When I first decided to chronicle the adventures of Lansdowne Urban Farms as part of this website, a good friend warned me that maintaining a blog — especially an engaging one — can be challenging. As I have learned, unfortunately, he was right. The posts on this blog have been far less frequent than I had hoped.
Rest assured, if it has been a while since a recent update in this part of the site, it does not mean that things aren’t happening at the farm. Most likely, if we’re not working at our other vocations, or busy with family, you can find us here — working on some aspect of the farm in a continuous quest to do what we do here a little bit better every day.
Believe me, there is always room for improvement, as the last few weeks of 2022 taught us. Due to a few mistakes, we ended up suffering some disappointing losses. What was well on the way to becoming fresh, nutritious food ended up dying, due to our own error. Once you kill off a plant that you’ve spent time and resources on, there’s no way to get it back. Patience is indeed a virtue, one that’s definitely needed when there’s no other option but to re-plant and re-grow.
Nonetheless, we did accomplish quite a bit during 2022. We grew and sold more lettuce and greens then the year before, we upped our productivity by building more machines, and added an evolving mix of microgreens to our offerings. We helped introduce hydroponics to young people by hosting visits from many schools, pre-K students and scouts. As many of you who have stopped by the Farm have learned, we’re always thrilled to share our indoor growing experiences with others. All very rewarding stuff.
Finally, let us not be without some genuine optimism for 2023! We are looking forward to growing even more food, exploring new varieties, becoming more efficient and predictable about our inventory, and teaching as many of you who will listen about healthy, tasty food and how to grow it.
Stay in touch — and keep an eye on this blog for more exciting updates from us too!
