Aquaponic Setup Complete!

Aquaponics in action!

Our aquaponic growing experiment is complete! The seeds are planted, the light is on, the water is circulating, and the fish are doing what they do best—swimming around in the water, eating, hanging out, and fertilizing the tank system.

Here's a quick synopsis of how we got to where we are:

First, we consulted with a dear friend who works for Brooklyn Farms about how to set up our tank, what supplies we needed, and how the whole thing works. He started us out with these marching orders:

• Purchase at least a 40-gallon fish tank, with two corner filters and gravel for the bottom
• Fill the tank with water
• Two days later, add fish. At first, only add feeder fish. Some will die—and when they do, leave them floating in the water. As the feeder fish break down, they'll be ammonia-based waste. Bacteria will slowly colonize and turn ammonia into nitrite (ammonia and nitrite are both toxic to plants). After that, more bacteria will colonize and change nitrite into nitrate, which is usable fertilizer.

Next up was letting the whole system grow into itself, so to speak. The water underwent weekly nitrogen and pH tests until everything was just right. Then it was time to pick up our grow bed, water pump, tubing, light and grow bed medium. The last two on that list came from the newly opened North Country Hydroponics in Watertown. With all the supplies at the ready, it was time to build the stand for our grow bed, borrowing from a design that utilized PVC tubing. We instead used wood scraps we had on the property:

Intern Director Jaci Collins, left, with Carl Frizzell and Noah Bogdonoff

Then we hooked up the pump and tubes so the water came up out of the tank and over the pea gravel in the grow bed (we also poked holes at one end of the grow bed so the water could drain back out into the tank):

Finally, it was time to plant the seeds. But how do you plant seeds directly into gravel? Here are some tips we gleaned online:

1. Select your seeds. To grow directly from seed rather than seedling, use small seeds such as carrots, herbs, radishes, lettuce or other salad greens.
2. “Broadcast” the seeds over your aquaponic system by gently tossing them on the growing surface -- in this case, the water of the growing beds. Allow the seeds to settle into the gravel at the bottom of the bed. Distribute the seeds as evenly as possible.
4. Insert seeds into seed-starting media if you're attempting to grow larger plants such as beans, cucumbers, melons or peas. With your index finger, push seeds into the center of starting media such as rockwool or peat sponges. Distribute the media evenly throughout the growing beds.
5. Clean young seedlings thoroughly under a water faucet, removing all dirt before attempting to plant them in your aquaponic system. Arrange seedlings evenly, gently securing their roots with the gravel of the growing beds.
6. Keep the fish-to-tank volume ratio at about 2:1 as you grow your seeds. Feed the fish daily -- fish consume about 1.5 percent of their body weight each day. Maintain consistent water quality and pH levels, and clean your filtration system and tubing once a month. When plants appear, trim or harvest them as needed for each individual plant type.

(Tip: Seeds that require lots of acid, such as blueberries, generally don't perform well in aquaponic systems.)

Now we wait for the seedlings to appear. Stay tuned!

For more information on this process, click here.

Free Photography Workshop Set July 12

A free photography workshop, "The Art of Portrait Photography", is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, July 12, at

Better Farm in Redwood, N.Y. Sponsored by area non-profit betterArts, the course will explore different facets of portrait photography, including lighting, posing, and manual camera settings. Those attending mus have their own cameras with manual settings. The instructor for this course is Erin Fulton, a professional photographer working out of Redwood. Pre-registration is required—interested parties may RSVP to info@betterarts.org or (315) 482-2536. Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road in Redwood.

betterArts is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the arts throughout Redwood, N.Y. and surrounding areas through the provision of free and low-cost workshops, residencies, private instruction, studio and gallery space, performances, and events. Learn more at

www.betterarts.org

.

Skeeter War

Summer's here, which means you've probably tried everything from sprays to citronellas to ward off mosquitoes. But if you're finding your B-12 supplements and dryer sheets aren't cutting it, you may want to try the following method, gleaned from Coolest Gadgets:



You've likely heard of a million gizmos that claim to repel mosquitoes with chemicals, ultrasound, or plain ol' scents. Here we’ve found a couple of contrasting approaches to mosquito control, depending on your budget!

