Emigrant farmers market building a community

Market manager Joyce Johnson works hard to nurture the community that revolves around and within the tiny Emigrant farmers market, with an average of 10 vendors and a very big heart.

I wrote about this market during its 2011 season. In some ways it looks the same, but in other ways, it has grown.

"Were seeking to develop a new habitat for a community gathering," Joyce told me today. She deliberately named it the Peoples Market so anyone in the Paradise Valley could participate, even during the early part of the season when produce is still ripening. Shes considering extending the market during winter, wondering if vendors could use the local church hall.

"Were small now," Joyce conceded, "but big-hearted."

I enjoy visiting this market. It feels warm (even in the cold sun of mid-September) and welcoming. Vendors are happy to talk to you about their wares or even about things that interest them.

If you want to learn about yin and yang, ask the woman selling tiny cherry-size "yang" plums from her garden.

If you dont know anything about solar cooking, fireless cooking, or how alive water is, have a chat with Greg, who sells Sunovens and essential oils. The 3 pounds of potatoes in the Sunoven will be done by the time the market closes at 1 pm.

Eighty-year-old Richard will give you his recipe for Dutch oven potatoes if you prefer them cooked traditionally, plus hell add a plug for cultured vegetables, like homemade pickled beets and sauerkraut, that "do good work on your intestines." Handily, he has plenty of homegrown potatoes, beets, and cabbage for sale, along with squash and other good-looking vegetables.

James is a painter, but he comes to market to share the abundance from his garden. Today he had amazing heirloom tomatoes, garlic, kale, and lettuce.

But the prize was the tub of foot-long, tender Tyria cucumbers. Each seed costs $1.20, and so each cucumber sold for $4, but every bite is a delicacy. James handed out samples of dried cucumber, which was a treat in itself.

You can already see what an amazingly abundant market this is, and Ive only mentioned 4 vendors!

Today there were also jewelry, shawls, Native American artifacts, and Yankee Bobs cookies. You can read about Yankee Bob in my 2011 blog post about the market, but now he has extended his selection to include gluten-free and vegan items.

Oh, yes, and some fun wood items.

Stop in soon and get to know these friendly people.

Emigrant Peoples Market

Lawn of St. Johns Episcopal Church, across from Wildflour Bakery

Saturday, 10 am - 1 pm

June 14 - October 25 (weather permitting)

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Building Hugelculture Beds

 I like raised beds because they make gardening easier and keep gophers out. 

 This is how Im making my hugelculture raised beds.

Rounds ready to be dropped into the hugelculture bed

Large logs over 1 foot in diameter were used

I packed small branches in between too fill in the spaces

Looking down from a nearly completed section

Ive covered the logs with dirt and washed it down into the material below 

Next I will add about 8" to 12" of top soil

This raised bed is also filled with wood scrapes below the top soil
I have potatoes planted in this box

In a few years these hugelculture beds will act as a large sponge reserving  rain water for the dry month.   If you have a hugrlculture bed Id like to know how happy you have been with it.

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Aquaponics basic Components of a system

Aquaponics - Aquaculture Meets Hydroponic Farming 

 

There are a variety of methods used in aquaculture, but the system - by definition - is a closed system. This in itself poses a problem - the large amounts of water needed to successfully sustain a healthy colony of aquatic life. When you grow commercial amounts of fish or other aquatic species you must clean the water continuously due to the high amounts of toxins given off by the waste of the crop.
Hydroponics itself poses problems of its own, namely the constant flow of water and addition of nutrients - a costly and time-consuming effort. Water must be constantly monitored for necessary supplementing with food and other components for plant health, and the constant, open circulation of water results in large amounts of evaporation of water that must be replaced continuously.
Enter Aquaponics and its benefits. If the fish needs clean water to survive, and the plants need constant nutrients, why not give each what it needs in a compatible, symbiotic relationship that, when balanced, becomes a complete ecosystem needing just a minimal amount of maintenance? That plan was put into place, and by aquponics we have the ever-expanding research of combining the two systems for the greater good, enabling more food to be grown in less space, and less water being used to grow it.

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Urban Aquaponics Basic Components

There are three part components to the system:

Your Fish, The Plants You Grow, and The Hardware You Use To Build.

1. Fish

A variety of freshwater fish can and have been used for aquaponics systems,

including carp, goldfish, trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, catfish, and

tilapia to name a few.

