Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Wonderful World of Microgreens

Having recently re-connected with an old friend from my days at Mount Allison University, I decided to make the trip to see his microgreen farm over in Gatineau.

Here is a detailed description of what microgreens are, but the short version is that they are small plants that are harvested when they are small.  They are edible and are often used as garnishes for dishes in restaurants and decorations at events.

My friend, Dawson Kelln, owns and operates Butterfly Sky Farms.  Originally, he had one farm up in Sarsfield but he recently purchased his biggest competitor over in Gatineau and when I visited him yesterday, he was busy relocating his old operation into the larger one in Gatineau.

Here's a great article that describes Dawson story and his business in more detail.  That's him on the left. If you want to talk to him, his number is 613-797-1377.

I grew in Ottawa, just steps form the Civic Hospital so my knowledge of growing and farming techniques is quite limited.  Regardless, I was rather impressed with the simple technology that is used in this operation.  Everything is grown using a fairly simple hydroponics system, enclosed in rather large greenhouse structure.

Right now, the operation is fairly small and the only employees are Dawson, his partner and a student they have on-board to work on some new systems.  Dawson has plans to kick-start some major marketing activities in the near future and I'm sure we'll see him on the social media platforms soon enough.

Here's a few more pictures:














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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Review-O-Rama!

I'm back from vacation and had a great week up the at the cottage despite the fact that there were about four of five semi-disasters but that's a story for another time.

I have lots of great posts swirling around in my head but I'd like to take the time to talk about a few things I have read/listened to/experienced recently.

Seth Godin's book "Linchpin":  Read this book ASAP.  Then, give it to as many people you can and then make anyone who is older than 16 read it.  Why?  Because in the world of today and the the future, the only way you are going to remain happy and employed is if you make art your job.  How?  Art is causing change for the better,  connecting with an audience and giving gifts.  Do this and become indispensable but watch out for the resistance which comes in the form of a lizard brain in  your head that tries to keep you safe and things around you that tell you to stop and fit in.  Much of what is in this book was floating around me for years but reading it written so clearly was like having a grenade go off inside my head.  I am going to do some posts inspired by my experience of reading this book really soon.
iPad with on display keyboardImage via Wikipedia

Apple's iPad: Finally got a chance to spend some time in the Apple store yesterday and played around with an iPad.  My initial thoughts: really interesting device but because I am used to my iPhone, I felt it was a bit difficult to type on and I thought the home button was to far to the middle for me to read when I hold in portrait mode.  However, it will make you the coolest dude in the room if that's what you are after.  Plus, the data plans kinda suck here in Canada and the Telus one is a joke ($25 for 500mb and $0.10/mb over that).

Movies you should watch:  We had some dicey weather a few times over the time I was away so we took some time to dive into some movies.  Here's two I watched that I recommend you see:


  • Wall Street: Gets better the more times I watch it.  Michael Douglas paints a masterpiece as Gordon Gecko. Also interesting to watch to see what technology was all the rage in those days.  Motorola Star-tac mobile phone anyone?
  • The Book of Eli:  The world as we know it has been destroyed in a nuclear war and one man is charged with bringing an important book on an important journey.   Gee, sounds like a tagline for an ad doesn't it?
Glad to be back, have a bunch of interesting things that I am working on.  Finished working at Roam Mobility but am actually busier than ever!  





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