1. Food Production - we learned a lot this year about working larger fields, overall I believe we had a successful year of Food Production, in all we harvested over 180kg of food (400+ lbs) in 5 plots, although it was mainly 2 that we were harvesting from. We were slow to develop the soil at the Terra Thunder Test Farm, but over the fall we've doubled the planting area that is sheet mulched so we look forward to producing much more there this year.
2. Urban Food System - we've been successfully using our custom Google Apps Script web apps to track production, if anyone is interested in the link here; still more to develop, the next thing is to develop something to track seed assets
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pl16jtDbF71-GkSQ8TfCutk3L17_XIa9Ia1Y0qfrSDY/edit?usp=sharing
3. Black Solider Fly Larvae (BSFL) - after having tried raising BSFL, I find that the amount of effort required is too much for the benefit, our vermicomposting process is easy, streamlined and goes at a decent rate. Although it was clear the BSFL could process material faster, I wasn't able to get them to mate and therefore couldn't sustain the population. Most likely the temperature was the main factor, as they like really hot I wasn't going to spend money to heat them up to 30 degrees. I think for others BSFL may make sense for their operation but I believe just worms are the right decomposters for us.
4. Thunder Core - haven't had much of a chance to update the Arduino code for the unit, but we're installing a new set of grow lights in a different area so will likely be working on this in 2016.
5. Beekeeping - our Flow Hive has arrived! Assembled now and waiting for some varnishing with linseed oil. Bees are ordered and should be in by end of June.
6. Aquaponics - didn't have a chance to build any Aquaponic setup last year, we'll see if this year we get the opportunity
7. Biomass/Biochar Production - the biochar that was produced in the past has disappeared into the garden, it doesn't feel as though it's produced much benefit, especially compared to some of the permaculture techniques that have produced significant benefit (Hugelkulture & Swales)
New for 2016
1. Humanure! This has been on the list to start for a long time, in 2016 we're looking to start biogas production at the Tennis Court Garden site based on the SOLAR CITIES system design; http://www.solarcities.eu/about
2. Rammed Earth - the concept of using our very clay soils to build structures is very intriguing, this year we're hoping to try out some rammed earth casting and stabilizing techniques to make bricks and see what kind of structures we can build with them.
3. Solar Dehydrator - with all the produce that we grew last year, it was clear that a dehydrator would come in very handy, we are looking to build one of these babies; http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/tools/solar-food-dehydrator-plans-zm0z14jjzmar.aspx
4. Fruit & Nut Trees - this year we are looking to start our Food Forest Nursery! Will be purchasing some young bare root fruit and nut trees and will look to plant them and start growing them to produce more trees. Some of the exciting varieties we'll be starting with; Hardy Kiwi, North American Hazel & Butternut
