What is now known as “Block A,” was first built and lit in 2020 in light of the pandemic crisis. For about 3 years (after the arrival of the Twins, rambunctious kittens with a decidedly anti-garden streak) it was nearly completely dark and dusty, until around December of 2024 when we realized that supply shocks were likely, and we’d like to try again to produce some of our own food. Slowly, it was cleaned, refilled, refurbished, re-lit, and now operating at full capacity again.
Two Aerogarden Farms sitting on two Aerogarden Farm XLs. Three old Aerogarden Harvests. A refurbished UPS. Two replaced Farm LED lights. 55 plants.
The herbs vary, but tend to include basil, dill, sage, thyme, and parsley. Strawberries are underway, but if you know strawberries, you know they require frequent water changes in addition to liberal use of Hydroguard. Nonetheless, we’re making slow progress there too.
We produce an incredible amount of tomatoes. When the plants hit their stride, it can be well over a pound or two per month.
As of this writing, we have a few dozen jalapeños, a few dozen bell peppers, and over a dozen eggplants all underway in the large lower gardens, but I feel like the pictures will be a lot more impressive if we just wait until the summer.
The UPS isn’t necessarily there because we value the 5 extra minutes of runtime it gives us during a power outage, but mostly that it keeps the frequent “power events” from resetting the Farm microcontrollers and, as a bonus, helps us to count how much wattage the operation dissipates.
At half a kilowatt, you’d be correct to assume it won’t be profitable unless the price of food skyrockets (an unfortunate possibility) or unless more work is done towards solar offset (in progress). As an R&D project of BE&L (the family S-corporation), it doesn’t necessarily have to turn a profit, although it could help us to discover profit-seeking enterprises (such as the watering robot that was developed in 2020, or the solar offset system in development now). Furthermore, the overarching goal is to gradually replace all Aero-branded components with generic replacements, ship-of-Theseus style, until the entire Block is an original production.
But then again, Block B is planned, consisting of outdoor raised beds. And very soon, we’re adding our first mushroom-growing block…