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128: John Stoddard and Lindsay Allen of Higher Ground Farm on the Journey from Idealism to Practicality on a Rooftop Farm

7/20/2017

2 Comments

 
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John Stoddard and Lindsay Allen work together at Higher Ground Farm, a rooftop farming operation with two locations in Boston. John is the founder of the business and operator of the site at the Boston Design Center, and Lindsay runs the new site at the Boston Medical Center. Higher Ground sells to restaurants and direct to consumers, and provides produce the Boston Medical Center cafeteria, patient food service, and a preventative food pantry.

We dig into the fundamentals of rooftop farming, including options for different production systems and why Higher Ground has opted for their system. John and Lindsay provide insights into the surprising of ecology of rooftop farming – including weeds and seagulls! – and discuss soil fertility management and irrigation systems.

John and Lindsay also ruminate on how to find a roof to farm on, what it takes for an urban farm to survive, and how they’ve leveraged the rooftops to create relationships with customers and clients. And we examine the two different business models that Higher Ground uses to make their operation work – growing food for sale, as well as operating a rooftop farm for a management fee.

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Quotes from the Show

There's not a lot of like rule books out there for [rooftop farming] at this point.

[We] are using gardening techniques as opposed to farming techniques on a rooftop farm and then trying to make them as efficient as possible.

​I think in urban farming so much of what we have to offer is what I think of as the alternative harvest and that's the knowledge and the green space that we create on farms for people to be able to interact whether that's just visually or walking through or as a learning space as a classroom.

Show Links

John and Lindsay spoke highly of their experience with Recover Green Roofs.

​The Boston Medical Center farm uses a Weathermatic irrigation controller.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode is brought to you by Earth Tools, offering the most complete selection of walk-behind farming equipment and high-quality garden tools in North America; and by Rock Dust Local, the first company in North America specializing in local sourcing and delivery of the BEST rock dusts and biochar for organic farming. Additional funding for transcripts provided by North Central SARE, providing grants and education to advance innovations in Sustainable Agriculture.
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2 Comments
BRYAN BROWN
7/23/2017 01:16:27 am

Thanks so much for this episode ! This really turned the light on for me and possibly opened a door for me. I have been trying to figure out a way to include my farming into a business plan. Me and my wife operate a childcare business and have been working on a business plan to include our farming as part of the plan. We have a chance to purchase a 6000 sq ft building with 2 seperate business addresses . If we could pull off a rooftop farming project we could offset our cost and feed the kids amazing nutrient rich , pesticide free food. We could possibly plan some activities in this space to offset the cost of the building. This rooftop farming would be a great way to attract traffic and possible on site sales.. This idea of a amazing green rooftop could open some serious possibilities ! I listen to every episode of farmer to farmer podcast and find it to be such a positive influence in my farming activities ! Thanks Diego and Higher Ground Farm !

Reply
Chris Blanchard
7/27/2017 10:59:49 am

Thanks, Bryan - really appreciate your kind words! Just one quick note - Diego's got a different podcast, Farmer to Farmer is my show! Hahaha.

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