Plant Pests and Disease

This is the first blog installment from Sean Brady, Supervisor of Sustainable Agriculture at Nourish the Planet. Today’s topic is disease control in a greenhouse environment.  As the weather here in Colorado has shifted from intense heat to wetter and cooler days we are seeing resurgence in some disease populations. The long heat wave we are experiencing has caused our plants to become stressed, in turn making them...

Uncle Benny’s Building Supply: A New Way To ...

Uncle Benny’s Building Supply, located in Loveland, CO., has a novel business plan when it comes to the home improvement and construction world. Without visiting them you may be tempted to write them off as some sort of pick-and-pull used supply lot. However step into the wonderland that is Uncle Benny’s and you will swiftly see this is plainly not the case. They say they’ve been “Salvaging Since...

Ann Cooper and the Lunch Box

Ann Cooper and the Lunch Box Ann Cooper has a vision. Her vision is to “transform how we feed our children in school each day, from highly processes to highly nourishing food – one school lunch at a time.” She is widely known as “The Renegade Lunch Lady,” is an accomplished chef, and coordinator of a movement to provide parents, schools, and students with the tools to make their school food both healthy and...

Miniature Aquaponics Systems

Aquaponics may seem daunting and not the most at-home friendly project, however these systems can actually be very low maintenance and very artistic. Check out the pictures below from a little aquaponics system that one of our members, Michael Butts, has in his office. This is very cool. The system is about 22 inches long. The plants you see growing are wheatgrass. They were planted in the system 3 days before these pictures...

Protecting Chicken Feed from Scavengers

Feeding livestock, invites “pest species” to come share in the bounty of free food. Whether its birds, mice, rats, squirrels, or deer these pests can dramatically increase your feed bills and harbor diseases. The best way to discourage these free-loaders is to simply make the food unavailable to them.  Chickens are one of the worst culprits for inviting pests because their food tends to sit out longer than other...

Using Ultrasound to Sanitize Produce

With new food recalls popping up all the time, scientists are constantly trying to find new ways to ensure that our food is safe and healthy. Check out this interesting article from Scientific American about a new way to sanitize leafy greens using high-powered ultrasound. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ultrasound-to-protect-produce-from-pathogens -written by Rachel Burmeister, Internship Coordinator...