KennethT

https://www.producegrower.com/article/consumer-corner-inside-farmones-in-store-farm/

Check the gardening thread - he posted photos of his build a while ago

In general this is true, but with media-less hydroponics (like NFT systems), the weight is considerably less than it is with traditional soil. Yes, you still need to find a building that has a strong enough roof to withstand the weight, and the proper logistics but it's not impossible. Not all buildings use cooling towers - many warehouse buildings either do not have cooling at all or use a standard refrigerant HVAC systems. Also, with recirculating hydroponics, waterproofing the roof is not an issue since the nutrient is in a closed system. Gotham Greens has a lot of rooftop greenhouses - one of their founders is a botanist who developed recipes for different plants (lettuce, herbs, etc.) for hydroponics that match the specific plant's nutritional needs. In hobby type recirculating hydroponics, it's common to dump the reservoir once in a while because when adding a general hydro fertiliser, over time you get imbalances as the plants use more of some nutrients than others. These imbalances can cause lockout and deficiencies. What Gotham Greens does is feed a specific nutrient mix that matches the requirements of each plant, so they never have to dump the reservoir - the nutrient mix always stays in balance.

Doesn't the WF in Gowanus have a big greenhouse setup on their roof? We (a friend and I) led a few tours for the IACP years ago (2012), when the conference was held here in NYC. We got to tour the infant greenhouses of what I believe was Gotham Greens, when they were pretty much in their infancy. As for me, my indoor gardening is limited to bean sprouts. Yes, Gotham Greens partnered with Whole Foods and put a greenhouse on top of the store in Brooklyn.

Now you have me wondering whether we were served hoisin or tianmian in the duck restaurants in Beijing. I just assumed it was hoisin becaue I had never heard of tianmian. Hua's restaurant for sure didn't taste like hoisin - it had a medicinal herbal quality to it that reminded me of some TCM that I used to take years ago. But tastier for sure. I also wonder if what I had the other night wasn't hoisin either. It, too, wasn't very sweet and was quite good. And the fact that it's not in NYC Chinatown (which is predominantly Cantonese) makes the possibility greater.

Those plants look like they're hydroponically grown with no media - looks like an NFT (nutrient film technique) system where the plants sit in channels where a river of nutrient runs over the bare roots. It's a great technique for short lived plants - they grow really quickly due to the high oxygen concentration in the root zone. And it's easy to clean and keep clean. It's not good for long term plants because as the plant grows, so does the root system, and an older plant will probably clog the channel causing at best what's known as ponding - stagnant anaerobic nutrient in the channel and at worst a flood all over the floor.

We love traveling at Christmas time, especially to places that don't necessarily celebrate it. Maybe it's because I always felt a little left out growing up in a predominantly Christian neighborhood but not celebrating it myself.... But no travel this year so the virtual travel continues - South Indian shrimp for lunch, and tonight - Tom kha pla - Thai coconut soup with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and sawtooth coriander from my garden and some wild caught cod.

@Anna NI was just reading about a Whole Foods in Manhattan that was partnerning with a small hydroponic herb producer who sells (sold, prepandemic) mostly to restaurants.

seeds that I toasted, then added to my masala mix and ground.

Actually, the sweetness of the shrimp was perfect with it

Trying my hand at a South Indian style shrimp stir fry.... Using my home grown curry leaves I think I should have left out the fenugreek. I didn't use much but it was still overpowering.

I would have like to have crisped the skin since it was certainly no longer crispy. But, since it was already sliced, I was afraid that in the process of crisping, I would dry out the meat, so I didn't and we had to make do with non-crispy skin. Tasty, but not the same.

I don't understand... When I was in Beijing (and had Peking duck a few times) every restaurant served it with some kind of hoisin. A very famous place in Beijing had what a Chinese friend who lives and grew up in Beijing called a "traditional hoisin" which meant that it wasn't sweet at all, but had an intense herbal flavor. It was quite interesting. Duck de Chine (1949) who you yourself called an excellent Pekiing duck also served it with a hoisin sauce, mixed with some kind of garlic/sesame sauce - they're actually known for it... 1949 hoisin/sesame garlic sauce Traditional Beijing hoisin and untraditional accoutrements at Hua's Restaurant in Beijing, known for their (much less expensive than 1949) Peking duck Closeup of the traditional beijing hoisin

Wow.... do they come precracked, or did you have to break out the sledgehammer?

We ordered delivery from Red Peony. Wu's definitely doesn't deliver to us (and I didn't feel like bugging the garage guys to dig out my car the day after I told them they could bury it for a while) and I don't think PDH delivers to us either. The duck was decent (although it's truly unfair to judge it after being in a sealed container for 25 minutes), we really liked their hoisin - it wasn't too sweet like so many can be, and their pancakes were super thin and obviously freshly made. I also ordered their "Shanghainese wonton soup" which turned out to be just a decent, but overpriced wonton soup. But I liked that they included the carcass in a separate container without me even asking...

Even in a pandemic, it's just not Christmas if there's no Peking duck...

Insert drool button here....

Now here's a gift I can get behind!

The last few times I was at Katja, I was a huge fan of their wurst platter with sauerkraut

No wurst??

@ShelbyHow does Canada goose compare with other geese/ducks?

The dark side of hydroponics..... Extreme nutrient burn!!! I've always thought that we learn more from failure than we do from success. This is an herb plant common in SE Asia - in Vietnam it is rau ram, in Singapore/Malaysia it is laksa leaf. It is probably the hardiest herb I've ever grown - it's practically indestructible. You can over water it, under water it, low amount of nutrient - usually it's happy. What you see here is the result of neglect and a design issue in my automated coco coir drip system. It's pretty common knowledge that you always want to water to runoff in coco so you don't get what you see here. My system uses a capacitive moisture sensor to trigger when to water and when to stop watering.... But for a while now, the system stopped watering before runoff occurred, leading to a huge buildup in salts. Pretty soon (I'm getting ready to move soon) I'll revise my design to fix this issue.

It also screws small producers as it is much harder for them to get distribution - especially when the market is dominated by a couple huge distributors, it is really hard to get their attention to pick you up, and even if picked up, get enough attention so that they can really help sales.

@BonVivantGreat idea to adjust the brightness/contrast. It definitely looks like some kind of wilted green... could be spinach, pea shoots... I don't think it's that important overall - sometimes, things are added to restaurant dishes for reasons like stability when carrying the plate through the restaurant - like a bit of cookie crumbled under a scoop of ice cream. Otherwise, the round piece of sweetbread could roll around the plate while in transit between kitchen and table.

I agree. 2 cloves, added whole, not ground.