The hi-tech solution (shown at top left) is the Mosquito Mega-Catch from Hammacher that uses flashing LEDs, pheromones, and ultra violet light to lure the blood-sucking insects towards the machine. As they get close, they’re sucked inside by a negative airflow. It’s been claimed that one of these machines devoured 1200 mosquitoes in a single night, and at $200 dollars this gadget’s not overly expensive.

Of course there are people for whom $200 is unthinkable, and these are most likely to be the people whose lives are threatened by the malaria parasite. The low-tech solution, developed and perfected by schoolchildren from Taiwan, uses a 2-liter soft drink bottle, filled with a sugar solution, to which yeast is added. The yeast ferments the sugar producing CO₂ gas that acts as a magnet for the mosquitoes. If the top of the bottle is cut off and replaced in an inverted position, the insects are trapped. The yeast will continue to produce CO₂ for two weeks.

Here are the DIY directions:

1. Cut the top of the bottle as shown in photo at top right.
2. Put 200ml hot water in the bottle, stir with 50gram brown sugar. Put the sugar water in cold water to cool it down til 40C (temperature)….
3. After cooling down, put the sugar water in the bottle then add the yeast. No need to mix the yeast with the sugar water. When yeast ferments, it creates carbon dioxide.
4. When you cut the bottle, dont throw the top part away because that’d be needed for step 4 – you see they put the top upside down to fit into the bottle….
5. Put black paper around the bottle since mosquitos like dark places and carbon dioxide. This mosquito trap will then start working. Mosquitos fly around the corner, so the best place to place the trap is at some dark corner.

DIY mosquito trap found via Neatorama. 
Mosquito Mega-Catch found via Ohgizmo and Uncrate. 

From Wild to Wine

In spite of the 90+ temperatures this afternoon, more than 20 people came out to participate in Better Farm's blueberry wine workshop.

Here's the article from MyABC50.com (photos from the workshop are below!):

By Holly Boname

A group of North Country residents have learned what it takes make a batch of homemade blueberry wine.

The free workshop, put on by Better Farm located in Redwood, demonstrated how to collect wild blueberries and through the process of fermentation, turn the natural fruits into a homemade wine.

Instructor Paul Jennings says that many different fruits and vegetables can be turned into wine, and that the blueberries found locally in Northern New York lend well to a good blend of wine.

The students first learned about the basic principles of equipment sterilization, fermentation, and production. Students crushed the blueberries into a workable mixture, added the correct sugars and ingredients and tomorrow will finish the process with the addition of yeast.

Executive director of Better Farm, Nicole Caldwell, says that the workshops are designed and created to increase community involvement, fun and education.

“We have been designing an entire series of workshops for the summer, all agriculturally related,” said Caldwell. “We are trying to connect the idea of healthy local food with something recreational like wines. So we thought with all of our workshops, if we can tie something local into it, whether that is people learning how to do rainwater catchments and then being able to apply it at home, or picking blueberries from Plessis and then making your own wine to share with your family and friends, to just bring it all home and try to get people involved with what’s going on around here.”

Many workshops are held throughout the summer at Better Farm. For a listing of workshops, visit www.betterfarm.org/upcoming-workshops.

On Location: July 4th Fireworks in Alexandria Bay

From the Alexandria Bay Chamber of Commerce Website:
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 @ dusk (approx. 9:45pm)
The evening air was cool, the sky was clear and bright and the crowds came in anticipation for the annual Alexandria Bay Fireworks over Boldt Castle. Many came early for a leisurely stroll through the Village streets, shopping, eating or just enjoying the company of fellow travelers. None were disappointed.

The fireworks display performed by Pyrotechnico were the courtesy of the Alexandria Bay Chamber of Commerce and the many local businesses, individuals and the Town who donated to the cost of the display.

The magnificent display could be seen for miles away lighting up the sky with multi color facets and reflected off the calm waters of the St. Lawrence. In a tribute to our nation's independence, the sky shone bright with the red, white and blue colors of our flag. For the first-timers to the repeat display watchers, the fireworks display over Boldt Castle was truly a magnificent site.

...And a few shots from the night:

All photos and video by Nicole Caldwell

Seed Independence

Happy Fourth of July!

This year, celebrate your independence by harvesting and storing your own, non-GMO seeds for your personal and community gardens.

