indoor System, the FFGS-C5. In the second photo below, you see a complete shot of this Compact Indoor Food Forever™ Growing System that comes with a Grow Light, Grow Bed, Fish Tank with heater and miniature automatic fish feeder. The third photo in this series is our Modular FFGS-20  Food Forever™ Growing System that housed our adult Tilapia.

It’s one thing to preach to the choir, which is the same as staying home and waiting for people to become aware of the importance of Aquaponics in whatever way that happens and then Googling the word and discovering us on Page 1. It’s an entirely different thing to go out to Shows and awaken people to the existence of Aquaponics and then educate them on the spot about how important it is to their food security and health. That’s what’s happening in these Shows; and that’s what makes it so exciting. So many people expressed their gratitude about being awakened to this life and environment sustaining way to grow food. They were really excited to discover Aquaponics and we were excited to have an Exhibit that could serve in this way. It was such a win/win experience that it made all the hard work worth while. Below are a series of shots of our Exhibit at the KNOWPHEST starting with our “Welcome” Sign. The second photo is of our new Certification Trademark. We’re creating a way to Certify vegetables and fish that are grown aquaponically; and we’re calling it “Aquaganic”.

We even had a Literature Table with five informative double-sided flyers besides our Brochure. One of the flyers entitled “Why Aquaponics? Why Now? has a full back page explanation of what Aquaponics is and why it’s so important in the 21st Century. On the small table behind the literature table is our flat-screen TV where we continuously ran DVD’s of our YouTube Videos.

This Show wanted to attract the Los Angeles Night Scene so we were open quite late at night . Here is a shot of our Exhibit at night.

We had to make a 2 1/2 hour drive to get to the KNOWPHEST (while keeping our fish well aerated using an inverter and in-tank aerators), which were in the back of the Honda Pilot.

Before going on to our next Show, we want to extend a special “Thank You” to Caleb Bartlett and Allen Sovory II, promoters of the KNOWPHEST, for inviting and encouraging us to do this Show. Without your encouragement and the KNOWPHEST venue, we never would have put this Exhibit together and discovered how fun and exciting it is to be the clarion callers for Aquaponics USA out there on the streets and in the Convention Halls of America. Thank You, guys, for putting on a great Show and being so accommodating and helpful.

Our next adventure to Mesa, AZ will be a little more challenging as we’ll be traveling for over six hours while keeping our fish and our plants alive. This Show is happening at the Mesa, AZ Convention Center on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26 & 27. It’s called the Self Reliance Expo and is a first year Show in that location and one of a series being promoted under this title in various locations across the Nation. If you’re in Arizona, tell your friends to come out and see a phenomenon whose time has come–an Aquaponics USA Road Show.

See you at the Self Reliance Expo in Mesa, AZ and thank you for following our blog and visiting our virtual first Road Show. We’re so pleased to be able to share this adventure with you.

Aquaponics USA “Chef’s Special Living Lettuce” FOR SALE!

In our last post, we showed you all the lettuce we were growing in our Greenhouse. Here’s another view of how much lettuce we’re talking about.

Grace is holding up a Cooler full of lettuce; and this is the first Cooler full. So far we’ve delivered two of these Coolers full of lettuce all packaged up real fancy to none other than the best Health Food Store in the high desert. That’s right–Sue’s Health Food Store. Sue’s Health Foods has been selling healthy food since 1984 and is dedicated to their customer’s good health while offering service with heart. They’ve just started a facebook page where they’ll be posting all kinds of fun and exciting adventures around health.

If you’re lucky enough to live in the high desert above Palm Springs in Morongo, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree or 29 Palms go on over to Sue’s Health Foods Store and pick up a head of delicious Living Counter Romaine, Butter Lettuce or Red Romaine. They’re in her Cooler next to the Bunny Love Organic Carrots.

As far as we know, Aquaponics USA is the only company offering Living Red Romaine Lettuce and Counter Romaine Lettuce. There’s even one head of Living Red Oak Lettuce in that cooler for all you Red Oak Lettuce lovers. There are several companies offering Living Butter Lettuce. Our Living Butter Lettuce is so beautiful it could be a Bridal Bouquet in a Greenie June Wedding. So what’s “Living Lettuce”? Living Lettuce is lettuce that is still attached to the roots, which means it’s about as fresh as it gets.

