Randomly selected, assorted snacks for your brain:
Liquid Gold
“We all think of human pee as gross and something that ought to be vigorously “cleaned up” or sanitized. However, human urine is actually sterile (unlike faeces, urine is bacteria-free). This liquid by-product of our daily lives can be a rich food source if it gets into the RIGHT part of the right ecosystem.”
(quoted from submersible design)
Recycling urine as fertilizer is one of the easiest ways to participate responsibly in several major nutrient cycles.
For more info, and a lot of renter-appropriate strategies check out the book Liquid Gold: The Lure and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants. Author’s website here, Amazon.com listing here.
Balcony Aquaculture
The Barrelponics system is one of the coolest things I’ve come across in the last couple of years: a small-scale, cheap, DIY aquaculture system that even renters can setup. Check out the Barrel-Ponics Manual here. (opens a .pdf)
Window Farming
From an energy-returned-on-energy-invested (EROEI) perspective, I’m not so sure about Window Farms (they don’t seem very productive, and they use electric pumps). But even still, I like the idea of sunny windows turned into hydroponic farms, and if you live in Manhattan (like the folks who came up with the idea), that window might be only sole shot at food production. I especially like the recent innovation of upcycling windshield wiper fluid pumps as the recirculating mechanism.
Those are the morsels for now! Send any links you think I should post in the future to share [at] permacultureforrenters [dot] com.
Tags: aquaculture, diy, hacks, pee
I’ve been promoting the idea of encouraging rents and other high rise building users like condominium owners and office workers to try Window Farms. I think the activity of building a window farm can raise consciousness about where our food comes from. So even if you grow a little bit of food in your window, you know where it comes from. It can also be a family activity and it’s open to experimentation. Just visit the window farms website and you’ll see that experimentation is encouraged. Let’s give it a try! It’s relatively inexpensive to build a window farm it could make some buildings look less sterile.