Harvesting Chard & Basil to make a Veggie Lasagne in the HS Cafeteria!

Between the outdoor composted planting bed Jerome and Hadley taught the students to create last year, and the food growing like gangbusters in the new Growing Dome, one of Hadley's 2010-2011classes harvested veggies to make a wonderful Lasagne!

Planting the Growing Dome Beds, August 2010

Here are a few photos of Jerome teaching students and volunteers, during the planting of the Growing Dome planting beds in late August, 2010.

Roaring Fork High School is off to a great year of growing food in their new Growing Dome, thanks to all the donors who have made it possible!  (see the donor list, right sidebar).  Thank you Everyone!

Filling the Floor and Building Planting Beds: June/July

Chris Carnevale and members of the Maroon Corps volunteers joined us to move almost three truckloads of soil into the Growing Dome to level the floor, before we built the planting beds.  Riley Blacksmith donated most of the cost of making the planting bed brackets you see here, and Valley Lumber gave us a great price on the rebar, u-bolts and corrugated metal.  We hope to complete the planting beds, fill them with soil and plants, build the aquaculture tanks, and wire the climate battery thermostats and fans, all before a Community "Thank You" Potluck we plan to hold from 5 - 8 pm, Sunday, August 1.

After the Growing Dome is built, Insulation Skirt and Door Slabs

Actually, the insulation skirt would have been more effieceintly placed BEFORE the dome was erected, but many things, including the weather, conspired against us in May.  In late May and early June, we placed the Insulation Skirt around the dome in a trench dug by our volunteer excavator, Frank Hagemann.  Justin and Patrick, interns at CRMPI, worked with Michael and Jerome to complete the insulation perimeter and to form and insulate for the door slabs.  TJ Conrete sent a crew over in mid-June to pour the entry slabs, and Louis Meyer brought his backhoe/loader to backfill the perimeter for us.  Thank you, everyone!

A "Sister" Program Launches in Denver

DPS Partners with Colorado Organic Producers Association (COPA), University of Colorado Denver (UCD) and Sprout City Farms (SCF) to launch a pilot urban agriculture program at McGlone and Bradley Elementary Schools:  READ THE ARTICLE

Growing Dome installation complete!

The week of May 10-14 contained many obstacles to completing the foundation piers in preparation for Growing Dome erection on the weekend of May 15-16, but we just made it with help from Frank Hagemann and his skid-steer, and from TJ Concrete's foreman Mike and his crew, in spite of the weather.

The weather did prove quite challenging, providing us with a mud-bath by Saturday morning, just in time to begin erecting the dome.  A truckload of straw from the Co-Op enabled us to keep moving, getting the dome frame and the top vents installed by the end of the day, and the last drop of rain for awhile.
Sunny Sunday provided us perfect weather for completing the dome covering and insulating the interior walls, and on Monday our Growing Spaces crew completed the entrances, hung the doors, installed the ventilation fans, packed up and headed for home.  Thank you, Growing Spaces!  This Growing Dome will make you proud.
We are still in need of funds and help as we plant the Growing Dome, fence the garden areas, run irrigation systems and prepare the outdoor beds for planting.  Please mail donations to:
Fat City Farmers, Inc.
P.O. Box 995
Basalt CO  81621

Fat City Farmers is a registered non-profit corporation, 501c3 EIN #20-5698092

Climate Battery Construction - Volunteer Weekend, April 24-25

Here are some photos of the Volunteer Weekend climate battery construction, April 24-25.  Frank Hagemann and his associate Larry excavated the hole for us on Thursday, architect Michael Thompson and CRMPI Intern Justin Wright built the first of four manifolds to transmit warm moist air from the greenhouse through the soil, storing heat and moisture for use during cold nights, allowing the raising of Mediterranean-zone food plants all year.  (see March 30 post for 3d drawings of climate battery)
Saturday morning, many members of the Carbondale Rotary Club, RFHS Principal Clif Colia, project organizer Illene Pevec, and more members of the Carbondale community, guided by Michael and aided by Frank and his skid-steer, built the remaining three manifolds, assembled the climate battery and backfilled it with soil.  Thanks to Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, we had all the Shovels, McClouds and Wheelbarrows we needed. We left one row of tubing on the east side for the high school Ag-science students to install on Sunday, because they were away at sports games all day Saturday.
Click on any image to see it larger on your screen, then click the "back button" to return to the blog. Stay tuned for more progress soon!

Fat City Farmers Board Meeting April 5, 2010

AGENDA:
A. Welcoming everyone, catching up, getting dinner together, seating;
B. Dinner and informal discussion;
C. Fat City Farmers / CRMPI business:
a. Roaring Fork High School Greenhouse Project update:
         i. Budget:
             1. Construction Costs
             2. Fundraising remaining
        ii. Construction Schedule
       iii. Carbondale Rotary Club involvement
       iv. Planning for Community Celebration

Ready, Steady, GO!!

It's taken a long time, I know, but we are ready to build the greenhouse dome!  First, Frank Hagemann will dig the excavation by April 23, then the climate battery built and backfilled during a volunteer weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 23, 24 & 25.

Then our foundation contractor, TJ Concrete, will move in with our excavator to augur the pier holes, locate and set the sonotube forms with rebar and pour the concrete.  We will give them two weeks to accomplish this, then on Monday May 10, Growing Spaces' assembly crew will begin erecting the dome.  They will welcome small numbers of volunteers to help, Monday thru Friday.  We anticipate engaging the HS students in this work, primarily, but will welcome anyone with a whole day on their hands, who is good with their hands.

Finally, we will have our second and final volunteer weekend, Friday May 14 through Sunday May 16, to place the perimeter insualtion, backfill the insulation with gravel, and to clean up the site.  On May 30, Sunday afternoon at 4:00, we will have a community potluck dinner at the greenhouse dome, during which time we'll take the opportunnity of an audience to thank all the contributors to getting this greenhouse built, and to inform everyone of our educational plans for the High School and the entire Community.  Please let us know if we are missing any donor's names in our thank-you list in the right sidebar.

Thank, you, thank you, everyone!!