Edison High School Aquaponics: On the Grow!

This week we continue our Annual Summer Internship expose
with the Edison High School Aquaponics team update, written by:
Kristen Chalmers, Freya Hatch-Surisook, Gavin Long, Nicholas Jacobs, and Zaki Abdi

This week we had tons of fun going around the Twin Cities learning about jobs in sustainability! We met with people from Pollinate MN, Growing Lots, Gandhi Mahal, Lube Tech and several more. We learned about how we can be sustainable and make a change from home, right here in the Twin Cities.  

For our project, we are maintaining and repairing the aquaponics system and garden at Edison High School.  The Edison project site has an enormous aquaponics system that Spark-Y built.  It spans about forty feet and has nine separate grow beds.  Currently we have approximately eighty fish in the system and would possibly like to add more!  In the garden area, we have tomatoes that are almost ready for harvesting, basil that grows like a weed, and eggplant and squash that are sprouting up everywhere.  The greenhouse was just planted last week and several sprouts are popping up there as well.  

Edison High School has become an integral leader of the sustainability movement in Minneapolis.  After installing a stormwater treatment system that collects a total of 1.5 million gallons of water a year, a community garden, greenhouse, and Minnesota’s largest school-based aquaponics system, Edison has become the greenest campus in the state.  This week, we are getting ready to put in a new pond liner and are outfitting the system with foam to make sure there are no leaks.  We definitely turned heads driving out of the Home Depot parking lot with two foam boards tied to the roof of Dylan’s Prius!  We are also planting and maintaining the greenhouse by the Edison football field, which collects rainwater from the football field and stores it for future use.  We are working hard to bring out the best in the greenest high school campus in Minnesota!

Edison Aquaponics System

RUF Squad: Summer at School Can Be Cool

In this ongoing series, our Spark-Y 2017 Summer interns are sharing their experiences. The following post is written by the RUF Squad (Roosevelt Urban Farm Squad): Anna Jentz, Ella Spurbeck, and Christian Herrera.

Roosevelt High School’s aquaponics system is one of the school’s coolest and best kept non-secrets. I’m a Roosevelt student and when I tell people about the aquaponics system their reaction is usually surprise, mixed with curiosity, and at least a little awe. To answer a few of their questions here, aquaponics is farming but using water as the source of nutrients for plants. Yes, there are fish involved. Yes, we also grow in the greenhouse outside. The school works with Spark-Y Labs to maintain the system and during the school year the system is cared for by the urban farming class. But during the summer, who cares for it? That’s where we come in. We’re the RUF (Roosevelt Urban Farm) squad intern team, tasked with caring for the Roosevelt aquaponics system and garden this summer.

Our Projects

           Goal #1: System Repair.

Chris at work taking apart the syste

Our number one project this summer was to repair the aquaponics system. The Roosevelt aquaponics system was not doing so well. The plywood holding up the plantable section of the system was rotting due to the bulkheads and piping not allowing the water to drain fast enough. This meant that the system lost a TON of water from overflow and leaks, even when we were re-filling it every day. To fix this issue, we had to remove almost all plants and a significant amount of rocks from the grow bed (where we plant), remove the bulkheads, carefully pull back the pond liner, remove all rotting wood, and check on and possibly remove the plumbing at that end of the system. And that’s just the removal! After we’d taken all the bad wood out, we put new wood in, realized we’d bored holes in the wrong spot, re-bored the holes on the other side, put the new wood in (again), gently rolled the pond liner back in (carefully!!), then added a few plumbing improvements. Finally, we just had to put rocks back in, hook up the plumbing, and test to see if the system worked. And, thankfully, it did!

This project went a lot smoother than it could have. Had we ripped, poked holes in, or overly stressed the pond liner, we would have had to replace the entire thing. As an added benefit, we got to clean the rocks and system and replace a lot of the water - to the benefit of the fish. By now, we’ve also reseeded the system with plants for the RUF class to pick this fall.

           Goal #2: Installation of Piano Planter.

Another one of our deliverables included the installation of a new planter in front of the school. However, this was not any ordinary planter! Rather, our job was to somehow turn an old baby grand piano into something that could hold native Minnesotan plants. To achieve this goal, there were many aspects and challenges we had to consider. First, we had to waterproof the piano so that it could withstand Minnesota’s weather and daily watering. To do this we imitated wood boat owners and painted on several layers of marine shellac. Our second major challenge with the piano was the bottom (it currently had none!). We considered many different options, including plywood and metal sheets, to name a few. However, all these had a drainage issue. Plywood would likely rot with time and it would be difficult to drill drainage holes into the metal sheet. Our solution to this problem was to use a layer of chicken wire topped by permeable landscape fabric to fashion the piano’s bottom. So far, we have completed waterproofing the piano with the shellac and installed the bottom. By the end of the first week of August, the piano should be installed in the front of Roosevelt, filled with soil, and ready for planting.   