2. Plants

Based upon your decision surrounding your choice of fish, and the stage of their

maturity, you will now need to give thought to your plants.

The Ultimate Aquaponics Home System is a float based system, and you can

either start your seedlings already in the floats or you can transfer the shoots

from a seedling bed attached to the system (an option for which your plans here

allow) or from a conventional seedling tray.

3. Hardware

Schedule 40 PVC, Pump, Floats, lumber, and water treatment products.

Many of the hardware items can be purchased locally.

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Art the aquaponics

Acquaponics system reflects the values ??and culture of art Watch this video

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Nitrification

Nitrification, the aerobic conversion of ammonia into nitrates, is one of the most important functions in an aquaponics system as it reduces the toxicity of the water for fish, and allows the resulting nitrate compounds to be removed by the plants for nourishment.[1] Ammonia is steadily released into the water through the excreta and gills of fish as a product of their metabolism, but must be filtered out of the water since higher concentrations of ammonia (commonly between 0.5 and 1 ppm)[citation needed] can kill fish. Although plants can absorb ammonia from the water to some degree, nitrates are assimilated more easily,[2] thereby efficiently reducing the toxicity of the water for fish.[1] Ammonia can be converted into other nitrogenous compounds through healthy populations of:

    Nitrosomonas: bacteria that convert ammonia into nitrites, and

    Nitrobacter: bacteria that convert nitrites into nitrates.

In an aquaponics system, the bacteria responsible for this process form a biofilm on all solid surfaces throughout the system that are in constant contact with the water. The submerged roots of the vegetables combined have a large surface area, so that many bacteria can accumulate there. Together with the saliency of ammonia and nitrites in the water, the surface area determines the speed with which nitrification takes place. Care for these bacterial colonies is important as to regulate the full assimilation of ammonia and nitrite. This is why most aquaponics systems include a biofiltering unit, which helps facilitate growth of these microorganisms. Typically, after a system has stabilized ammonia levels range from 0.25 to 2.0 ppm; nitrite levels range from 0.25 to 1 ppm, and nitrate levels range from 2 to 150 ppm.[citation needed] During system startup, spikes may occur in the levels of ammonia (up to 6.0 ppm) and nitrite (up to 15 ppm), with nitrate levels peaking later in the startup phase.[citation needed] Since the nitrification process acidifies the water, non-sodium bases such as potassium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide can be added for neutralizing the waters pH[1] if insufficient quantities are naturally present in the water to provide a buffer against acidification. In addition, selected minerals or nutrients such as iron can be added in addition to the fish waste that serves as the main source of nutrients to plants.[1]

A good way to deal with solids buildup in aquaponics is the use of worms, which liquefy the solid organic matter so that it can be utilized by the plants and/or animals.

Hydroponics subsystem

Plants are grown as in hydroponics systems, with their roots immersed in the nutrient-rich effluent water. This enables them to filter out the ammonia that is toxic to the aquatic animals, or its metabolites. After the water has passed through the hydroponic subsystem, it is cleaned and oxygenated, and can return to the aquaculture vessels. This cycle is continuous. Common aquaponic applications of hydroponic systems include:

    Deep-water raft aquaponics: styrofoam rafts floating in a relatively deep aquaculture basin in troughs.

    Recirculating aquaponics: solid media such as gravel or clay beads, held in a container that is flooded with water from the aquaculture. This type of aquaponics is also known as closed-loop aquaponics.

    Reciprocating aquaponics: solid media in a container that is alternately flooded and drained utilizing different types of siphon drains. This type of aquaponics is also known as flood-and-drain aquaponics or ebb-and-flow aquaponics.

    Other systems use towers that are trickle-fed from the top, nutrient film technique channels, horizontal PVC pipes with holes for the pots, plastic barrels cut in half with gravel or rafts in them. Each approach has its own benefits.[3]

Most green leaf vegetables grow well in the hydroponic subsystem, although most profitable are varieties of chinese cabbage, lettuce, basil, roses, tomatoes, okra, cantaloupe and bell peppers.[2] Other species of vegetables that grow well in an aquaponic system include beans, peas, kohlrabi, watercress, taro, radishes, strawberries, melons, onions, turnips, parsnips, sweet potato and herbs.[citation needed] Since plants at different growth stages require different amounts of minerals and nutrients, plant harvesting is staggered with seedings growing at the same time as mature plants. This ensures stable nutrient content in the water because of continuous symbiotic cleansing of toxins from the water.[4]

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