Day 61: Fresh Starts

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March 1, 2012 by Alex Hoekstra

Well I’m pooped.  It’s been a long (but productive) week for me, and while it’s not over yet, I’m just now able to unwind for a moment.  I’d stop and smell the flowers if there were any in bloom, but at present I’m turning to Kickstarter to find something green and growing to refresh my weary brain.  You’ll have to forgive me for selecting a project with an objective similar to some of my past choices, but you know how much I love fresh takes on fresh food.  Today’s project is bringing great greens to ordinary people (and extraordinary ones too) in an extraordinary way.

Eight Extraordinary Greens will be an exhibition of Jenna Spevack’s tools and techniques to grow lovely, delicate, delicious and nutrient-laden green leafy eats almost anywhere.  Your bookshelf, perhaps?  That’s where she started.  With this exhibit, she’s demonstrating that no matter who you are, where you live or how much you’ve got in the bank, there’s a big world of microgreens available to you.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/298414837/eight-extraordinary-greens

Jenna began designing small, efficient and very user-friendly microgardens for her own apartment, and discovered how easy it was to produce remarkable quantities of fresh eats all on her own, using the limited space and furniture available to almost anyone.  She’s now turning everyday objects into microfarms and this exhibit will showcase her creative cultivation in an effort to spread the seeds of home-grown innovation.

Jenna started experimenting with apartment-sized farming by converting her bookshelf into a mini greenhouse. To suggest a feeling of domesticity, eight household objects will be modified to house eight microfarms. For example: a suitcase, a chair, a kitchen cabinet, a desk, etc. will be adapted with a planter and lights.

As part of this exhibit, visitors will be able to harvest the greens on display with the option of donating them to those in need.  To me, the exhibit seems like a great way to learn more about urban agriculture and open a lot of people up to the notion of home-growing and self-sufficiency.  I’m not looking to put any supermarkets out of business, but I think a little more arugula in your kitchen ain’t such a bad thing, and it’s a bonus if it didn’t have to be shipped there on a truck.

Check out the vegetables of Jenna’s labor and become a part of this very fresh exhibit by backing this project on Kickstarter before April 1.
I feel refreshed already.

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