Food for a week

Hello nobody!

After being inspired by this article about how the world eats (THIS text is a LINK to the actual story but it blends in so well with the rest of the text that you would NEVER KNOW) I have decided to post what I eat in a week. 

Food for a week!

This picture does exclude a few things, like condiments (mustard, kimchee, ranch, nutella) and herbs/spices (fish sauce, soy sauce, thai seasoning, salt, sugar, jerk seasoning) and a head of tasty red lettuce that I forgot to get at the store this week. It also does not include beverages (2 cups of coffee per day, 3 glasses of water per day on average, 5 cups of a variety of teas per week). In case you are wondering, the baby plants in the plastic container are microgreens (a spicy mix of kale, broccoli, mustards, and other tasty baby plants). I eat about a container of those a week, mixed into salads. You generally eat them 5-10 days after germination and they have 3-5x the nutritional compounds found in mature leaves of these leafy crops.

Microgreens!

I make my own yogurt and bread (which I highly recommend). If you have the income to invest in a bread machine or yogurt maker, it certainly takes the guess work out of the process.

Also, the windowfarm is coming along nicely. After getting off to a bumpy, but educational start, I have now stabilized the surviving baby plants I received in the mail and they are happily producing new leaves. 

Kale!

Lettuce!

I have also started some seedlings to for the farm and successfully transplanted them.

Lettuce!

Kale!

Blurry Rainbow Chard!

The lime basil is also coming along. The thyme is giving me a little trouble. It wants to be much drier than everything else. I might just grow it in pots. Also the spinach didn't germinate well; will try again next week. 

Reggie chillin' next to his battle platform/ giant margarita glass.

Alright nobody, that's all for now. Remember to eat real food and drink good tea. Life is too short to feel terrible. 

Apartment Gardening!

Hello nobody!

Its been a pretty serious chunk of time since my last post. Since my last post I have:

1. Graduated from NC State with a MS in Horticultural Science!
2. Gotten an amazing job in PA with GardenGenetics as a research assistant!
3. Moved to PA!

I still owe updates for the trip to China. However I would like to reread my travel diary as I update that so stay tuned!

This is an apartment gardening update! I am now the proud owner of a four column Windowfarm!

Check out the Windowfarm system!

Windowfarms are hydroponics systems designed for indoor, often residential operations.

Why hydroponics? Well these systems are great for producing leafy greens (which are the largest part of my grocery bill believe it or not), and are able to produce comparable yields to traditional growing that use less than 1/10 of the water or nutrients.

It is a great idea for urban living.

That being said, hydroponics systems can be a bit tricky to get off the ground. Instead of growing plants in pots with soil, my plant babies will be grown in soil-less clay pellets and be pretty much constantly exposed to moving water(that contains plant essential nutrients) which circulates through the system via a small pump. If not managed carefully, this sort of an environment can make plants unhappy.

So wish me luck!

Interested in a windowfarm, but don't want to pay the big bucks? Check out the windowfarm DIY page for ideas and tips for making your own!'

Here is a photo of the current set up. The plants should arrive tomorrow. I will hopefully have a happy update with plants in a week or so.

Adventure is out there