We found this great resource online, aptly called the Seed Saving Handbook, which covers all your bases; from seed-specific instructions to harvesting directives for heirloom seeds.

Here are a few great reasons to save your own seeds:

• Create new varieties adapted to your growing conditions, your tastes!

• Save money by saving your own seeds and/or trading with other seed-savers.

• Preserve the genetic diversity of our heirloom food plants.

• Empower your own personal breeding goals instead of the commercial goals of agribusiness seed breeders.

• Help retain plants' pest resistance.

• Feel satisfied, empowered and connected.

Click here for the full guide

.

Aquaponics Part IV: Why Aquaponics?

The aquaponic setup at Better Farm.

By Noah Bogdonoff
In case you missed it, Better Farm has been steadily working on setting up an indoor aquaponic garden. We’ve taken you through the set-up and installation of our own system, but one big question remains: Why aquaponics? What can this type of system give us that we don’t already get from our (beautiful!) garden?

Firstly, aquaponic gardening is space-efficient. This isn’t so much an issue up in the North Country, where land is easy to come by, but in urban areas aquaponic gardening could revolutionize the way people think about food. Because aquaponic systems don’t require soil, all one needs to garden is enough space for a fish tank and a growing container that can fit atop it. This is also space-efficient in that it builds vertically, preserving precious floor space! Since many residents and interns (myself included) hail from cities, this is a perfect way for them to get started with sustainability when they return to their natural habitats.

Secondly, this system provides us with food year-round. North Country winters are notoriously harsh and the availability of fresh produce could save us from a winter of frozen and canned foods. For people living far away from grocery stores or those who don’t have easy access to organic and local foods, aquaponics is a surefire way to add some fresh, healthy food to your diet without having to go on a road trip. And, speaking of road trips, aquaponic gardening is a beautiful form of “lifestyle activism”—by growing food in your own home, you can avoid wasting the energy required to transport the food as well as the energy required to drive to the store.

The third big advantage of aquaponic gardening is that, given all of the above, it actually saves you money and time. As with outdoor gardens, growing your own food can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars every year. The average payback time for an aquaponic garden has been estimated at two years, meaning that after two years, you’ll have saved the amount of money you spent on the system. After that, your average cost of living per year will decrease. Unlike traditional gardens, however, which require laborious hours of weeding, watering, and tending, aquaponic gardens are extremely low maintenance. Once the nitrogen cycle is set up and the seeds are planted, the closed-loop nature of the system allows it function mostly on its own, as long as you’re feeding your fish. Once a plant is fully grown, just pull it up and pop another seed in its place.  

There are many more reasons to go aquaponic, but it’s easy to see why the above three could completely change the landscape of food politics in cities, suburbs, and harsh climates. Stop by the farm later on in the summer to see the fruits (well, vegetables) of our labor!

Mare's Wares Arts Fest Gets Better

Better Farm and betterArts joined in on the festivities yesterday at Mare's Wares Arts Fest, an annual arts and crafts festival in Morristown, N.Y.

With art for sale, a collaborative mural for everyone to participate in, T-shirts and mugs, workshop sign-ups, and information about Redwood and its surrounding lakes, Holly Boname and I got the word out on all things Better.

We had gorgeous weather all day and got to mingle with other local artisans and business people, from Fourth Coast Inc. to Home Again Farm. 

Many thanks to Mare's Wares for hosting this festival! Here are photos from the day:

Chicken Troubleshooting: Curly toes, cannibalism, and confusing eggs

Splinted toes on a baby chicken.

There are countless benefits to having chickens, so long as you have the wherewithall, know-all, and compassion to raise them properly. And though homesteading has become fashionable (urban farming, city chickens, books on sewing at Urban Outfitters) it's important to remember that there are responsibilities and risks associated with all the fun and rewards.

We've covered chicken-rearing fairly extensively throughout this blog, but we haven't gotten into too much about trouble-shooting tips for what to do when things go wrong. In this entry we'll go over some of the most common problems we've run into, and how we set about correcting them.


Curly Toes

Every so often, a chick that hatches out of his or her egg will be afflicted by toes that, as they grow, bend and turn inward. The deformed toes left unchecked will result in your chicken eventually limping around on more of a stump than anything else. One of our recent arrivals, who we're calling Scooter, had this issue on top the fact that one of his legs was malformed from the get-go. That left only one leg to work with, the foot of which had three lame toes that started curling around on him when he hit 3 weeks old.

