Field trip to a hydroponic greenhouse

Jean Siracusa was kind enough to show off her geothermal heated hydroponic greenhouses. Her son, Marty and a few other part time employees maintain the operation. The first crop I saw was fresh lettuce which they sell to several high-end restaurants in the area. They also grow hydroponic tomatoes, cucumbers and other crops as well. Some of the crops from heirloom seeds taste...simply amazing. By maintaining ideal conditions, the plants have an impressive growth rate which also means an impressive harvest rate - all year long! What is also amazing is that it is all done without pesticides or modified seeds. The farm produces cash crops in the winter months, starter plants for the spring growing season and additional crops that are grown outside in the summer months. To the left is a stock photo of some lettuce plants just getting started.

Green houses and buildings consume large amounts of energy; a factor where their cost can be prohibitive for greenhouse climate management. Geothermal system's pumps provide winter heating and summer cooling, especially important in greenhouse food production in the the northeast climate. After initial installation, the heating/cooling system has proven to be an inexpensive source of heating and cooling energy.

So, if you have an interest in growing plants hydroponically or you just want to eat in a healthy way, come to the next Green Drinks event! I'm sure Jean or Marty can tell you what they have learned by growing high-quality food during all seasons!

Conversation about Conservation - in the news!

During the last green drinks event, there was an unexpected bonus. A reporter from the Auburn Citizen decided to see what the Green Drinks event was all about. A few days later, there is a full page article in the "Lake Life" section of the newspaper! The online news article can be found HERE.

Re-localization with rapid prototyping!

In the years ahead, energy prices will increase. So, it may make sense to produce small plastic items such as replacement parts locally rather than ordering those items from distant places. To explore the idea of re-localization, AuburnSIG has partnered with the Syracuse Innovation Guild to build a MakerBot kit. Once it is put together, the hope is that a machine could make small plastic parts on demand. That would potentially save energy, packaging and ordering time for plastic items. One use might be for making replacement parts for items that currently are not cost effective to repair.

The parts produced by these printers may not be as stylish as true injection mold but they can function quite well. For example, the black part is not as smooth as it's original on the left, but it is built heavier. Read a story about a person who used just such a machine to produce this part for his dishwasher. There is also this youtube video about another home repair that was done with a makerbot. The areas of open-source OS systems, 3-d printing and renewable materials give hope that our technological infrastructure can be maintained in the years ahead in spite of declining energy resources and economic problems.