The urban agriculture movement is developing a star system, and on an unseasonably warm weekend back in may, we got to meet one of them - Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power in Milwaukee. Even better, his May workshop weekend corresponded with our sixth wedding anniversary, so off we went. After a short but intensely harrowing experience at the border, we were on our way. We arrived in Milwaukee grateful for the one hour time zone change and ready for bed. Good thing we got a good sleep, because Growing Power puts the Work in Workshop. They are not about passive learning, it's all about hands-on doing. They are also about making sure that participants are fed and enthusiastic, so after a brief bit of mingling, they brought out breakfast and gave us an overview of what we would be doing this weekend. (did I mention the work?) There were several different workshops to choose from each day, and we had to choose one for Saturday and one for Sunday.



All of this was explained to us by Will's daughter Erika, who told us that she was standing in for her dad who was off getting an honorary doctorate from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and would be back later. Such is the life of an urban agriculture rockstar. So we were fed and spit up in to groups. I wanted to check out their vermicomposting system, and Jennifer was keen to see their take on mushroom production. She spent the afternoon with Rafter the Permaculture Designer.



The remarkable thing about Growing Power HQ is that on 3 acres, they have 12 glass greenhouses, several hoop houses, and a massive composting area. They collect organic waste from a number of companies and institutions in Milwaukee, and with the help of large composting bins and several billion worms, they produce vermicompost as a growing medium. The incoming green waste is mixed with wood chips and leaves and is left to "pre-compost" before being added to the worm bins in the greenhouses. Will stressed that the single biggest thing that he has done as an urban farmer is to work with his neighbors. Turning compost is done slowly as not to produce odour, and good housekeeping is stressed to all staff.



At the end of the day, another fabulous meal was served, and a fisheries specialist from the Great Lakes Water Institute spoke about his involvement in Growing Power's aquaponics program. This was the big thing that drew us here - the idea that we could produce sustainable fish year round in a small greenhouse really appealed to us. The Great Lakes Water Institute has been working with Growing Power and sharing the cutting edge of recirculating system aquaponics research. This naturally got us excited for the following day.

The shuttle took us back to the hotel, and after a brief bit of socializing, it was off to bed exhausted.

After almost enough sleep, we were up and off again. Another fabulous breakfast was served - we both discovered why they call them "grits." We were introduced to the Growing Power Urban Agriculture graduates, and got to see their graduation ceremony. In addition to the weekend long workshop, Growing Power offers a five month urban agriculture program. Participants spend one weekend a month at Growing Power and develop their own business plan to take home and manifest. Many of the ideas that were produced by these folks were brilliant (compost cab...beeep beep!), and the atmosphere was more tent revival than business planning session.



Then off to learn about aquaponics. Rick the aquaponics specialist had a group of us build a tank setup. They are really ingenious and simple - lots of wood, bolts and EPDM pond liner. For a bit of work and around $500 in materials, we learned how to produce a functioning aquaponics system, and sustainably produce tilapia and watercress year round.

We also got to spend the weekend in the company of a lot of very cool, like minded people, in particular the folks that we rode the shuttle to and from the hotel with. Jeff, Michael and Jason, you guys make the weekend that much more entertaining.

We now have a mini-aquaponics setup that Jennifer created this past week, and we plan to incorporate a Growing Power tilapia pond in to our permanent greenhouse.