Worries about the implications this held for his future walking abilities, I conducted some cursory searches online to find out whether anything could be done for the little bird.

As suspected, the toes don't tend to fix themselves. Once they start bending sideways and rotating, they're likely to continue doing so until the foot is a webbed knarl of crooked toes. The solution? To make a little boot with a piece of cardboard on the bottom of the foot and the sticky parts of a Band Aid (or white adhesive tape you'd use for sports injuries) across the top to hold each toe in place. Here's a picture of a chick (barely a few days old) I found sporting the Band Aid look:

And here's a shot of our dear little Scooter:

Remember to take the brace off every day to check on the bird's progress. We're on day four of this experiment and have already noticed some improvement. Remember, you need to do this while the bird is still young! After 4 weeks, the bones may have set too much to do much to help the little bird.

Cannibalism
It's no secret that chickens have tendencies toward cannibalism. This trait is aggravated when you keep your birds in cramped conditions (hence the reason many farmers cut the ends of birds' beaks off when they're newly born), aggravated when you use a white heat lamp on chicks instead of red, and aggravated when introducing new birds into the flock.

We ran into this trouble when we got some young Ameraucana chicks and put them out with our free-range birds. Not realizing that the young birds shouldn't be added to the flock until they were making adult-bird sounds (as opposed to their cheeping), on Day 3 during the last week of May we went out to discover one of our little girls had been attacked sometime early that morning by her adoptive older sisters. The chick's head was badly injured, skull cracked and neck horribly pecked. We took her inside to wash her wounds and protect her from the other birds until she was well again. And though we prepared for the worst, Destiny's Child continued to heal. We applied peroxide and triple-antibiotic ointment every morning and night for the first three weeks, then just in the mornings. She still sleeps in a laundry basket inside at night, but during the day she's up and running around with her old friends. Warning: GRAPHIC IMAGE!!

Before

Now

We'll keep an eye on her until her scabs are 100% corrected.

Egg Laying Issues
Your chickens will lay eggs steadily for about a year, with frequency declining after year 2 or 3. Some people butcher the chickens at that time; but this crowd hasn't gone for that idea. We like the chickens to ease into a nice, free-range retirement. We keep providing food and shelter for them, and they in turn help control bugs and weeds in the garden. By rotating the chicken tractors around the gardens and fields, these birds act like little roto tillers by turning over rough earth. They also do their part to enrich the soil by eating our food scraps and fertilizing the ground. Chicken manure is also great as a natural fertilizer (see a great chicken manure tea recipe here). If you're thinking about getting chickens, be sure you have a strategy for what you want to do when the birds stop or slow down as egg-layers.

Occasionally, your chickens will lay a soft, rubbery egg. Usually just a random occurrence, sometimes this can be a sign of a larger problem. To ensure this doesn't mean your birds have a calcium deficiency, be sure to keep crumbled up eggshells available to the birds (or oyster shells, available at any feed store). Stress can also cause chickens to lay soft eggs. Remember, the birds scare easy! Moving the coop, opening the roosting box while the birds are laying, or if a predator tried to get in over night could all contribute.

Two Festival Events This Weekend

Portugal's Boom Festival, 1998. Image from tribe.net.

Better Farm and betterArts will be out in force this Saturday and Sunday, tabling at two festivals with art and food for sale, interactive art demos, sign-ups for our mailing list, information about artist residencies, and sustainability internships,  T-shirts and mugs, and the many smiling faces of this summer's cast of characters.

If you're around this weekend, these festivals are going to be great fun: tons of live music, local goods and food for sale, and art.

Third Annual Keith Brabant Music Festival: Saturday, June 30

The Keith Brabant Music Festival is scheduled from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. at Coyote Moon Vineyards in Clayton. The event is free and features local musicians performing throughout the day. Food, wine and kids crafts will also be available. Money raised at the event funds music scholarships for children. The Keith Brabant Music Scholarship was formed in remembrance of Keith Brabant, a musician and composer born in Clayton. Keith believed that all youth should have a full musical education from kindergarten through 6th grade, in order to have the basic knowledge needed to appreciate music. The Keith Brabant Music Scholarship is administered by the TI Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization. To learn more about the TI Foundation and to learn about their other scholarship opportunities, click here. 

