I once trained my chickens.  This is pretty much how it all began.  For fun watch:  http://vimeo.com/6324470

The reconstructions in the little aquaponics system at the Colusa farm site are complete…

The community is invited to visit the fish and plants in our system!


Our 30 new Channel Catfish fingerlings are  busy helping our food plants to grow.

We have Lettuces, tomatoes, cabbages, Goji Berries, tomatillos growing in the beds so far.

The plants grow faster in beds of pellets nourished by water from the fish tank, faster than if they were growing in dirt garden beds!


Aquaponics is  a simple man-made water garden that anyone can build in their backyard or on their family's balcony.   We built our system almost entirely from common items available from stores such as Home Depot, and Urban Ore in Berkeley.

Well, here it is almost 3 years into the spark of this work and I finally have a moment to sit down and blog. What I thought would be one little urban farm in Richmond and the donations of fruit trees to give to the Richmond community, has grown into three urban farms, two community fruit tree orchards, a new street unpaving and planting project, a relationship with the Richmond city staff and politicians, where I find myself now. Having started this in El Cerrito and then moving to Richmond where the opportunity and needs both were greater, I am again at the precipice of another transition point. It's time to start creating sustainable living environments. Whether we build green structures at the original and current sites to provide for housing for participants and community members, or whether we locate new sites and continue to grow, not to mention the challenges of acquiring the sites or existing buildings that can be renovated in green ways by and for the community.

I am committed to the knowledge that human beings have a need to survive and that we have basic drives for food, water, shelter and social inclusion. If these basic needs are dependent on an economy which can collapse, which can be withheld from certain groups, which can become an avaricious value, then we see the fallout of crime, hunger, homelessness, and self devaluation.

I am also committed to the awareness that our well-being is dependent on the well-being of the overall community. As physics shows, we are all part of the same energy.