Lansdowne Urban Farms
On this frigid day in early January, the temperature outside in Lansdowne is a bone-chilling 24 degrees – conditions that are far more conducive to growing icicles than growing fresh greens and produce. Yet here inside Lansdowne Urban Farms, the thermometer says it’s a relatively balmy 72 degrees, which is just about the same temperature it always is, regardless of whether the calendar says July or January.
A couple of weeks ago, students from Lansdowne Friends School took a class trip to downtown Lansdowne where they visited two local small businesses: Lansdowne Urban Farms and Kia’s Cakes. Zachary and I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with the group during their visit. We loved sharing our knowledge of hydroponic farming with them, and it was refreshing to hear some fantastic questions about the process from their perspective. Impressively, they showed some real insight into climate change and its impact on their future, and seemed to recognize why the idea of sustainable, locally grown food is so darn important.
As a parting gift, we gave everyone a piece of Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce on their way out. Most of them were excited to give it a taste, yet one young person replied with a short, yet polite, “I don’t eat lettuce. Yet after taking a piece, trying it, and then eagerly chomping it down, the young boy’s opinion had apparently changed.
“Maybe I do eat lettuce?” he said. This lettuce is good!”
It’s nice to know that even young folks who aren’t normally too fond of their veggies can taste the difference and appreciate fresh, local produce.
We hope the experience was as enjoyable to the students from Lansdowne Friends School as it was for us, and hope to see them again. The thoughtful and creative thank you cards they sent (shown below) were a ton of fun to read, too!
If you’re an educator, or have young people in your lives who would enjoy learning about the hydroponic process and the importance of locally grown food, please feel free to reach out – we’d love to have you by for a visit!
Thanksgiving is just about here. What does it mean to you?
To some, Thanksgiving means gathering for a dinner with turkey and plenty of side dishes, celebrating each others milestones from year to year, and enjoying the company of family and close friends. To others, the holiday means parades, football games, and getting ready for the start of the holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving 2021 also marks a cautious, gradual return to these holiday traditions following the (hopefully) worst of the pandemic.
Thanksgiving also means that Lansdowne Urban Farms is approaching a significant anniversary, as we celebrate one full year of hydroponic farming. The first year has seen its share of growing pains for us, and we’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of growing food hydroponically. The holiday is a bit of everything to us, but the “thanks” in Thanksgiving is always paramount.
We are thankful for the opportunity that you, our community, has offered us – to provide, fresh, healthy food that’s grown, harvested, and sold right here in Lansdowne. In the big picture, we are a relatively small operation, but it feels important to us, and we’re grateful that we have found so many others interested in what we do here.
So thank you – for your patience, your willingness to try new things, and for keeping up your interest as we work to find our place in your kitchens and on your tables. Our community is important to us, and we are especially thankful that we can be a part of it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Climate-controlled indoor farming is increasingly playing an important role in our food supply chain. From smaller operations such as us, to national grocery chains, produce grown in controlled environments is becoming much more common as demand increases for healthier, sustainable foods. And you, as a part of the Lansdowne Urban Farms community, are helping to drive demand for indoor farming.
What other factors are behind the growth of hydroponic farms?
For years, the popularity of organic foods has greatly increased as consumers seek out foods that are free of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Although indoor farming is not exclusively organic, it often is. But the use of the term “organic” is a whole other conversation entirely.
The reduction of arable land – land used for traditional agricultural crops – is another factor. As support grows for a land-preservation approach to farming, non-traditional methods such as hydroponics become a bigger part of our food supply chain.
This increased awareness and concern for personal health and the environment leads to more demand for produce grown in environments such as ours.
What drives Lansdowne Urban Farms? Simply put, we want fresh, healthy food to be grown, sold, and eaten right here in our community. While our model is somewhat different than many hydroponic farms, our endeavor is definitely worth exploring, and the support we’ve seen from our community is an indication that folks in Lansdowne agree.
You deserve pesticide-free food that doesn’t sit on a truck for days, and we’re doing everything we can to provide it.
It’s been a while since our last update, as we have been rather busy here at the farm. The process of getting our new machines up and running has required a fair amount of troubleshooting, but we’re finally up and running with new seedlings now well on their way. As we have learned, patience is an attribute we’ve had to learn as we navigate this new phase of growth!
We also have enjoyed the assistance of our newest workers here at the farm: Ladybugs! Yes, ladybugs are making a difference here, helping us keep the pests away. Believe it or not, even when growing indoors, pests can and will find your crops.
Ladybugs, however, are natural predators, and help keep our produce free from aphids and other insects who might want to take up residence on our leafy greens. So if you buy something from us and find a ladybug hitchhiker, there’s nothing to worry about – just remove it, put it in your garden, and say “thank you” for doing their job.
Our four brand-new hydroponic growing systems are now up and running. Just yesterday, we started our first seedlings in them, and it’s hard to contain our excitement!
With the construction part of this expansion finally behind us, we can now turn our attention to the greens and lettuces that these new systems will be home to.
In just a few weeks, these seedlings will have been grown, harvested, and found their way into kitchens throughout our community. Stay tuned – we’ll be sure to keep you updated on what’s happening at the farm in the near future!
One thing I have learned from starting a small business is that every single thing takes longer than you expect. After 30 years, you might think I’d be used to it, but the unfortunate truth is that time is a mighty foe, almost always winning out over looming deadlines and forcing us to change expectations on the fly.
This is definitely the case with our current effort to add to our growing capabilities here at the farm. Building and setting up four new growing machines has been a challenging, time-consuming process. Yet, we are finally getting close. And yes, I know, I may have said that before, but (fingers crossed) we’re really, really almost there.
All four new machines should be up and running early next week, and not only do we think we’re going to love them, we believe you, our community, will too. The resulting improvement in growing conditions, the additional variety, and the larger inventory we will have on hand will make the entire experience of obtaining quality lettuces and greens that much better for everyone.
We thank you for your patience and appreciate your continued support. As a minor distraction from the continuing construction here, I wanted to share you a sign of hope: seedlings in our ebb, just waiting for the new machines.
Our growing capabilities are in the midst of a major upgrade, so if you stop by the farm this week, please pardon our appearance. The process of building four new machines on site has left the place looking slightly disheveled, but we’d like to think that’s just what progress looks like. The results will be coming soon: more greens, grown better, always the freshest!
and we don’t mean frivolous and inconsequential. The frilly leaf of our Scarlet Kale is rich in nutrition and flavor and while it might be slightly pink and frilly, our newest kale should be taken seriously.
We’re currently in the process of building four new hydroponic growing machines for Lansdowne Urban Farms, an addition that we hope will not only greatly improve our growing capabilities, but also offer better spacing that will elevate the quality of the greens we grow. With lots of positive feedback from our growing community so far, these upgrades should be extremely good news for our entire community.
However, building a hydroponic system from the ground up is not for the faint of heart. Our quest to build these machines demanded that we not only buy, measure and cut steel, but also weld this steel together – which neither of us had any prior experience in.
Lucky for us, we found Bill, who is an immensely talented individual with a mastery of all things construction – as well as a fine gentleman and a dear friend whose contributions to the birth of this business cannot be overstated.
In the course of building a business, there are many challenges along the way, and Bill has been an essential asset to our team. From the start, his tireless support and ability to solve problems has helped us achieve our mission to grow quality food locally for our community.
So thank you, Bill, for making this endeavor possible, and far less scary! We simply couldn’t have done it without you!