Mare's Wares Arts Fest: Sunday, July 1

Mare's Wares Arts Fest is slated from 12-8 p.m. Sunday, July 1 at Mare's Wares Pottery, 3938 State Highway 37 in Morristown, N.Y. The event is free and features fabulous handcrafted items and fine artwork from artisans from all over the north country and beyond, live music all day, activities and demonstrations, wine tasting and local produce.

Check out our photo montage and betterArts info on the Mare's Wares Facebook page here.

Beer Brewing Workshop This Friday!

A beer brewing workshop is slated from 1-3 p.m. this Friday, June 29, at Better Farm in Redwood.

Those attending will learn the process of home beer brewing, from hops to fermentation. The group will start a 5-gallon batch of plain, light malt extract brew (all participants will be notified when the beer's ready!). The instructor for this course is Paul Hayes, an experienced home brewer with more than 200 micro craft brews under his belt.

There is a suggested $10 donation for any workshops scheduled at Better Farm to cover costs of basic materials, ingredients, and any associated instructor fees. Unless otherwise noted, we will provide all necessary materials at the workshop.

Pre-registration is required! Please sign up by contacting us at

info@betterfarm.org

or (315) 482-2536. Overnight accommodations are available for out-of-town guests (

click here for more information

). For a listing of arts-related events and workshops,

click here

.

The Organic Life

By Noah Bogdonoff

What does it mean to be organic? To shoppers, the word guarantees the freshness and safety of their food. To the

USDA

, it is a strict set of rules by which the organization can direct consumers to the most healthily raised food products. To farmers, its meaning is much more complex.

Better Farm

's interns on Thursday came face-to-face with some of the most inspiring and complex issues surrounding the world of organics at

Cross IslandFarms

on

Wellesley Island

.

Dani Baker and David Belding own Cross Island Farms. Though the land has been in use since the mid-1800s, the Bakers bought it seven seasons ago with no inclination to become full-time farmers. Since then, their “farming habit” has turned into a

CSA

, dozens of animals including goats, cows, pigs, ducks, and chickens, and a burgeoning foray into eco-tourism through guided tours of the land and “primitive” campsites.

Of course, these efforts feed into one another. As David explains, every animal has a job on the farm that extends beyond producing eggs, milk, or meat. The Bakers practice rotational grazing, meaning that they constantly shift their animals’ pastures in an order that promotes fertile land and high levels of biodiversity. In addition to creating prime land for vegetable gardening, this type of farming shelters the Bakers’ livelihood from typical blights such as the

previously blogged-about armyworm

. By breeding a diverse and hearty selection of plants and animals, they’ve eliminated the risk of one disaster ruining an entire crop or killing an entire herd.

Beyond the practical, however, Dani and David’s farming methods exemplify an extremely important attitude towards life. Their 100+ acres, which include many areas of Class 2 protected wetlands, grow more fertile and more diverse with each new season. The Bakers are not just living off of the land—the land is living off of them. The goal? To not just maintain the integrity of the earth they live on, but to improve it.

At Better Farm, that is what organic means—not just a certification, but rather a philosophy and methodology that ensures our presence as a boon to the land, the wildlife, and the people that surround it. 

Blueberry Winemaking Course Slated July 6

A blueberry winemaking course is being offered from 1-4 p.m. Friday, July 6, at Better Farm in Redwood.

In this workshop, students will learn how to make several different varieties of wine, then will utilize what they've learned to begin the fermentation process with wild-picked blueberries, from squishing the fruits to bottling.

Ages 21+ only, please! There is a suggested $10 donation for any workshops scheduled at Better Farm to cover costs of basic materials, ingredients, and any associated instructor fees. Unless otherwise noted, we will provide all necessary materials at the workshop.

Pre-registration is required!

 Please contact us at

info@betterfarm.org

or (315) 482-2536 with any questions, to pre-register, or to inquire about teaching for us.

The instructor for this course is Paul R. Jennings

.

Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road in Redwood, N.Y.

For a full listing of agricultural-related workshops at Better Farm,

click here

. For a listing of arts-related events and workshops,

click here

.