Happy Farming . com

I’m going to build a system for my food production using an NSLU2 computer from the company Linksys. This is a small computer with USB and network connection but no keyboard or mouse connected. This a is a bit challenging because you have to do all communication through the network, but when it’s up and running it’s very convenient. It consumes only 5 watts so it can be left on 24/7. This means that you’ll be able to produce a constant flow of information or use it for control tasks like for instance automatic watering.

The price is about $100 and I think it’s available all over the world. I’m going to use it with a system consisting of a simple communication protocol called 1-wire, where you connect different electronic devices to the same pair of wires. So I’ll have this pair of wires running from the house and out to the raised beds, where I’ll connect an electronic rain collector, moisture sensors, temperature sensor and an actuator for automatic watering. Or maybe I’ll use a pump for the roof rain collector instead.

I think it will be useful with local area temperature graphs. The more information the better. Maybe it’s even possible to get certified so that the collected data can be used other projects as well. In these times with global warming it’s good to have even more measurements in order to really find out what’s going on with the weather.

It’s possible to install Linux on this small NSLU2 computer, so I’ll install Debian and have a whole community as backup if I need to make special things happen in the software. Linux is also available for your desktop computer if you want to use it for that.

There are really endless possibilities when you have a 1-wire system running. You can turn on and off mains appliances like lights and different machines and do all sorts of measurements, like temperature, light, wind, moisture etc. Connect it to the Internet and you can do some really neat things like surveillance of your property when you are away or on vacation. You can control it all with your mobile if you have one that’s newer than about 3 years. I’m also playing with the idea of using all of this in a green house to create the optimal conditions for growing food. But that must be a future project. Right now I’ll focus on the raised beds. Suggestions are welcome if you have some ideas that you would like to see implemented.

Judging from the worm sticking out of the potato it seems that I have waited a little too long before taking the potatoes up. I’ve read that it was okay to let them stay in the ground after the plants die until they were to be used in the kitchen. It doesn’t seem to be true around here at least. There were previously no potatoes grown in this bed so it’s not like there was a build up of pests year after year. These are of the Bintje kind.

Then I went further down the bed and started digging up the other kinds of potatoes. Those were Asparagus potatoes or Almond potatoes as I believe they are called. After some searching on the internet it seems like they are a local Scandinavian kind, because there is very little information to be found about them and a property like being able to grow at low temperatures is highlighted. They are known in Sweden at least but also in Denmark. I’m not sure Almond potatoes are the same thing but I guess they are. If you can clarify on this please leave a comment.

I only found a single worm in all of the Asparagus potatoes despite the fact that they are grown in the same row as the potato in the picture. It’s the Bintje kind by the way. The two kinds were planted at approximately the same time so the conditions should be the same. Apparently the worms don’t like the Asparagus potatoes. Do you know what kind of worm this its? Next year I’ll dig up the potatoes when the plants die above ground.

Okay, this blog is about to go in a slightly different direction. It will not be your usual gardening blog, but more about what will happen if you add some high tech to your garden. The reason I got myself into this whole grow-your-own-food thing was that I felt I had to. It was the pressure of the decreasing quality of the food available in supermarkets, where it’s all about profit. It was because of the rising prices on produce and because we’re running out of oil so that we will not be able to transport the food across these ludicrous distances. This is what I was supposed to do and it still is. But in reality it’s far from what I’m best at. Now I’ve been in the electronic industry for 7 years straight with an education in electronics engineering, and I’ve been playing with electronics since I was a child. My father and grandfather worked with electronics, my step dad is a computer geek (he’s in the closet, but he is. ) This is who I am. I have to accept that.

But this is not who I want to be. I want more than sitting indoor for the most of the day, without ever feeling the sun or the rain. I want more frequencies in my life, more bandwidth. But I think I’m being arrogant dropping such a big part of me in the dumpster, making a 180 degree turn and just walking naked into the forest and living of the land. I know I can provide value to a lot of people using the skills I’ve already got. Nobody knows what a post oil, post economy, post third world war world will be like if we ever come to that. I think we have to prepare, but going back to the stone age is not necessarily the most intelligent way to go. Why not use what we already know? Sure, electronics require electricity, but what’s wrong with steam power? Or wind power or water or sun power for that matter? What I’m getting at here is, that I want to go outside and create stuff. We need food on the table, and what I bring is the small scale automation.

My plan is to apply what I know about automation and electronics to the process of growing food. I have no idea where this is going to take us but I think it’s going to be interesting. I want to raise awareness about what is going on with the soil. What is the temperature, how is the moisture? Why not automate the watering so that it will provide the soil with the optimal conditions? What exactly is going on inside your composting box? Let’s find out. Nobody says it can’t be done post oil even if all our technology comes crushing down. Give me your old C64, I don’t care. Who says it’s going to be fancy million dollar systems. I’m talking low scale, for you, me, and our neighbors. And it’s going to be affordable. More better food in a smaller area in a sustainable way that you control.

So my first project is a small system, that makes graphs of my raised bed temperatures and moisture, plus the air temperature, with graphs for a year, a month, a week and a day. With this information available on a web page I’ll know exactly when to plant and when to go out and water my beds. The goal is still to grow the most food I can, but I’ll do it in my own wicked way. Later I’ll talk about automatic watering and where to get the electricity from, but it’s also still about farming. I hope I can convey this wisdom in an understandable way and please let me know if you want your own system and what problems you face installing one.

Imagine receiving an email from your garden telling you when to plant or add material to your compost based on the current temperature. Add some Rudolf Steiner theory to the system and I’ll bet you it’s going to produce food in abundance with no need to involve money hungry corporations.

But that’s all hot air coming from me now, I know, so I’m going back to work now to materialize this