Joanna talks to Nicole and Jordan from Simple Greens to talk about their farming operation.
Nicole and Jordan decided to use their love of gardening to grow food, educate and advocate for a healthier happier community. What started as a healthy hobby of DIY gardening projects using repurposed materials has turned into lifestyle goals to grow healthy food for their selves and for their community. They are essentially a micro-farm. Every year they continue to gather data, learn from their yearly farming experiments and slowly figure out the best crops for the space they have. They live on 2.71 acres where they grow lettuce, greens, herbs and cucumbers hydroponically in several areas on their property including a 2 car garage. They find greens, lettuce and certain herbs grown hydroponically have better yields and are more ergonomically managed. Lettuce is a great beginning gardener plant. Other produce like tomatoes, sugar peas, root vegetables, most herbs, berries, flowers, etc. are grown in soil. They gather leaves in the fall to use as compost and mulch. They are in their 5th growing season. Their largest challenges? The have 4.
l) They have clay soil
2) On the sunniest spots on their shady property
3) It takes time to build the soil and rotate the right crops while building
“said” terrible soil
4) As you will see they are also operating in a small space.
That may be the most unique thing about them–their size. Big or small, each spot and plot in the yard viable for food production adds up and kicks the butts of the two people living there. Their goal is to keep experimenting and learning how to grow more produce varieties. They will expand at home until they can buy land to further their crazy dream. The idea is it will keep them happy and healthy.
Interested in trying a healthy snack? Check out the video for the Kale Mango Smoothie.
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