Urban farmer Maureen Wall shows young salad greens growing in her aquaponic greenhouse.
The largest aquaponics operation in the state of Washington is in an alley in Port Angeles, way out on the Olympic Peninsula, best known for its rainforests and Olympic National Park. Aquaponics combines cultivating plants in water (hydroponics) in a symbiotic relationship with aquaculture, raising fish in tanks. The plants have their roots in water fertilized by the fish, producing food with no soil and 90 percent less water than conventional agriculture.
Maureen Wall had no idea that her creative experiment in aquaponic farming was the state’s largest until she was contacted about providing aquaponic salad greens for a Seattle chef’s special fundraising dinner. Celebrity chef Hsiao-Ching Cho is serving up Chinese Soul Food at an August benefit for FareStart, a forward-thinking Seattle nonprofit. FareStart provides training to empower homeless and disadvantaged people to achieve self-sufficiency and find employment in the food service industry. FareStart runs a catering service and operates a downtown Seattle restaurant offering delicious lunches. The restaurant is also the venue for Guest Chef Night dinners, giving the students practical experience while benefitting special programs.
Wall’s pioneering efforts in farming on a downtown city lot grew from her decision to rehabilitate a venerable Odd Fellows Hall on a bloc between a traditionally industrial area and the center of downtown Port Angeles. When she first moved in, her south-facing back yard, alley and surroundings were a sea of abandoned vehicles and garbage.
A decade later, a prolific grapevine twines three stories up the wooden staircase on the alley side of the brightly-painted building reclaimed from urban decay. A delicious variety of sustainably grown organic salad greens thrive in her aquaponic greenhouse and cold frames, part of the food production capabilities of the aptly named This is Odd: An Urban Farm. People now stroll by this unexpected sight of a profusion of greens, artichokes, rhubarb and lavender in this once scary urban alley.
Fittingly, the greens from This is Odd: An Urban Farm will benefit Project Feed 1010, an exciting program of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology aimed at addressing the impending food security crisis.
Special hand delivery was required to get the freshly-picked lettuce from This is Odd, first to King 5 News in Seattle for New Day Northwest, a cooking show that aired Monday, August 24. Another special overnight delivery brought greens for the Guest Chef Night benefit on Thursday the 27th.
Back in Port Angeles, Wall has constructed grow beds on an adjacent lot so her urban farm can grow enough lettuce to supply the needs of local restaurants that she’ll deliver by bicycle. Edible mushrooms may soon be on the odd but expanding menu too.
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