Business & Lifestyle Expo

Hi everyone!

Last night we attended the Black Tie Gala for the opening night of the Business and Lifestyle Expo. We were happy to be a sponsor and to be involved with some of the vignettes and décor for the event.

We had a “Farm to Fork” display set up.

The main theme in the foyer was to show that Urban Farming is a viable business. DTL Herbs is classified with the State of Michigan as an Urban Farming business. So, naturally we were thrilled to be part of this.

Urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, and horticulture. These activities also occur in peri-urban areas as well.

Urban farming is generally practiced for income-earning or food-producing activities, though in some communities the main impetus is recreation and relaxation. Urban agriculture contributes to food security and food safety in two ways: first, it increases the amount of food available to people living in cities, and second, it allows fresh vegetables, fruits, and meat products to be made available to urban consumers. It decreases food deserts. A common and efficient form of urban agriculture is the biointensive method. Because urban agriculture promotes energy-saving local food production, urban and peri-urban agriculture are generally seen as sustainable agriculture. 

Source: Wikipedia

Anyone can create a full garden in a small place.

This produce bed was created from scratch on site. It is very easy to take a small part of your yard and grow a decent amount of fresh produce.

Another area create was a Aquaponic lettuce garden.

Aquaponics  or pisciponics, is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are broken down by nitrogen fixing bacteria, then filtered out by the plants as nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals.

As existing hydroponic and aquaculture farming techniques form the basis for all aquaponics systems, the size, complexity, and types of foods grown in an aquaponics system can vary as much as any system found in either distinct farming discipline.

^{Source: Wikipedia}

And of course a fresh flower bed.

Here are some pictures of other vignettes using live plants. These are displays created by the students of the Roosevelt High School Agriculture program. Items were donated or loaned.

We had a fun evening and heard lots of wonderful feedback on the foyer displays. Everyone involved did a fantastic job!

Herb Infused Iced Tea

Hi everyone!

Last week we gave the last of the 3 part presentation at Roosevelt High School. This presentation was about using herbs.

Since we have started our herb business we have discovered that people can be a bit confused about herbs. It is not an area everyone feels comfortable when it comes to using them.

After spending a huge amount of time educating folks at the Farmers Markets about herbs and then having many requests from organizations to speak about how to use herbs, we finally added this as a part of the presentations we now offer.

If you are not familiar with how to cook or bake with herbs, I believe it is best to keep it simple. Just add a little here and there until you start to find out what you like.

So, for this last presentation I prepared some very simple treats for everyone to try.

This post is going to show you how to do a simple Herb Infused Iced Tea.

Now, this is NOT herbal tea. This is a black tea infused with herbs. And “infused” means all the tea and herbs were NOT boiled.

How to:

Boil a kettle of water

In your pitcher add 5 bags of your favorite black tea. (Most common teas are black tea or a mix of)

Add in the pitcher a Tablespoon of dried Peppermint

Add 1 1/2 teaspoon of Dried Lemon Balm

Add one heaping teaspoon of Dried Stevia

Stevia is a natural sweetener and is basically calorie free.

Pour boiling water into the pitcher and let steep for about 30 minutes. The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor.

**If you don’t have the dried herbs, you can use fresh herbs. Generally that means you need to use 2 to 3 times the amounts. And make sure you crush up (bruise) all the leaves to release the oils.**

Next double a piece of cheesecloth across the pitcher and strain into another pitcher. You can do this twice if you want but, generally by doubling the cheesecloth, once is enough.

Now refrigerate and enjoy!

Remember, you can try different herbs that you like in making an Herb Infused Tea. Play around with any of the mints and “Lemon” herbs (Verbena or Thyme). And you can use the same recipes to make a Hot Herb Infused Tea.

I will be sharing more fun and easy things that I made using herbs at this presentation in the coming week so, stop back by!

For more great recipes, check out these parties I am joining:
Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
Tasty Tuesday

Lady, is this thing bugging you?

Whenever possible we go out of our way to use safe, clean, organic and natural methods of weed control and pest control.

For many years now, we have used no herbicides or pesticides or chemical fertilizers on our herbs.

That is not to say that we have never used them. But about 8 years ago we started to eliminate them, and we have not used any at all now for four years.

You can grown fabulous big giant vegetables if you pump your plants and ground full of the right chemicals. But we grow our plants for more than just appearance and we decided that we just are much more comfortable knowing that we are not feeding anyone any chemical additives.

The impact of various chemical treatments on our land and water tables is apparent, and although the effect on our bodies is not so clear and easily defined, one only needs to look at the health of our grandparents generation, and their diets, and compare those with the health of our generation and our diets, to draw some pretty clear parallels.

So, although we havent reached the stage of treehugging yet, we have made a conscious effort in the last few years to grown a more environmentally friendly product.

One of the steps we have taken is to implement Integrated Pest Management to our operation.

On their website, the Environmental Protection Agency describes Integrated Past Management (IPM) as follows:
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of common-sense practices... ...to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

You can click on the paragraph above and read all about it.


Anyway...

...last week, when we discovered some aphids in the greenhouse, we looked at what would be the most economical and least hazardous way to address that problem.

Knowing that ladybugs (Ladybid Beetles) eat aphids, we called around to the local farm supply stores, to see if any of them sold ladybugs. All of whom acted like we wanted to buy space aliens. One employee of a local feed store even asked "Why in the world would anyone BUY bugs?"

Well, apparantly she doesnt practice IPM.

We started looking online until we found an affordable source of ladybugs. They arrived three days later, and we released them into the greenhouse.




It didn't take them long to start doing their job.



This particular lady, inspired a sign for the greenhouse.

The Greenhouse

Hi everyone!