Screwing in a support board

Time to shellac

  Goal #3: Turtle Sculpture.

Have you noticed a new sculpture outside of Roosevelt? One of our jobs this summer is to plant on and around this turtle sculpture, so that by the time school is back in session it will have plants all over it and look really good. However, do to situations beyond our control (funding issues) the artist working on the turtle has not yet finished it. This means that we might not get to plant on it in the remaining internship time. However, we have started the seedlings that would go onto the turtle, and we will just have to see when it’s finished.

Goal #4: Garden Maintenance.

In addition to our more construction-like goals, our team is also in charge of maintaining the Roosevelt Urban Farm. Our goal is that it will be in good shape and ready for harvesting once school begins again in the fall. We have been regularly watering and weeding the farm and have even been able to harvest over 20 lbs of produce. We also built a trellis to the garden in order to guide some squash that were taking over the place and planted lettuce and radish in the outdoor greenhouse. So far, it is looking great and on track for a great fall harvest!

Closing Thoughts

By effectively using our resources and recognizing the individual strengths of our team members, we have been able to stay under budget, ahead of schedule, and deliver quality work. This has allowed our team to be successful not only in achieving our goals but also in growing community. By staying ahead of schedule, we were able to reach out and help out the Gastrotruck team with their project. And by delivering quality work, we are setting up the Roosevelt urban farming class with a solid platform in which to continue their work in promoting awareness as to how and where our food is and can be grown.  

If you’d like to hear more about our project, come check us out at the Spark-Y Summer Intern Open House on Thursday, August 10th from 4-7pm! 

Also feel free to stop by Roosevelt High School to check out our work!
4029 28th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55406

Soil, Not Dirt: Building a Soil Laboratory at Spark-Y

In this ongoing series, our Spark-Y 2017 Summer interns are sharing their experiences.
The following post is written by the Urban Ag Lab Management team: 
Sarah Wescott, Maverick Oblekson, Salma Ahmed, Ojuigo Ojebe, and Charlie Kinnegerg.

Soil, often incorrectly thought of as dirt, plays an important role in our food web by providing a nutrient source for almost all of our plant life. What goes on below ground is far more complex than meets the eye. An entire community of organisms is interacting to create healthy soil that plants can flourish in. Fungus and Bacteria eat all of the organic matter, such as leaves and twigs, that fall onto the ground helping it break down. Then, tiny worm-looking creatures called Nematodes eat these stores of fungi and bacteria. Even bigger predators called Arthropods eat the Nematodes, forming a whole food chain in the soil. All of this life, death, reproduction, and pooping is what makes up soil. Dirt, on the other hand, does not contain this same frenzy of life, making it far less useful for plants who are trying to grow.

Unfortunately, heavy chemical use across the agricultural industry is destroying more and more of our healthy soil each year, in turn leaving us with lifeless dirt. Furthermore, less than 1 percent of agricultural land in the United States is grown under organic standards and those who want to convert to organic farming struggle to escape the intense chemical cycle due to the time it takes and the potential loss in profits.

As the Urban Agriculture Lab management team, we are attempting to combat this soil loss by making soil a bigger part of Spark-Y. To do this, we are building a soil laboratory where staff, students, and visitors can get a close look at what goes on in soil, how soil is made, and the role that worms play in the soil cycle. The soil lab is made up of five main components:

Soil Lab

1. Composting Tower: a four tiered shelving unit that holds vermicompost at different stages in the process. Each of the shelves can be removed for easy access and the entire tower is on wheels so it can be moved around the lab.
2. Live Edge Work Table: a clean work space made from locally sourced lumber cut near Stillwater, Minnesota along the St. Croix and provided by TwinsCitiesTimber. The legs are made out of piping to create a stable work bench or meeting space.
3. Compost Amendment Storage Space: amendments for the vermicompost and compost tea will be stored here to help balance the levels of bacteria, moisture, and fungus in the tea or compost. Some of these ingredients are: sawdust, wood chips, nitrogen stored with a carbon filter, yeast, soybean meal, and alfalfa meal.
4. Compost Tea Maker: brews a naturally nutrient rich water that is a great fertilizer for plants. This will help to keep the aquaponics lab plants healthy and avoids using synthetic fertilizers that have negative downsides.
5. Soil Analysis Space: This area will include a microscope and the proper tools needed to look at the abundance of life found in soil and to check on the balance of bacteria and fungus in the compost.

