Blue PIke Farm in Cleveland on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Resources are mostly culled from discarded materials. Old tanks, leaf refuse from suburban lawns, etc
Soil is conditioned with compost and worms. Farm space operator is looking for groups that want to collaborate with operator, do research on small plost and produce food. Apprenticships with local schools also welcome.
We discussed some of his work on rainwater runoff capture from surrounding buildings, pumping that to an elevated hold with wind, and then gravity feeding it to drip strips to all growing crops.
Carl has a very thrifty and effective business model, he tries to reuse and recycle other people's stuff whenever possible, and his rule is "Is it free, and do you deliver?" Surprisingly, the answer is often yes over half the time.
Carl is proving that Urban Farms can produce a living wage, with an extremely low overhead cost, in less than 2 year's time, and with most materials recycled from discarded or unwanted items from surrounding City and Suburbs.