The new generation of city farms

On Friday my boyfriend, one of my best friends and I went to visit FARM:shop; a new Green business venture just steps from Dalston Junction.  Not yet fully ready and open, it is hoping to be standing firm by the new year. Open for talks at 1pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, we braved the miserable weather and were warmly welcomed in for a 45 minute tour around the premises, learning how to grow food in a small city building.

Something & Son, an Eco-social design practice have created this venture with the idea to producing as much food as possible in a small, abandoned shop in East London. Their business plan? They admitted to not really having one. With no gardening or growing experience they have been joining forces with experts to learn, produce and experiment. Teamed with a farm 30 miles away in Stevenage that houses the tougher, easier to transport veg such as potatoes and the larger farmyard herds, they are aiming to produce enough food to supply to local cafes, restaurants and residents. In December they hope to have their on-site cafe open serving 'see-thru' food. Not a clever, Emperor's new clothes trick, 'see-thru' food is made from the produce growing on the walls around you in the cafe. You can see how and where it's grown and makes such a clear journey from seed to plate that the designers are confident even children need no explanation as to where their food came from, it is all around them.

So to the food itself. As the shop is still very new the plants were sat the seedling stage but the vision for the coming months made itself very clear. The first room houses the hydroponic/aquaponic system. The science of which baffled me slightly from time to time and therefore I apologise if my explanation is not 100% accurate. So from my 'B' grade GCSE science understanding, here is how it works. It starts with two huge fish tanks, currently housing two fish. In a few weeks time these will be filled with 160 fish happily weeing and pooing to the joy of the surrounding plants. The nutrients from the fishes waste gets filtered out the tank and along into the trays of plants adorning the walls. The plants suck up what they need and deposit what they don't - which in perfect fish-plant balance, is exactly what the fish like. Its a big, happy cycle of nutrient sharing.

Fish tank on the left, fish-loving plants on the right

Soon to be planted and gently cascaded with nutrient water, back-lit with some clever plant-loving lighting.

The next room in will be the cafe/library/seedling room. Again the walls are stacked with tray after tray of tiny, trembling plants and a menagerie of small plastic farmyard animals. Working with Phillips, Something & Son are trialling new LEDs lights in a disco mix of blue and red which apparently is the best light for fruiting.

 Stepping outside we duck out of the rain and into the polytunnel hand crafted by volunteers. Raised beds and a wheeled table-cum-plant bed fill the space. All easily removable so that this extra space can be hired out to raise funds for the project.

Rubbish photograph taken from the cafe looking out onto the polytunnel

Heading back inside and up the stairs, past a wall of plants, we are confronted by a room that has, on first appearances, meshed sci-fi and farming in one very warm and bright room. There are shiny pipes and bright orange lights, plugs and probes and wires. The walls are lined with metal sheeting and water is dripping systematically into plants in every available space. There is a fan that sucks out any air infection and other large, metal boxes attached to the walls that did equally sophisticated tasks. Whilst not being the most eco-friendly room in the house (although the heat produced it channeled in other rooms and eventually the polytunnel through the big foil pipes), it is being examined and experimented with to calculate the productivity of the plants within. A bit of extra energy here to replace the food miles of non-city farmed food could even out quite nicely.

Then onto the final room, the meeting room. Complete with table made from two old doors; door number and lock included. Under the table, with the flick of a James Bond, under-table light switch, seeds are placed to germinate. The handy glass panel in the door/table makes for easy viewing of the baby plants.

Table/door with germinating light on.

At one end of the room a wall of basil plants are growing on a slight zigzag-ed frame with water continuously flowing past their roots. A handy plastic water bottle stops the bottom from spurting everywhere.

Basil wall

Dark photo with a hint of the plastic bottle water controller.

A quick glance out the window shows....a roof-top chicken coop with four happy, egg laying hens clucking about and ruffling their feathers at the passing buses. The boys have thought of everything. Soon every available space will be sprouting and laying and producing.

To reach the chickens you must climb through the window 

"But I live in the city and I already grow my own veg' I hear you cry. 'I have loads of tomatoes. They're coming out my ears! All I eat is tomatoes and I still have more growing!" FARM:shop will sell your extra home-growns on for you.
"I'm trying to grow my own but my cucumbers grow round and my peppers keep shriveling up and dying." Help is at hand! What Sam, Paul and Andrew have learnt they want to pass on to fellow city-gardeners.

This is essentially an experiment into city farming. Can they grow food in an old shop? Can they grow enough to achieve their aim and supply the local area?  Does fish poo really make lettuce taste better? Well they have a years free rent to find out. Set up as part of Hackney Council's initiative to transform the disused shops into new, positive spaces, they have a year to become a sustainable business, in every sense of the word.