How did we choose our aquaponic training?

   During tours or general conversation with my customers, I am often asked how I learned to grow aquaponically and what brought us to this point. In 2013 when we were contemplating the purchase of this land, I knew I wanted to get more experience with organic vegetable growing so I signed up for a 6 month internship at White Violet Center for Eco-Justice, which is an organic farm in Indiana owned by Catholic nuns.  At that point I think I knew very little about aquaponics or why someone would even consider growing food that way. As part of our internship we were required to do a project before we left the program. Since I had spent 30+ years in  food service management, with the last 18 of those years being in institutional food service management, I decided to do an analysis to see if the land that White Violet owned could supply most of the food that the sisters needed for their facilities. In doing my research I came across information on aquaponics and the high density level of growing that you could do in a small footprint of land. Aquaponics seemed to be very well suited to what we wanted to do with our farm, since most of our land is comprised of a steep slope. We needed a way to grow efficiently and since we are on a well, we needed to be able to grow food without the need for lots of irrigation. I also knew that I would be the main person to take care of the crops and I wasn't really fond of spending my days weeding.
   In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm the type of person who researches any large investment extensively before pulling the trigger. And that is exactly how I viewed going to aquaponic training...as an investment. An investment in the future food supply for me and my family and an investment in something that I could build upon for the future. Sure there are lots of videos out there on You Tube that will teach you how to build different types of aquaponic systems but what would happen when I have a question down the road?..."Will there be a video that addresses my specific question?" I chose Friendly Aquaponics training classes because of the experience of the instructors. They have real world experience and have grown large amounts of produce for close to 10 years. They don't sell expensive equipment packages, like some of the other companies I researched, but would teach me how to build a system myself and they would be there to answer any questions I would have for as long as I have my system.
 One of my favorite sayings is something that one of my college professors used to say, "You don't have to know everything...you just have to know where to find it." I "found it" when we went to the training that Friendly Aquaponics held in Tennessee. I didn't have to know everything but I knew that if I went to the people who could show me how to build a system and give me step-by-step manuals that would help me design and run a system that I would have peace of mind in knowing I could do it. And if I get really stuck and need help, they have been there to answer my e-mails and help me out.
 It seemed like a lot of money when we signed up for the training because we had to take a week off of work, plus pay for a hotel and gas to drive to Tennessee. But it's been worth every penny to know that we are able to grow our own food supply and have chemical-free food throughout the year. I've spent my life in the food service business and I don't know about you but when I see the decline in food quality on the supply side of the industry, it scares me to death and makes me proud to be a primary food producer.
   It makes us really proud to be able to "pay it forward", by being a training center here in the Northeast. By working with Tim & Susanne, from Friendly Aquaponics, we want to share with people the step by step process of creating a system, whether it's a small table-top size system or a huge, commercial one) so you can return home and become primary food producers too. To sign up for training, just like what we went through, go to http://www.friendlyaquaponics.com/pennsylvania-training/

Slow Progress

It seems that nothing moves as fast as I’d like it to. It has been so frustrating working with contractors around here. They are not prompt in getting back to you with quotes or to return phone calls. It’s not the way I’m accustomed to doing business. A customer shouldn’t have to hound a contractor to see when he’s going to show up to work. Our excavator hasn’t put in more than one full day on the job, per week, since he started over a month ago. Now that we have to have everything done by this weekend, I thought that we had lit a fire under him but he only worked a couple hours this morning and is now gone again. Ugh !!! We need to have all of the utilities hooked up by Saturday so we can get our motorhome on-site and hooked up. That way we’ll be close to mom to help her out and check on her.   He got the water hooked up but now we need the sewer and electric done.
Right after I put the last post on the blog, my mom wound up in the hospital for almost a week. Her gallbladder got terribly infected and her heart was in A-Fib so she had a tough time of it in the hospital. She’s been home now for about 10 days and I’ve been staying with her to change the dressing on her surgical area and flushing the drain that they have sewn into her side near her gallbladder. Lots of doctor’s appointments to take her to so it keeps me hopping. Two weeks from today we have our aquaponics training to go to in Elora, Tennessee. My brothers and sister will check in on mom while I’m gone. If anyone is interested in learning more about aquaponics, it’s 5 days of hands-on training in system design, the business side of things and pretty much everything you need to know to get started. For a training site closest to you, go to http://friendlyaquaponics.com.
We’ve got some exciting marketing stuff going on ! I spoke with the local grower’s market about putting together a survey to see what people would like to see offered in our area. I asked if I could attend some of the market days to hand them out and get feedback. They said that if I put a survey together and would be willing to share the data with them; that they would e-mail the survey out to their mailing list of folks. How cool is that !  So I used Survey Monkey to create the survey and it will tabulate the results as they come in. A unique identifier is created for every survey and the results are linked back to the person who created the survey.  A great way to get a professional looking survey and tabulated results to boot.
While researching the mechanical components needed for our aquaponics system (air pumps and water pumps), I came across some neat info on the internet concerning water aeration using alternative energy. There are wind mills on the market (for under $2000) that are used to aerate ponds which help to eliminate or reduce the amount of algae in the water. Using super efficient designs, they can generate 3 – 4.5 cfm with even very light winds. These are generally used to aerate ponds that are 10-30’ deep so I think there would be a great application for use in troughs that are only a foot deep. Plus they have a controller module that senses when the turbine is not turning so your regular air pump would kick in to make sure the plants and fish have oxygen. How cool is that ?! Something to check out further…for sure.
Hoping to have more pictures of our progress and another update soon.