When we introduced Sue to the concept of Aquaponics, she was really taken by it. Seems Aquaponics affects people that way. They either get it or they don’t. When they get it, it makes a real impression. There are a lot of people “getting” Aquaponics these days. Once Sue tasted our Lettuce, the deal was sealed. Even bolting lettuce grown aquaponically (we call it “Aquaganic™”) still tastes good. But because she practices what she preaches and is really concerned with her customer’s health, she made a site visit to check out our growing environment and, of course, see the live fish that make it all possible.

Below is a picture of Sue standing behind the Grow Bed we featured in our last post, the one full of Red Romaine Lettuce. This is the lettuce you saw in the Cooler above and the lettuce we packaged up to send to her Health Foods Store.

Now, you’ll recognize her when you see her in the store, which is often so say “Hi” and tell her how photogenic she is. And remember to hurry down to her store to pick up your head of Aquaponics USA Chef’s Special Living Lettuce.

Because we’re not high volume growers (far from it), our brand will not always be available at Sue’s Health Food Store, so get it while you can. You can’t miss our patriotic packaging and our Logo with the Chef and Live Tilapia on it.  Tell them we sent you.

See you at Sue’s Health Foods Store.

What’s Happening in the Aquaponics USA Greenhouse

It’s been a while since we’ve shared pictures and stories of what’s happening in our Greenhouse; and right about now, things are really starting to pop.  The picture below shows Grow Bed #4 full of Red Romaine Lettuce. In the background, you can see some basil drying and a blurred image of our packaging Logo.

Below are close ups of a couple of those heads of beautiful Red Romaine. They are really delicious and ready to harvest. They are sitting next to our Automatic Fish Feeders that feed our Tilapia four times a day.

Besides Red Romaine, we’re also growing another kind of Romaine Lettuce called Counter Romaine. It’s pictured in the photo below. Counter Romaine has been adapted especially for Greenhouse growing and is heat tolerant. Since we’re in the desert, we can always use heat tolerant veggies, so we thought we’d try it. It’s doing really well and tastes delicious. Even the stems are sweet. On the left side of the photo is some Butter Lettuce mixed in with the Counter Romaine. Our Butter Lettuce is also doing really well and growing like weeds in our Food Forever™ Growing Systems.

Besides Lettuce, we’re also growing some corn; and you can see it in the back of Grow Bed #5 in the above picture. We didn’t intend to grow corn in our Greenhouse as we felt it would be too tall. But while we were waiting for our protective screening to be put around our outdoor garden, which is next to our Greenhouse, we temporarily placed the corn seedlings into this Grow Bed so they would survive. They’ve survived alright and are now growing up to the roof. I’ll show you more pictures of the corn in a future post. We’re curious as to how well it will do; and will probably just leave it in the Grow Bed even though our protective screening is almost up.

If you’re familiar with the high desert, you know there are a lot of critters here, which add to the charm of our magical desert world. When we first moved here (and before we were adopted by two feral cats), we befriended and fed the wild ones. The picture below is one of many that we’ve taken of the wild ones including grey squirrels, antelope squirrels and cotton tails. 

But once we got the cats and then started gardening, the wild ones became a bit of a nuisance, especially the grey squirrels. They pretty much destroyed our outdoor garden last year. Hence the new protective fence.

In Grow Bed #2 below, we have that famous group of Pepper Plants that just keep putting out Peppers season after season. They have pretty much over taken that Grow Bed.

Except, as you can see below, some Basil managed to squeeze it’s way into that bed this spring.

Last season’s eggplant came back to life and is putting out lovely fruit. Speaking of Eggplant, I think I’ll make Eggplant Parmesan tonight.

In that case, I need to wind up this post and get picking and cooking. Thanks for visiting. We really appreciate your support. My next post is going to tell you where you can go to purchase our delicious aquaponically grown Lettuce that we call “Aquaganic™”. If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the little high desert towns above Palm Springs, CA. you’ll recognize this store right away. We can only supply one store, so we chose the best. Bet you can’t guess which one it is?

Until then, Get Growing!

It’s a Complete Indoor System ready to PLUG-IN & GROW!

We’re so excited about this newly designed Mini Indoor Plug-In & Grow Food Forever™ Aquaponics System, the FFGS-M5, that we can’t wait to announce it even though we’re not quite ready to sell it yet. What are we waiting for? We want to do a test run on it and actually see beautiful heads of butter lettuce and other leafy greens growing in it before we put it on the market even though we know this new system is going to work like a charm because we’ve already tested the Fluorescent Grow Light we’re using. Here’s a picture of that T5 Fluorescent growing out lettuce in our Growroom.

