Vegetable Beds at Foo

FOO, our newest location is not a production site like Rodeo is. It is centered around education to the public and our selves. We only have 12 beds total at FOO as opposed to hundreds at Rodeo, but as you can see, we keep them all occupied with some of the best produce CBG makes available.

New Aqua Demo System

And this is a smaller version of what we have out in the green house. There are two of these systems on mobile islands (wheels) so that they can be moved around the front room depending on what is going on that day. Since the system is completely self contained the only thing that we have to plug in is a small extension cord. As you can see these tanks are much smaller than the other's out back. This small system is where everything begins. Out back is where everything ends. So both our fish and our plants get their starts out front here, once they have aged or grown to a certain determined size they are transported out back to either the tanks if its the fish, or into the large raft's if it is vegetation. There they will live until they are harvested. One quick note, all these starts grow in shredded coconut husk as opposed to soil or other more common growing mediums. This is the first time I have ever seen this, but the husk's work very well, they do not cloud or contaminate the water in any way as opposed to compost which would cloud the entire system and continuously block the filters. The husk is also re usable once it has been used, it can be laid out and dried with limited breakdown. These systems are really quite simple once you become familiar with them, with four main components in each. 1st is a tank where fresh water and recycled water from the system is stored, which is pumped into the 2nd, the tanks where the fish live. From there the water flows into 3, the beds or "rafts" where the plants live and grow. Finally, 4th, the water from the rafts flows into 2 small tanks where the water is filtered "naturally" by gravity. Once finished here, the water flows back into the 1st tank and everything starts all over. This makes a close system, that functions completely on its own. The fish naturally fertilize the water that we use to grow the vegetables so there is no need for any foreign chemicals or fertilizers. And since the water is continually cycled through the system there is very little water used except for what the plants use. It is a very efficient system with everything relying on one another and once it is up and running there is very little human interaction, of course the fish have to be fed everyday....

New Aqua System

So this is the NEW system that is being installed at FOO. Essentially it is just a much larger scale system than what we have at AVI. It's still a raft system as you can see in the last photo's. I wanted to give an idea of the size of these fish tanks, so next to me that's right at 6 feet tall.

Commons

One of the best parts of working at Rodeo is the "Commons" table. Basically an overflow of everything not used up at the Chicago Botanic Garden up north, or any of the extra's from any of our partner farms is available to us free of charge. Obviously, I take advantage of this...

New Aquaponics

Rabbit with Carrots

We have so many carrots planted at Rodeo right now, and just did another entire block of them this previous week. So naturally I have been thinking about carrots and what to do with them in the kitchen. Even though carrots are apparently not good for rabbits, that is contrary to everything I had always been shown, but really all that matter is that carrots taste really good with rabbit. Generally we make a jus or reduction out of the rabbit bones and use that as a sauce, but I'm thinking of making a vinaigrette of carrots to go with the roasted/braised animal. Roasted Carrot Vinaigrette: 3 Roasted Carrots. 2 Shallots (thinly sliced) 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard. 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar. 1/4 cup Olive Oil. Salt and Pepper to taste. I'll finish up on this idea more, just didn't want to forget about it...

Lill Street

This is my favorite time of the year on my block, "Lill". Everything has bloomed, everyone has all of their plants and flowers in the gardens.

Bees

This marks the 3rd week since we had the new bees come into our farm. We will continue to check them for the next few months, every several weeks until we are confident that they are doing well and everything looks like it should. This book is what has been my crash course intro into the world of bees and bee keeping. It's a practical account of a 1 year project hive from start to finish. Basically it gives you a quick summarized "how to" before going into depth in subjects like "Medications and Miticides", "Winter Preperations, Trachial Mites, Varroa Mites" etc.

Bees

So, we are doing bee's on the farm this year as well. Apparently this is not the first time they have attempted to do so, unfortunately over the past years they have not been able to keep a hive alive throughout the entire year. This year we were able to get approved for the funds to purchase all new equipment. 3 new hives, and 3 sets of bee's to go in them. We found the bee's from a guy who does nothing but down in Indiana, and he brought them up a week ago. He helped us get them installed in the new hives that we had just finished constructing. I was in on the last honey harvest of the last year, this year I am involved in everything from A to Z. It's going to be interesting to see how they turn out. I've been reading up on bee's every night before going to sleep, there's a lot more to them that I had really thought could be when dealing with a small insect. Anyways, we have the hives constructed, Quan and I did (for now) 1 bottom box (for the bee's and the queen to live in) and 1 small honey box on top (where the bee's can store there summer stores of honey). As the season progress's, we will add another box on top and continue to do so as the bee's fill each up with honey. One of the most important things to always remember, is that the bottom box, where the queen and the bee's will live all year long, is that you never harvest honey from that one. All the honey that is stored in the bottom is surplus, what the bee's will live on during droughts of pollen and nectar, and through out winter time. More pictures of the actual hive's completed and in use...

Daily To Do List

Just like the kitchen, every day we have a list composed of everything that has to happen. Prepping, Harvesting, and new projects, all written down on the big board so that everyone knows what is happening for the day, what they are specifically responsible, and what's coming up later on in the week. What's really crazy, is that just like in the BOH, we have a new one of these every single day.....

Rose Water into Perfume

This the first time that I have ever been involved in this, and it's going to be kind of cool to see the whole process through. We have found a company that will turn our very fragrant rose flowers into a perfume to be marketed at the local farm markets. Or that is my understanding where "Sales" is going to be looking to move these once they have been converted. Basically the only thing we have to do on the farm is take care of the flowers as we have up till this point, once the flower's have blossomed and are almost to maximum fragrance, they are pruned and laid out on bread trays to completely dry out. That's as far as we have gotten in the chain on Rodeo farm, I will be asking Rosio, who runs "Sales" where they are going next exactly and see what information I can get on the process from here on out. I think it's great, full utilization is not just a philosophy used in the kitchen, since on the farm, as in the kitchen, it is so important to get every ounce of profit out of every last thing available. Because the profits after all the expenses as in the kitchen is so small, who can make use of the most is generally the one who is most successful financially at least...

Radish Harvest

These are some of the Daikons we have on the farm. What I saw immediately when I arrived to the farm this morning, was that a lot of them had shot up flowers. Now we do not use any greens or vegetable once it has shot up flowers because sometimes it can change the flavor in a subtle way, but in enough of a way that it changes the chance of consistency. SO, the root vegetables, the radish in this case, that had flowered go to the "family" plot, but the flowers can still be used. The have a very mild flavor, not spicey or bitter at all, I cant even compare them to say a micro radish green because the flavor is not so intense as it is in most micros. These for certain will be logged to go on our fresh summer greens salads. So something came of those radish's going to flower before they could be harvested. And, fortunately, just to note, there were only several dozen at the most that had made it to flower's over the weekend. It's because there has been so much rain, then heat, daily, rotating, all our greens, everything is growing like crazy. And since I am in the classroom on Fridays, by the time I come back on Mondays, last being on the farm Thursdays, a lot can change in those four days. A lot more than I anticipate for sure...