How a mini farm inside Southern University cafeteria feeds students, staff with no soil needed.
University Cafeteria Hydroponic Farming | Maddie Scott |
IMAGE: Javier Gallegos
The mini hydroponics farm in Southern University’s cafeteria is small but mighty. About 10 paces away, it feeds the salad bar that’s frequented by students, staff and visitors.
Hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil, is what the Southern University Ag Center uses to grow fresh produce in tiny spaces while teaching new generations about nutrition, plant cycles and space utilization.
Stephanie Elwood, a horticulture specialist at Southern University, oversees the mini farm along with graduate student Gerrick Breaux to grow microgreens, parsley, basil, kale and lettuce.
“They harvest the microgreens or the lettuce, and they put it 10 feet away right here into the salad bar,” Elwood said. “You can’t get any fresher than that.”
Farm to plate
As Breaux pursues his doctorate in toxicology at the university, he visits the cafeteria as many as three to four times a week to harvest and feed the plants. He’s been at it for two years.
He cuts the herbs and hands them directly to the chef, who uses them wherever needed. He gives the lettuce and kale to an employee in the kitchen who washes it and places it on the salad bar.
Each tray contains about 100 plants, meaning the machine has been home to about 2,000 plants across 20 seasons since being in the cafeteria, Elwood said. The machine uses an app that connects to Elwood and Breaux’s phones, making the process easy to track.
“It tells you when to clean, when to plant, when to harvest,” Elwood said. “It tells you when the pH is off. It tells you when the nutrients are off. It’s very user-friendly.”
For Breaux, caring for the mini farm is a reset from his studies. He strolls to the cafeteria from his department building, sometimes taking the longer route when it feels right.
“It’s a grounding kind of thing for me, like a reset from my busy lifestyle,” he said. “You know those people who trim bonsai trees and stuff like that to calm them? It’s like my calming thing of the day.”
Learning with littles
At the on-campus day care, children from ages 2 to 4 gaze up at the 4-foot-tall hydroponic tower growing lettuce and dinosaur kale.
“Being able to expose them to this and let them be able to watch it grow right before their eyes,” said garden specialist Cornelius Jackson at the Southern University Ag Center. “Being able to come in there, see the lights on, see the plants growing every day, hear the water splashing.”
After a harvest, the day care chef will prepare tortilla wraps packed with lettuce, cheese and ham, allowing the toddlers to eat the plant they watched grow for the past three to four weeks.
The tower has been around for about two years, part of an initiative from Southern’s Ag Center that places community gardens (including hydroponics and traditional, soil-based gardens) in Baton Rouge schools and child development centers. So far, Jackson has brought hydroponic gardens to about 10 places.
Many people don’t have the space to grow a regular garden, Jackson said, so the hydroponic towers are useful.
“These hydroponic towers allow people to maximize the minimum space and get maximum output by being able to just grow in an upright tower that only requires water, nutrient solution and a rockwool, which is a makeshift soil,” Jackson said.
Someone can grow broccoli in their closet or produce 5 pounds of greens in a corner of their house.
“For the nutritional aspect of it,” Jackson said, “allowing them to actually taste these vegetables and do their own little activities; I think that’s something they’re going to remember for a lifetime.”
Focus of nutrition
When Breaux performs his mini farm rituals, sometimes curious cafeteria-goers ask what he’s doing, allowing him the opportunity to teach them about hydroponics. It’s something he’s passionate about, and providing fresh food and sustainable practices to the community is his goal.
“That’s my main focus — nutrition,” Breaux said. “At the end of the day, when I’m finished with school, my whole thing is to find a way to provide the best nutrition possible. A lot of that is teaching people to be self-sustainable.”
Original Article: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/food_restaurants/southern-university-hydroponics-farm/article_7fcef7a6-92c3-4887-ab70-67ecf2e6efb1.html
