Over the past few months, I have been featuring every month, one site to an urban farm tour that I attended in June 2015. The good news is that if you are interested, there is one more opportunity this summer that will take place on Sat, 9/12/15 to attend one of these urban farm tours. It will be a little bit of a trek, as the final set of urban farm tours for 2015 is to take place in the Hayward/Castro Valley area (so about a 1 hour+ drive from Solano County).

This is the third installment of my visits to various urban farms this summer. My third destination was Green Skies Vertical Farm, a mostly hydroponic urban farm using vertical gardening techniques, located in Oakland, California. Unlike the other urban farms previously featured, Green Skies is a business owned by David Ceaser who is renting this site from the property owner. Green Skies' business model is to specialize in growing in-market crops (e.g., specialty leafy greens, microgreens, etc.) and selling them directly to restaurants.

Green Skies is considered a “medium” site, the lot size consisting of 4000 square feet, of which 2500 square feet is used for cultivation. Among other unique features of this urban farm, is that David designed it be portable should he decide to relocate his business to another site someday. This urban farm can be set up and broken down quickly for transport.
David has incorporated vertical gardening techniques to maximize space. Much of his farming is done using inexpensive rain gutters which one can buy from any hardware store, on elevated scaffolding (see pictures). The farm specializes in growing soil-based kaiware (aka, daikon microgreen) and herb cultivation including, but not limited to, chives, oregano, and thyme. David also cultivates spearmint, peppermint, sorrel, minutina, stevia and chives hydroponically. Green Skies produces and sells starts including various types of tomato plants, basil, beans, lemon cucumbers, ornamental plants, etc. Water catchment from the roof on an adjacent house located on the property, and catching water from crop drainage for reuse, are integral to this farm. The farm also grows wheatgrass (in a converted rubber tote designed to be a coldframe—see pictures).

One of my favorite discoveries of this farm was/is sorrel, which is perennial leafy green great for salads that has a surprisingly refreshing, tangy, lemon taste. After visiting Green Skies, I knew I had to have sorrel for my garden (which I was able to buy locally from Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville). If the sorrel starts to flower, all that is needed is to cut back the flowers and the plant will continue to grow, giving you leafy greens when other vegetables may not be available.
For more information regarding these urban farm tours, please see http://www.iuhoakland.com/.