I wasn't planning to restart this blog for another two weeks, but I want to comment on a food post over at Asymmetrical Information. During her “shameless commercial shilling“ posts, Jane Galt mentions that she'd love to be able to grow herbs in her apartment and linked to the Aerogrow Aerogarden, which is a high-tech aeroponics system. It's advertised as a foolproof way to quickly grow lush crops of herbs and vegetables with little effort. It sounds great, and since I haven't tried it I'm going to restrict myself to a single criticism, that being the size of the unit.
Jane, like all sane people on earth, likes pesto. Though my sanity is debatable, I do too, which is why several years ago I decided to grow basil (among other herbs and vegetables) in my apartment. The experiment was successful, and at the peak of the season (I was using natural light, so there were seasons) I was harvesting enough basil per week for a couple of cuisnart mini-prep sized batches of pesto. The amount of basil I could grow in a limited amount of space impressed me, but it's still a huge outlay compared to the space provided by the Aerogarden, observe:
The two containers closest to the window are italian basil. Keep in mind that this window has a southeastern exposure, and the pesto harvest occurred during the peak of the growing season when the days are 16 hours long in Seattle. Even if you assume that the included compact fluorescent bulb can pump out a comparable level of lumens and if you generously estimate the growing space at two cubic feet, you just aren't going to be able to grow much for the $149 price tag (price tag of my setup? Maybe $20, with lots of surplus supplies for future gardening). Not to mention $20 for each additional seed kit (versus $2 for seeds from your grocery store.)
But, I've been lucky to live in apartments with lots of natural light; Jane, on the other hand, is down on her lux. So what should she do?
I don't know yet. The reason I decided to post this is because I happen to be doing a little amateur research to try and answer that question. Most of the information that I've found on the web comes from gardeners who fall into one of three categories:
* Semi-professional marijuana growers who are willing and able to devote lots of time, space and money into their hobby.
* Gardeners who grow seedlings indoors but plant them outdoors.
* Tropical plant lovers who grow plants like orchids and tropical vines (which are naturally tolerant of low light because they grow under the jungle canopy).
None of these situations exactly meet the requirements of the apartment kitchen gardener: herbs and veggies tend to love light, mature plants have different light requirements than seedlings, and I'm assuming that the average kitchen gardener is unlike the average pot grower in that they don't have space to waste and aren't willing to drop $500 on HID ballasts, irrigation systems and CO2 supplementation.
So, over the next few months I'm going to conduct experiments in homebrew hydroponics to determine if it's feasible to actually grow herbs and vegetables in a reasonable amount of space indoors using inexpensive equipment that you can pick up at your local garden center and home improvement warehouse. Oh and without blowing your electric bill.
In addition to the gardening tips, you can expect to find tea reviews, cooking techniques and lots of recipes. I particularly enjoy sourdough baking, grilling and soup/stew making, and I love to experiment. So check back in two weeks for the official relaunch of Bachelor Gourmet.
Wishing you lots of holiday beer,
-tbg