I thought you might actually like to see the greenhouse at Roosevelt High School that we are always talking about and were you will find us quite often.

This greenhouse is behind the high school. And I mean immediately behind it.

This side is right along the street. You see those metal racks on the side of the building? During the warmer months you will see those racks filled with hanging flowers for sale.

All kinds of watering and plant hanging systems.

Hanging plants are starting to pop up already.

Potting and work stations.

So, that is a peek into one of our favorite places! If you are a avid gardener, isn’t this like a candy store? A place to play all year long!

Tonight (March 1) Troy will be giving a presentation at Roosevelt High School at 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm on “How to grow herbs”.

There will also be a tour of the greenhouse. This is part of a 3 part series. On March 15, Troy will be presenting “Harvesting and preserving herbs” and on March 29 he will talk about “Using herbs”. Lots of fun info!

In the other two nights of presentation there will also include a tour of the Hydroponics and the Tilapia farm.

If you get a chance and live locally, hope to see you there!

Fresh Lettuce

Hi everyone!

After a visit to the greenhouse and spending a good deal of time snapping pictures left and right, I thought I would share some gorgeous lettuce that is ready to pick.

It is growing hydroponically and is beautiful!

Now, last time we posted pictures of the hydroponic beds, we had lots of questions about them. So here is a little bit about them.  The hydroponic systems are made from everyday materials available at Lowes, or Home Depot, or any store like that. They are simply downspouts, with holes cut in them, drip irrigation tubing, a water reservoir and a pump. They were developed and designed by a retired engineer who volunteers at the school, and built by students.

Did you know that a lot of this wonderful fresh lettuce is used at the school in the cafeteria? These students are literally growing their own food. They aren’t at the level to completely supply the school cafeteria yet but, they sure are working at that goal. Isn’t that awesome!

They do sell some of the lettuce as well. This is one of the ways they earn money to put back into the greenhouse. And where would you rather buy your lettuce at this time of the year? The grocery store, where you have no idea where it came from and what was sprayed on it? Or right here at a local high school greenhouse where you could go in and look at it and choose what you want 

Don’t you wish all schools could have this amazing program in place?

Are you planning on growing some lettuce? With the weird weather we have had here in Michigan, it is going to be interesting to see how early crops will be able to be planted and produce.

I think I am going to try a variety of different lettuces (love all the beautiful colors lettuce comes in) and other greens as an early crop this year. If I have luck with them, I will try a fall harvest as well.

Now, decisions, decisions….which varieties to try out?

Check out this interesting idea to try different lettuce without using a lot of space. Hummm…..

I found this photo online and have no idea who the original source is. Sorry about that. I would love to see more detail on this.

Greenhouse News - Seedlings

We had just started our partnership with Roosevelt High School (click here for details), and worked with them for a few days when it was time for spring break.

The kids get time off, but somebody still has to water the plants.

So the advisor and I have been making sure that everything got lots of TLC.

The Horseradish is off to a great start.


The Thyme and Marjoram were the first ones to sprout and they are really looking good.



The Dill, Oregano, Salad Burnet, Savory, and Bunching Onions, have all sprouted, and many of the edible flowers we planted are showing a few sprouts per tray.






By next week, when the kids come back to school, there should be lots and lots of seedlings for them study.

We are very excited about this partnership and, because we want to share our progress with everyone we can, this post will be linked to Fertilizer Friday, a blog party where garden enthusiasts share the happenings from their gardens.


Click here, so you can visit Fertilizer Friday for tips, ideas, suggestions and pictures from gardens and gardeners around the world.

Business Partnership

We have recently entered into a partnership with Roosevelt High School, in Wyandotte MI.



Roosevelt has an amazing Agriscience program, dedicated to helping students learn about careers and a future in agriculture.

A recent article about the program had this to say:

The program [incorporates] FFA and supervised agricultural experiences, with a strong emphasis on landscaping, floriculture and greenhouse activities...

...Students put in as much effort outside the classroom as they do at their desks, working on the school's natural turf athletic fields, maintaining two working greenhouses and an in-house floral shop, and marketing their own poinsettias and other holiday foliage products.

Students raise and merchandise annuals and perennials for a spring sale and for use in RHS school gardens. In addition to their two working greenhouses, Roosevelt ag students also maintain city gardens containing ornamental and edible plants, process their own tomato crop as part of Campbell Soup's national gardening promotion effort, and raise their own flock of chickens to compete in the FFA broiler contest.

Along the way, they learn the importance of sound recordkeeping practices and business skills; promote proper pet care and host pet adoption days; coordinate activities with local garden clubs; and interact with public officials on the school board, Wyandotte Downtown Development Authority and city council.

Roosevelt's FFA program has grown into a regional powerhouse, currently boasting more than 120 students and routinely earning chapter and individual proficiency awards. RHS students have attended every state FFA convention for the past five years and gone on to the national FFA convention four times.

I met the advisor for this program at the farmers market last year, and as we talked, we realized that by adding herbs to the repertoire of plants the students grew and understood, we could enhance their program while helping to keep herbology, which seems like a dying craft, alive.

So we began recently, working with a small group of students, introducing them to herbs and working with them in the greenhouse to plant a wide variety of seeds.

In two days, this week, we were able to plant seed for just over 1250 herbs plants.



We planted many of the standard herbs commonly grown by beginners, as well as a few of the more unusual herbs.

Some of these plants will end up in the school gardens, some will end up being sold, and some will be used strictly to grow seed for next year's gardens.

As the year progresses we hope to be able to teach the students how to prune, and care for their plants, how to harvest herbs, and how to dry, preserve and use the herbs that they grow.

This is an exciting partnership for us and we are looking forward to a long term relationship with the high school.