Of course, we’ve already tested our syphon; but our standard syphon in this new system acts like a Rapid Cycle Syphon which means it siphons about every 7 minutes instead of every 15 minutes. A Rapid-Cycle Grow Bed allows for a greater amount of dissolved oxygen to be present in the grow bed without the need of extra aerators and air pumps. This added dissolved oxygen helps with processing and conversion that creates plant nutrients. Here’s a picture of the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) count in this new Mini System’s Fish Tank.

We’ve also created a whole new growing system we are calling the Hydro-Foam Hybrid Growing System; and you’re seeing it here for the first time the day after it debuted on our website last night. No one else is using this ultra efficient way to grow leafy greens. Hydro-Foam marries a Hydroton flood and drain system with a Raft system in the same Grow Bed. Traditional Raft Systems float polystyrene on top of a continuously flooded grow bed, often with plants in net pots placed in the raft. A traditional Hydroton deep media grow bed runs a flood and drain cycle through the media in which the plants are planted. The Hydro-Foam Hybrid floats a polystyrene board designed with optimally spaced holes and filled with net pots on top of the Hydroton, which is at precisely the right height to insure the water wets the roots of your plants. Hydro-Foam reduces evaporation of the water in the bed; and once your plants start growing leaves, the Hydro-Foam protects them from exposure to wicked up water that causes bottom leaves to become moldy. Here is a picture of a Hydro-Foam Hybrid Grow Bed growing lettuce in our Growroom Lab right now. We are using LED’s now in our Growroom Lab, which is why the color of the leaves appears to be purple. Absolutely everything is included in this PLUG-IN & GROW Mini Food Forever™ Aquaponics System. The Deep-Media, EZ Reach, Rapid Cycle Hybrid Grow Bed features over 5 sq. ft. of growing area and comes with it’s EZ-Clean Bell Syphon, a highly efficient Water-Delivery System, a Hydro-Foam Hybrid Growing System with Hydroton and all Bulkhead Fittings and Valves. The 30 Gallon Rectangular Translucent Covered Fish Tank is made of food grade polyethylene and is 22″ deep. It comes with pre-installed Bulkheads, a Submersible Pump and Plumbing, an Air Pump and Aerator, a Jet Back Aeration Sprayer, a digitally controlled 200 watt Heater and a Fluorescent Fish Tank Light. The included T5 Fluorescent Grow Light comes with a a Timer that can also run your Fluorescent Fish Tank Light. The Grow Bed sits above the Fish Tank and both sit on a reinforced multi-level Stand with a handy top self. The Accessories Kit that is also included has an API Fresh Water Test Kit, Starter Bacteria, Water Cleaning Solution, a Fish Net, 90 Days of Tech Support and an Assembly and System Start-up Manual.

We’ve added a Light Reflecting Shroud to the top of the system to keep the important growing light in while keeping it out of your eyes. This is a Complete Indoor Mini System, which has been designed for the interior of a home or schoolroom. The black and white neutral colors of the FFGS-M5 have been chosen to blend with other home appliances like stoves and refrigerators. To make the FFGS-M5 even more home decor friendly, we are even offering 13 different custom colors and designs for the trim around the Light Reflecting Shroud. You are seeing one of those 13 pattern and color choices below. This one is #1.

If you’ve been thinking about trying Aquaponics; this is the perfect starter system with which to do it. There is absolutely no guesswork involved. When we make our Buy Button live on our website page, this system will be fully tested and ready to go to work growing lettuce, spinach, basil, cilantro and other leafy green vegetables right in your kitchen, dining room or “edible schoolroom”.

To get in on our Introductory Sale in which we will be offering the first six FFGS-M5 Systems for less than the listed retail price of $1495,   just email us at:

urbanfarmer@aquaponicsusa.com

These six FFGS-M5 Systems will be using the T5 Fluorescent Grow Lights that we used in our Growroom Lab for about three months. Start growing your own healthy, organic leafy greens right in your own home or schoolroom with the FFGS-M5; and thank you for following our Aquaponics USA Blog.

First in a Series called: It’s An “Edible Schoolroom”

It’s happening. Schoolrooms right along with Schoolyards are becoming edible. Here are some heart-warming chronological pictures of what’s happening with Aquaponics (called AquaBioPonics) at Davis Bilingual Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona where Aquaponics USA built, installed and tested one of it’s FFGS-40 Food Forever™ Growing Systems over the Christmas break.

