Your hydroponic garden is a personal thing. Choosing where the garden is going to be, what you are going to grow, the work that goes into your garden, watching seeds sprout and seedlings grow into adult plants ready for harvest. I feel personally attached each time I plant an Aloha Vertical Victory Garden and watch it grow. While it's a personal choice what you're going to grow in any given season, we wanted to put together a list of the 5 easiest vegetables to grow in the Aloha Vertical Victory Garden. There are many vegetables that can be grown in one of our systems, from Arugula to Zucchin ..read more

USDA is Now Accepting Applications for FY 2017 Farm to School Grant Funding! The USDA recently announced the release of the FY 2017 Farm to School Grant Program Request for Applications (RFA). Why is this exciting? Last year, 74 projects received a 2016 Farm to School Grant award! Nearly $5 million in grants were awarded to projects spanning 39 states to fund school districts, state and local agencies, tribal nations, agricultural producers, and non-profit organizations in their efforts to increase local foods served through child nutrition programs, teach children about food and agriculture ..read more

Whether you're eating Southern U.S. style creamed spinach, saag paneer from India, buñuelos espinaca from Argentina, spinach Gomae from Japan, spinach empanadas in Portugal, or spinach straight from the can, Popeye style, you know that spinach is amazing and good for you. If you didn't know this about spinach, well hopefully after this blog post, you will. Speaking of Popeye, an interesting anecdote is that as a result of the spinach-eating cartoon, domestic spinach consumption in the U.S. rose by 33% in the 1930's. That's a lot of growth to come from a cartoon! Most of the spinach in the U ..read more

On Thursday February 12, 2016 the students of Christ Cathedral Academy made their way past a hydroponic garden and into their gymnasium for their morning meeting and announcements. The announcements were normal enough; an upcoming girls' basketball game, jump rope for heart would be this afternoon, the school fundraiser was coming to a close, a Lent service would be held Friday morning. One announcement, though, they were hearing for the first time: after the morning meeting would be the blessing of the "Garden of Hope." A few months ago, Aloha Urban Farming found donors who were interested ..read more

Aloha Urban Farming is working on cultivating school gardens, and trying to get them into as many schools as possible. We're passionate about getting healthy food into the hands of the next generation and we want to take a minute to dig into why school gardens are so important. The Legacy of School Gardens Having school gardens for the purpose of teaching students about food cultivation is not a new idea. In fact, history shows a few examples: a botanical garden was planted in 1525 at an Italian University as a hands-on method of teaching students to grow plants. Father of modern education J ..read more

The California Drought As you have no doubt heard, California is in a drought. What is a drought? Well, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center: drought is a “protracted period of deficient precipitation resulting in extensive damage to crops, and resulting in loss of yield.” As of the end of October 2015, ~26% of the contiguous U.S. were experiencing moderate to exceptional drought with ~14% experiencing severe to extreme drought. This started back in 2012, hasn't let up, and there isn't an end in sight. This leaves many of us working to reduce our water footprints and conserve ..read more

Easy Recipes for Fennel Tops Fennel recipes often feature the white bulbous bottom of the plant. But we really like using the leaves and stalk as an herb for flavor enhancement (fennel is known for it's subtle licorice flavor). It is also worth mentioning, especially at times when yummy foods abound, that the health benefits of fennel include relief from indigestion.  Below are a few simple fennel recipes I've used to do something new with everyday dishes. Fennel and Chive Potatoes  Fresh herbs are a great way to get extra nutrients into the staples of life, such as potatoes, espe ..read more

If you're like me and grew up around southern cooking, chances are you have been familiar with collard greens for most, if not all, of your life. Perhaps for you, like me, the dark leafy green, a typical southern side, remains a mystery. Spinach is spinach, kale is kale, but just what, exactly, are collards? Well, I'm here to fill you in on our vegetable of the month: collard greens. History:  The name collard is a corruption of the old Anglo Saxon word colewort which literally meant “cabbage plant.” This is fitting as collard greens are in the same species as cabbage, Brassica Oleracea ..read more

illustration by Aaron Glasson This story comes from Lucky Peach #16: The Fantasy Issue. For more great stuff like this, subscribe to the magazine!  Right now, those in the business of feeding us face two monumental hurdles: a skyrocketing population that threatens to outpace our food supply, and climate change, with all its attendant catastrophes. There is no silver bullet that can save us from ourselves, but there are people out there devising solutions that might seem like science fiction.  WHAT’S THE IDEA? Feeding the global population currently requires farmland total ..read more