Edible Garden City tour
Today I visited Edible Garden City's Citizen Farm at Jalan Penjara, Queenstown with Evergreen students. It was truly an eye-opening experience. Firstly, we were introduced to Edible Garden City and its mission, lecture style. Then we proceeded to have a tour around the place, to see what we could bring back to the Evergreen garden.
I was impressed by the model in which Citizen Farm runs by. The world faces food supply challenges and social challenges (disabilities, ageing, disruptive technologies that displace millions of jobs). Thus it is crucial that organisations such as this try to bridge the gap and form a platform for food sustainability and social welfare. The Penjara model disrupts the food system by lessening carbon footprint by lessening the travelling miles, cutting the middle man to make food more affordable and fresher, and basing their values on transparency. It consists of a community of farmers with the same values, employs marginalized communities (such as ex-convicts, those with autism, and the elderly), uses a closed looped system for production (waste is used to fertilize the plants again and goes back to the earth), and creates a co-existence of working space with farming. It really is a mouthful, what Citizen Farm does! They hope to produce 100 kg of greens daily to provide to their subscriptors and restaurants, make use 200 kg of food waste from hawker centers, and hire from 30 beneficiaries.
The outdoor farm consisted of many plants such as Mexican Tarragon, Red Leaf Hibiscus, Dog Fennel, and Butterfly Pea (which has white flowers surprisingly!). It really is a sustainable model whereby taller plants give shorter plants shade, and plants such as garlic ward of pests that disturb other plants such as mint. So no pesticides are used! These vegetables take about 7-8 weeks to grow and are given to their suscriptors. They also plants their greens in space saving towers!
Next, we proceeded to take a look at the black soldier files which they rear to consume food waste. They consume all types of food waste (from NTUC and Mr Bean) only at the larvae stage when they are white, and then black. They can eat 4-5 times their own body weight, and an in themselves very nutritional too. So feeding them to fish will really be a boost of nutrients. Their whole life cycle lasts about a month. 1 week in the pupa, 1 week as a crystallized stage, and 1-2 weeks as flies. They do not feed during the adult stage, so they are very clean. They are also said to be the food of the future. It really is a bio-sustainable and effective way to get rid of food waste through these files!
Then, we proceeded to view the mushrooms! Mushrooms are grown from mycelium which are put in a medium and then inoculated with millet. These colonized grains are then put into bags which contain coffee beans, rice bran and saw dust. Next, the bags are sliced open and the mycelium fruits and produces mushroom due to the oxygen when it is exposed to air. It takes 6-8 weeks for the whole process to produce mushroom. Some of the mushroom that they produce are Oyster mushroom, Pink Oyster mushroom, and Lion's Mane.
Fourthly, we went to take a look at the aquaponics- which is the farming of fish and vegetables combined. How it works is that the ammonia from the fish poop is passed through a microbial filter and turned into nitrate filled water. This nutritious water is
then used to irrigate the plants. Hence, it is also a closed loop system. Citizen farm also uses rainwater to rear their fish. So it is truly sustainable and eco-friendly. They grow vertically stacked kale and other greens as part of their aquaponic system. It was the first time I saw such a big-scale aquaponics system! And the greens were growing very well!
Fifthly, we went to see the microgreens. They are harvested when 2-3 weeks old, are packed with nutrients (4-40 times more than normal greens), and are quite affordable. They include pea sprouts, pea tendrils, micro coriander, nasturtiums, and red vein sorrel. They are grown beside working spaces of SPA group, so its really cool! The office workers there can take a break and look at the greens growing so lusciously or have them as a lunch time snack! The nasturtiums have a wasabi taste, and the red vein sorrel have a mildly sour taste. Next time when you go to restaurants, do check them out!
Lastly, we visited the Farm to Beauty section where there were infused oils, hydro-sols, and dried products such as tea, and also hand moisturizers. These are created through waste leaves and flowers by their in-house researcher, and they even have an eczema treating moisturizer which contains snakeweed, coconut oil and beeswax. Their own products which they developed are pretty cool and whats even cooler is that they are researched from waste flowers and leaves so no part of the plants are wasted!
All in all, it was a very enriching tour, and I saw many things such as the black soldier files which I had never seen before. I would need to ask the volunteers there how to breed them! Till next time!
Citizen Farm
The outdoor farm consisted of many plants such as Mexican Tarragon, Red Leaf Hibiscus, Dog Fennel, and Butterfly Pea (which has white flowers surprisingly!). It really is a sustainable model whereby taller plants give shorter plants shade, and plants such as garlic ward of pests that disturb other plants such as mint. So no pesticides are used! These vegetables take about 7-8 weeks to grow and are given to their suscriptors. They also plants their greens in space saving towers!
Red Leaf Hibiscus
Mexican Tarragon
Butterfly Pea
Butterfly Pea Flower
White Pupa stage
Black Pupa stage
Adult stage
Then, we proceeded to view the mushrooms! Mushrooms are grown from mycelium which are put in a medium and then inoculated with millet. These colonized grains are then put into bags which contain coffee beans, rice bran and saw dust. Next, the bags are sliced open and the mycelium fruits and produces mushroom due to the oxygen when it is exposed to air. It takes 6-8 weeks for the whole process to produce mushroom. Some of the mushroom that they produce are Oyster mushroom, Pink Oyster mushroom, and Lion's Mane.
Mycilium
then used to irrigate the plants. Hence, it is also a closed loop system. Citizen farm also uses rainwater to rear their fish. So it is truly sustainable and eco-friendly. They grow vertically stacked kale and other greens as part of their aquaponic system. It was the first time I saw such a big-scale aquaponics system! And the greens were growing very well!
Aquaponics
Fifthly, we went to see the microgreens. They are harvested when 2-3 weeks old, are packed with nutrients (4-40 times more than normal greens), and are quite affordable. They include pea sprouts, pea tendrils, micro coriander, nasturtiums, and red vein sorrel. They are grown beside working spaces of SPA group, so its really cool! The office workers there can take a break and look at the greens growing so lusciously or have them as a lunch time snack! The nasturtiums have a wasabi taste, and the red vein sorrel have a mildly sour taste. Next time when you go to restaurants, do check them out!
Microgreens
All in all, it was a very enriching tour, and I saw many things such as the black soldier files which I had never seen before. I would need to ask the volunteers there how to breed them! Till next time!
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