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Compost Tower

Our soil lab is still in the works, but so far we have completed the soil tower and have gathered all of our materials for the remaining projects. Our live edge table top has arrived and we are in the process of making it into a working space. In the end, the soil lab will foster a learning environment that brings soil to the surface and gives Spark-Y visitors the tools to make their own soil better at home. Stop in soon to see the finished product!

What is Vermicomposting?

Vermicomposting is a type of composting that utilizes worms to speed up the process. The worms eat the organic material and convert it into nutrients at a much faster rate than bacteria and fungus do on their own. As a result, we can create healthy soil on a regular basis and grow stronger plants.

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Sources:

Jerad, Aaron. "Soil Science Basics for Beginners." The Permaculture Research Institute. Permaculture Research Institute, 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 26 July 2017.

Rethinking Farm-to-Table

“Our team is tasked with something new and challenging every day, shaping us into sustainably-minded entrepreneurs.”

This post chronicles 2017 Summer Internship
Urban Agriculture Outreach team's efforts.
Written by: Luke Carlson, Wil Larson, Sarah Ziskin, Claire Hueg.

Here at Spark-Y we are constantly seeking new innovations to create more tightly-knit food systems. We, as the Urban Agriculture Lab Outreach Team, aim to increase Spark-Y’s public presence.

During the first half of our internship, we made new restaurant partnerships and proved that alternative agriculture systems can still grow delicious and competitively priced produce. Increasing our restaurant presence across the Twin Cities is an important step in creating a more sustainable community, as the average meal travels over 1,500 miles to get to your plate. Creating a locally sourced food system increases food security and reduces the emissions from lengthy shipping. Additionally, Our system uses 98% less water than traditional farming. Red Stag Supper Club and Seward Co-op are both current produce partners, and we are working with many other well known restaurants around the Twin Cities who will help us foster a local food system. Check back on our website soon to see which new local restaurants will be serving our produce!
 

Impact-Driven Action

With a broad reach and comprehensive mission, Spark-Y builds meaningful relationships with many local restaurants. Restaurants we partner with have mutual goals with Spark-Y, and it is fulfilling to engage in a network where our partners are also focused on sustainability, local food, and youth empowerment. Community engagement is critical to a healthy, local food system, and our team looks forward to moving out of the formative stages into lasting restaurant partnerships.

In addition, we are working to make our systems more accessible by offering an enhanced tour experience. There are plans for additional tour graphics, a microgreens sample flight to end the event, and dynamic advertising for tour times and dates.

Anyone is welcome to come meet our outreach team and see our Urban Agriculture Lab by registering at spark-y.org/events. Tours are available every Thursday evening.
 

Reaching Out

This past Thursday, we were able to attend Youth Science Day at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Each year, the event gathers Twin Cities youth and teaches them about a relevant STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) related topic. This year’s event focused on community health, offering us the chance to share sunflower microgreen samples and engage students in a vegetable sorting game. We believe that an important part of community health is exposing community members to more healthy food options and local food access.

Upon sampling the sunflower greens, many children exclaimed “I’ve never eaten a plant before!” and then in the same breath said their favorite food was a strawberry or some other fruit. Being able to show young students what healthy local food looks like and teaching them about where their food comes from was very rewarding. The number of children who liked our sunflower microgreens was astounding, since most of them said they disliked eating vegetables. One boy even came back for multiple handfuls, and decided that they were his new favorite food!

There are plans for additional tabling events in an effort to increase our adult outreach and tour capacity. Look for us at Seward Co-op or Nokomis Farmers Market for a chance to say “hi”, grab samples, and learn more about why we love Spark-Y.
 

Moving Forward

One of the best parts about being an intern at Spark-Y is the monumental development we undergo as a team and as individuals. Our team is tasked with something new and challenging every day, shaping us into sustainably-minded entrepreneurs. Specifically, reaching out to potential new clients allowed us to get out of our comfort zone and develop new marketing and networking skills. We were met with inspiring positivity and support for our mission by the many like-minded organizations and businesses. While not every connection turned into a sale, it was still a rewarding and educational experience for us. As we gain confidence in our communication skills, team building, and professional evolution, we begin to recognize all of the ways that Spark-Y is preparing us to make very real impacts on very real problems.