Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Hoop house basil? Some early research

It's January, which means no farmer's market basil until July or August. Not too early to start thinking about it, though, especially thinking about how to grow your own - perhaps using a hoop house to speed the process along. Here's some preliminary research to share.

http://mdmintake.blogspot.com/2006/08/basil-anyone.html

Brooke and I had a great time at the farm this afternoon. And by great, I mean I now know why Tricia is always wearing carhartts, a straw hat, gloves and boots. The weeds on the farm? Not so much like the weeds in our garden.

http://deberosahomestead.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/portable-hoop-house-construction/

This year we built a portable hoop house on Deberosa for tomatoes and basil. It was fairly successful but as you can see from the storm post, it didn’t survive an extremely bad wind. I think it would have survived it the rain did not make the ground so soft that the rebar simply pulled out of the mud. Oh well, we’ll rebuild for next year - it will just be a little shorter and perhaps oriented lengthwise to the prevailing wind.

http://quetzalfarm.com/tour.htm

Early in the spring we plant basil and cucumbers in our hoop house. It is significantly warmer than outside, allowing us to harvest much earlier. The basil will grow into fall.

http://www.newfarm.org/depts/beginning_farmers/0603/greens2.shtml

Basil’s really the only herb to which we give much attention, and it responds well. It flourishes in the heat of the hoop. Keep cutting back the terminal buds and it’ll bush out. Give it an occasional shot of fish and it may produce for months.

http://www.vpi.org/urban_farm.html

ReVision Urban Farm is an organic micro-farm whose guiding vision is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable urban agriculture. The farm grows a wide variety of food crops on three reclaimed urban lots totaling one-acre of growing space. The farm enhances the delivery of nutrition services throughout our community and increases local awareness of the social, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable urban agriculture.

Technorati Tags: basil, hoophouse, gardening, farm, ubifarm

Pedal powered washing machine

Homeless Dave has this video documenting his design, implementation, and real world daily use of a dual use pedal power system, with a pedal powered washing machine spinning clothes dry, and a separate belt going to a generator for electricity.

We talked on Teeter Talk back in September, and you'll catch a piece of the washing machine discussion there. Naturally there's a sticker.

go urgently, and find some mechanical engineer while you're at it who has powertrain or appliance experience to look at the design and source parts for an improved version.

Technorati Tags: pedalpower, laundry, teetertalk, homelessdave, specialized