When we last posted about this installation, there were no Grow Lights, no Fish and no Vegetables. Look what’s happening now.

The above photo shows children gathered around Grow Beds #3 & #4 to see plants growing in the Hydroton. The Hydroton is the Grow Bed media that takes the place of dirt. It’s made from fired clay, and is produced by a German company named Okotau. It was originally designed for Hydroponics (hence the name Hydroton); but works great in Aquaponics systems. This photo also shows Florescent Grow Lights hanging over the Grow Beds. These lights are crucial to the growth of the plants. No light–no plant growth.

This next series of pictures shows the arrival of the fish that are also crucial to an Aquaponics System because the fish create the fish waste that is turned into valuable nutrients for the plants through a process known as the Nitrogen Cycle, which the Davis Bilingual Elementary school students are also learning about.

Right now Davis is using gold fish in their Aquaponics systems. The above picture shows the gold fish going into the system.

The above picture shows students watching their gold fish swim around in their 320 gallon fish tank.

The teaching of Aquaponics begins with a renowned instructor, Dr. D’Silva, Consultant and Professor. Dr. D’Silva is CEO of Moura Enterprises and a worldwide reference in Integrated Sustainable, AquaBioPonics and AquafuelPonics Systems and Humanitarian programs. Right now he is being a Humanitarian and helping the Davis Elementary School Teaching Staff and students learn all about the Nitrogen Cycle, which runs these systems and how to cycle their Food Forever™ Aquaponics Growing Systems, which he calls “AquaBioPonics”. Since Davis Elementary is a Bilingual school, you’ll notice that some of the words on the board are in Spanish. Below, Dr. D’Silva in the white shirt stands next to one of the Davis Bilingual Staff members.

As the learning continues, Dr. D’Silva instructs members of the Davis Bilingual Elementary School staff on how to use their Water Quality Kit that came with their Food Forever™ Aquaponics Growing System. Below, two of the staff members hold up tubes containing yellow-colored water indicating they have measured the Ammonia level in the system. The card with the colored rectangles on it is used to determine what that Ammonia level is. If the Ammonia goes up too high in an Aquaponics System, the system becomes toxic to both the plants and the fish. The third staff member standing next to Dr. D’Silva is the Librarian for Davis Bilingual Elementary, Cheryl Schrader-Gerken. She graciously welcomed us into her Library when we installed this system over Christmas and has taken on this amazing “Edible Schoolroom” Project (in her case it’s an Edible Library) with much joy and enthusiasm.

This final photo below shows an up-close look at how the Water Quality Kit that is included with a Food Forever™ Growing System works to help you keep your water quality at safe, healthy levels. The three tubes all contain the same water taken from the system. The fist tube tells you what your Ammonia levels are. The second tube tells you what your Nitrite levels are and the third tube tells you what your Nitrate levels are. To get lots of detailed information about Water Quality go to our Water Page and read all about it. You can also see all the fun and excitement that the students at Davis Bilingual Elementary School are having by visiting their facebook page at Gardening & AquaBioPonics at Davis Elementary.

We’ll be doing more posts on these “Edible Schoolrooms” in the near future as we return to see what’s happening at the other two schools where our Food Forever™ Growing Systems were installed. Those schools include Manzo Elementary and Drachman Montessori Elementary. So stay tuned.

And be sure to check out the two videos we recently posted to YouTube on our Aquaponics USA TV Channel where we show you the full installation of this very system at the Davis Bilingual Elementary School. It is Part 1 of a four-part series that shows these installations in the three Tucson Elementary Schools. Parts 1 & 2 are posted and Parts 3 & 4 are coming.

Until next time, GET GROWING!

The Continuing Case of the Mystery Vegetable? Actually, it’s turned into two Mystery Vegetables!

A few days ago, I wrote a post asking for help identifying a mystery vegetable that grew like a weed in one of our Greenhouse Grow Beds, tasted delicious in salads, worked great steamed and in stir fries. One thoughtful person answered our call for help; and just like I had already done, she identified this vegetable to be Turnip Greens. With that one piece of back up evidence, I felt pretty confident we had Turnip Greens in our Grow Bed; but now I’m thinking we were wrong.

