Numerous companies are experimenting with portable farm environments. Here is an example.

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For thousands of King County, Washington, residents, having enough food to feed themselves and their families is a worry. The number of people seeking food assistance increased over the last year, according to a report by Public Health echoed by King County councillor Jeanne Kohl-Welles. This increase is happening while food costs are higher than ever before.

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Indoor gardening projects can bring benefits to retirement communities of all sizes. The projects proposed herein can assist residential and social communities with active engagement in a combination of social and business activity that provides both satisfaction and achievement.

As the world’s population becomes older, more urban and more atomized, social engagement becomes ever more important. Indoor gardening can be a key to active living with purpose. It can provide nutrition, often a serious problem for seniors, and it can provide meaningful work without adding stress to daily life.

Consider the case of microgreens. Microgreens are seedlings that are cultivated only to the emergence of the first few true leaves and typically harvested in seven to fourteen days. Growth occurs hydroponically without soil, fertilizers or biocides, just seeds and water!

Microgreens add nutrition, flavor and visual interest to any meal. The varieties range from mixed greens to broccoli to scores of other species. Initially they were added by specialty chefs mainly as garnishes. Research has shown that they are also highly nutritions, often several multiples of the same species cultivated to maturity.

Because they are harvested at the seedling stage, little of the energy of the seeds or the growing environment goes into producing stalks or other non-nutritive material. It’s all food! When added to a balanced diet, microgreens add nutrition and increase interest in healthy eating due to their novelty and variety.

A shelving unit like that shown can produce in sixteen square feet (1.5 m2) about 200 one-ounce servings weekly of nutritious microgreens. (Serving size varies with species grown). Assuming two servings per day, that is enough to satisfy the needs of about (200/7/2=) 14 persons. The consumers will be healthier, and the growers will be productive and engaged.

Such productivity and engagement can have a larger social or economic purpose. A space the size of a typical bedroom can produce about $1,500 to $2,000 per week in microgreens at wholesale prices. Packaged for retail or direct distribution to consumers that amount can rise to over $12,000 per month. The labor requirement is about 20 hours weekly. The point is that a small group of residents or partners can produce enough to create significant income in very little space. The capital investment needed for equipment and materials to create this product flow starts at less than $5,000. Some training is required. If this path is followed, participants will have the challenges and mental health benefits of running an actual business; customers can be the residential institution or the open market, depending on the objectives of the operators.

Now imagine a residential or social congregation of elders, such as a life-care community. Given a group of a half dozen persons sharing the responsibilities of a small in-house business, residents could operate a "commercial" garden, selling produce to the community itself, or it could grow to serve its surrounding neighborhood or parallel facilities with the fresh, local, nutritious produce so often lacking in modern diets. If space within the facility is lacking, then given the productivity of the system, modest rent or profit-sharing with a partner-landlord can be accommodated. The participating residents would share the profits on an equitable basis of their own devising.

It’s really no more complicated than that, and our community stands ready to assist your community with training, equipment and expertise.

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We've had mixed success with tomatoes in our Seattle project, but others have had better outcomes. Here's one 2014 story from Southern California..

Well-known Tacoma educator Maxine Mimms recently visited the IFC Garden in Tukwila, Washington. The garden, established in 2021, is currently teaching indoor growing of microgreens and various leafy greens using multiple technologies. Teaching is coordinated by GOE president Michael Twiggs in associating with Maxine Mimms Academy (MMA).

MMA's indoor gardening program was established in 2013 and has trained indoor gardeners in Seattle, Tacoma and other cities. In addition to indoor growing, the program explores business aspects of gardening and the potential role of urban gardening as an economic engine that can innovatively create opportunities based on addressing the "urban food desert" observed in many cities around the world.

Dr. Mimms founded Maxine Mimms Academy in 2004, initially to address concerns about re-engagement of secondary school students who had experienced conflict with conventional education, often due to family and social issues. The Academy has since expanded into other areas of community based education.

Indoor Farm Collaborative (IFC) is a joint venture of several Seattle-area organizations and firms.

Maxine Mimms Biography

In case you're old school and growing outdoors, here are some succesful planting groups. Where your lead "crop" is in the left column, pair with those in the center. We can't attest to the results, but it sounds reasonable. Sign up to share your own experience.

Go to any health food store and you’ll be sure to find microgreens lining the produce section. They have been all the craze in the food sphere for the past couple of years but don’t let all of the hype confuse you–microgreens are a simple way to bring nutritional variety to your diet and can easily be grown in your own home!

Microgreens are a class of vegetable greens, in between a sprout and mature vegetable plant, (typically grown indoors and harvested 10-14 days after planting) and are especially conducive adaptable to an urban agriculture environment.

Microgreens require minimal space, materials and time making them extremely versatile and something you can do at home. They can be produced from a wide variety of plant seeds–sunflower, pea shoots and radish being most common but micro-herbs, -grains, and even -beans too. The possibilities are truly endless.

What they lack in size, they make up for in flavor and nutritional content. Fresh microgreens can contain up to 40X the nutrient content as compared to a mature plant leaf. Due to their high nutritional content, simplicity to grow and delicious bold flavors, microgreens serve as the perfect complement to a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Tune in next week to get the scoop on what you’ll need to get started in growing your own and even one of my favorite recipes for using these delicious and nutritious greens.

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Food is a human right. If specific communities are being left out of the equation, we need to break down the food system and rebuild it better. We need to build resilience for all in order to have a collective food secure future ahead of us.

Tackling Food Inequities

The number of individuals, groups and community organizations seeking to build stronger local food systems is growing. It is encouraging to see the USDA continue to provide financial support to city stakeholders as applicants around the country aim to improve their communities through urban agriculture.

Urban Agritecture

Starting in December Tacoma Urban Leage will host a training program on hydroponic gardening. The first seminar will take place December 9 at the League's office. The training is offered in cooperation with Garden of Eden Urban Farming and Maxine Mimms Academy and will be coordinated by Michael Twiggs.

Since spring 2017, Tacoma Urban League has sponsored a hydroponic gardening demonstration garden. A group of students and young entrepreneurs in training is experimenting with growing as part of a future independent commercial project.

Future training sessions will range from DIY home gardening to commercial scale. For more information contact Michael Twiggs via the GOEUF contact form here.

I've noticed recently that there is a lot of incorrect or outdated information regarding wood pallets. My company makes dozens of pallets each day so I thought I would clear the air...

More companies are starting to build one-time-use pallets or use heat treatment rather than Methyl Bromide fumigation. Pallets now require an IPPC logo which certifies that the pallet was heat-treated or fumigated with Methyl Bromide.

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The first strawberries in our newest growing environment, a vertical tower, have begun to redden. This first crop will be subject, of course, to a bit of "professional sampling and quality control" by the staff, but thereafter we will be moving toward a distribution process. By late fall, when others are hiding from rain and snow, ours will be ready to enjoy for the holidays.

The first lettuce crop at our Seattle facility will be ready for harvest soon. The photo shows project director Michael Twiggs with some plants under cultivation. They will be available as "living lettuce" in April. The plants are doubling in size weekly, and this image is already a week old. Also shown are collards, peppers, tomatoes and other species under experimentation as we determine the best combinations of light and nutrients for our facility. (Sorry for the bad pun.)