Blooms without borders

Lake Erie’s algal blooms are more than an Ohio problem and more, too, than a U.S. problem. A story in yesterday’s Windsor (Ontario) Star looks at the blooms’ big hurt to Canada’s Pelee Island, the lake’s largest island and visible to the north-northeast from Put-in-Bay and Ohio State’s Stone Lab. Among the blooms’ impacts: A nearly two-week tap water ban on the island late last summer. (To compare, last summer’s tap water ban in Toledo lasted two days.) And as a result, at least $1 million in lost tourism revenue. Read the story.

The Farmers’ Table: Sustainable Farm Tour Series

Next in this year’s Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series: Maplestar Farm and its restaurant partner, the Driftwood Group, will host The Farmers’ Table — “a unique farm to table experience that celebrates Ohio farms and flavors” — on Sunday, Aug. 30. The farm is in Chagrin Falls in northeast Ohio. Update: Alas, ticket sales are now closed.

See what they’ve paired with red raspberries: Sustainable Farm Tour Series

Red raspberriesAnn’s Raspberry Farm features not one, but two phytonutrient-filled foods: Raspberries, yes, and Brussels sprouts too. See how they do it on the Value-Added Fruits and Vegetables Farm Tour, the next stop in the Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series, this Sunday. The farm is in Fredericktown in central Ohio. Details here on p. 13. (Photo: Wavebreak Media.)

Goat to see you: Sustainable Farm Tour Series

Dairy goat tourDairy goats, cheesemaking, composting and backyard urban homesteading take the stage next in this year’s Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series. The Food, Family and Farming Tour is Saturday at Lucky Penny Farm in Kent in northeast Ohio. Get full details here on p. 35. Check out a WKSU story about the farm here. (Photo: Nubian goat, one of the farm’s breeds; iStock.)

Ohio composting industry tour will focus on managing water

This year’s Composting in Ohio industry tour, set for Aug. 20 in southwest Ohio, will focus on managing water.

The stops on the tour will feature, for example, a large-scale composting facility that recently took steps to better control its surface water runoff and a dairy-restaurant complex that treats millions of gallons of graywater in a system of wetlands. Continue reading

Aquaponic fish production: Sustainable Farm Tour Series

Aquaponics 2The Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series continues Friday at Project AquaStar in Columbus’s Linden neighborhood. The project “is a multifaceted aquaponics, waste reduction and composting business enterprise,” the tour description says. “The site includes an aquaponics system utilizing six 1,200-gallon tanks. … Tilapia fish are produced in the system in an effort to help address food insecurity in the Linden community.” Details (PDF, p. 31). (Photo: Project AquaStar.)