Today, I went over to my local Home Depot to do a search in the seed section of their Garden Dept; and I was successful as a seed package came up with a picture on it that looks exactly like the vegetable in our Grow Bed. Now, even though Turnip Greens were quite foreign to me, I had at least heard of them before. This vegetable is a complete unknown to me; and I have never even heard its name. Our helper, Fred, said he’d planted cabbage; and it turns out he’s still right. It’s Chinese Cabbage; and it’s called Michihli. Here’s that seed package.

You can go back two posts to see Michihli growing in one of our Grow Beds. According to the package, it grows easily and loves cool weather, which explains why it grew so well in our Greenhouse when it was in winter mode and night temperatures were in the 30’s F outside sometimes while the Greenhouse stayed  around 60 degrees F. As of today, I’m feeling like Michihli is the mystery vegetable.

Now, I have to share another confession, the same thoughtful person who identified the mystery plant as Turnip Greens also told us in a comment that she didn’t think the Spinach on the other side of the same Grow Bed was actually Spinach. This vegetable was also planted by our helper, Fred, and he couldn’t remember the name of that plant either. I cooked some of that Spinach-like plant up; and I have to admit it doesn’t taste like Spinach because it’s much milder. So, now, we have another mystery plant on our hands; and the package that describes that plant didn’t come up today. Our helpful reader thought the un-Spinish side of the Grow Bed might be Broccoli before it actually grows the Broccoli stocks. But there is no sign of Broccoli stocks on this new mystery plant.

So once again we’re asking for help in identifying a plant that grew like crazy in cool temperatures and looks a lot like Spinach. The picture of that plant is one post back. I was feeling like a real dufus in regard to this Grow Bed that got away from us until I found this interesting Image.

The numbers on this Giff Image are telling you how many different species of vegetables existed in each vegetable category in 1903 (the top thicker bars) and then in 1983 (the bottom skinny bars). When you look at the green colored Cabbage Family bar in 1903, you see it was the largest vegetable family in the sample list of ten crops with 544 different species of Cabbage in it. So when I first looked at this Image, I thought no wonder I don’t know all the species of Cabbage because there are so many.

But that’s actually not the case; and I’m back to being a dufus. Because this Image shockingly shows that by 1983, those 544 species of Cabbage became a mere 28 species. What’s happening to the diversity of our vegetables? One of the things that is happening (and it’s been happening at greater and greater speeds since the mid nineties) is there has been a consolidation of seed companies leading to a corporate domination of our food supply. And the one corporation that has been buying up more seed companies than all the others put together is non other than Monsanto. This pdf, “Seed Industry Structure 1996-2008”  shows eye-opening proof of that statement.

As you most likely already know, Monsanto is one of the main corporations behind the proliferation of GMO’s, which is about genetically modifying seeds and then placing a patent on those seeds followed by a pay-to-play business model. Farmers who use Monsanto’s seeds are forbidden to harvest the seeds they already purchased from Monsanto and must re-purchase new seeds every season.

It appears that in buying up as many seed companies as they can, Monsanto is trying to create a monopoly in which eventually only their patented GMO seeds are available on the seed market. Before they pull the plug on all the natural seeds they now control, Monsanto can pretend to be the good guys who are also interested in marketing natural non-GMO seeds. I’m not buying it; and I’m not buying any seeds from a Monsanto controlled company either.

The seed packet above of the Chinese Cabbage, Michihli, is by a company called FERRY-MORSE; and as I trace the ownership, I find FERRY-MORSE is owned by a French company called Limagrain. FERRY-MORSE does not appear in the already mentioned “Seed Industry Structure Map”; but there is a place where there is a crossover between Limagrain and Monsanto. That’s enough to stop me from buying another package of FERRY-MORSE seeds. I guess you could say I’m personally boycotting any seed company connected to Monsanto.

We are presently buying our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Paramount Seeds and Humble Seed. All three of these companies are, or originated from, family owned US based businesses that emphasize quality, nutrition, health and above all, non-GMO natural seeds. We are actually featuring and selling Humble Seed right on our Aquaponics USA website. Just go to our “Aquaponics and Gardening SEEDS” page to check out these great seeds packaged in long-term unique packaging that maintains the seeds life force.

Hopefully, someone will come forward and help us identify the mystery Grow Bed as both veggies in that bed are still in question. We’ve definitely learned our lesson about the importance of identifying our vegetables. It’s always good to know what you’re eating and from where it’s originating.

Hope this post has been helpful and informative. Until next time, GET GROWING!