you and I love it when I'm on a field trip. And today I'm on a field trip actually...

I just got out of the big apple, the NYC, New York City from Grand Central Station.

Came out on a train here to Yonkers, New York, and man, this is nature. I kind of get claustrophobic

in big cities so I'm glad to be back out in nature here in Yonkers. And while we're here

in Yonkers today is right behind me. Right of the train station, just in the distance

here, you guys can see, there's a barge! With two greenhouses on it. So they're growing

food on a barge, they're collecting their rainwater to use for the watering systems.

They have solar panels and even, I think, like windmill on there to generate electricity.

So it's a fully self-contained unit. So if shit hits the fan, you can live on a barge

and just float to oceans and grow your own food. So this is totally gonna be a cool episode,

we're gonna head over there and we're gonna show you about this Science Barge where they're

teaching the kids how to grow food and hopefully you guys will also learn a few things at the

same time.

All right, so now we're at the site of the Science Barge. You can check out and learn

more about them at sciencebarge.org. I'm so excited to be here because, I mean, this is

literally a self-contained vessel, or a "wessel" if you're Chekhov. But, uh, they got all kinds

of stuff growing. They're growing food, they got composting toilets. They're actually catching

their own, uh, crabs. They got, man, solar panels, they got wind turbines, they got rain

catchment. I mean, literally, you could live on this barge if you needed to. Totally amazing.

So I'm really excited to share with you guys what they're doing there. So next let's head

on to the barge.

I'm walking the plank over to the barge here. As we walk across here, you're gonna get a

welcome sign it says "The Science Barge is a program of the Groundwork Hudson Valley."

And the Groundwork also puts on a whole bunch of different community gardens and other projects

in the area. So it's definitely really cool. I'm glad they were able to accommodate me

today on a short notice. And, uh, normally during the week the barge is only open to,

like, school kids. So actually they take school kids, which I think is very important and

critical to teach the children of today where the food comes from and how it's grown. So

during the week they have programs for kids and, uh, take school kids. So if you want

to visit the barge otherwise, you gotta come on the, uh, Saturdays and Sundays between

noon and six. That's when they take the public and will give tours and you guys can check

this place out for yourselves.

So I think what I'm gonna do now, because there's so much here to show you guys, the

first part of this video is gonna be showing you the sustainability aspects of the barge

and then I'll get more into, like, the actual food growing that they're doing here. So I

think first what we're gonna do is we're gonna go and check out the rain catchment actually

inside the greenhouse.

So as you guys can see here they got some big tanks here. It's 400 gallons and they

got three of them so that's 1200 gallons of rain catchment. What they're doing is they

have gutters on the top of the greenhouse structure here, they come into one common

pipe, they feed here, uh, this... And they store all the water that they need to use,

because they are growing in hydroponics, it re-circulates the water and they save a lot

of water so they don't need to catch as much. After they catch the water, just to be safe,

they're actually also filtering it and then actually running it through a UV system, which

is really cool. I haven't seen a UV system used on rainwater before. So besides the rain

catchment, they have another back-up system, just in case, and this is a reverse-osmosis

system, this tank holds up to 300 gallons, and you can see the whole reverse-osmosis

system here. What they do is they can literally take the river water, pull the river water

out of the river, run it through their reverse-osmosis system, and then run it into their tank here

so that they can be fully sustainable with all their water needs.

So besides the water, what's also very important is the electricity, or power, to run some

of the hydroponics systems and all the systems on board here. So what they got is two major

ways they're actually generating their own electricity here. The number one way is the

solar panels. And these solar panels are really cool. And they go to the back of this guy

so you guys can see it. These guys are on a special system that actually self-compensates

and adjusts so that it follows the light. It's actually a passive system. So this is

really cool. There's chambers on the end that, it's actually filled with gas, and it actually,

as the temperature changes, the light moves, it actually moves on its own. So that's definitely

really cool.

So the other way they're generating electricity is by the wind turbines up above. So those

are actually humming pretty loud, making a lot of noise, and they're definitely generating

a lot of power. Now, they do need a way to store the power, so they have some batteries

on board. So let me go ahead and show you guys where they store the power in the batteries,

and all that kind of cool stuff.

All right so check it out, this is where all their batteries are held. This is about seven

thousand dollars in AGM batteries. These are special batteries for use in, you know, solar

power and wind power applications. They got the converters up here that convert the DC

power into the AC for use on the ship.

(knocks) Anybody in there? All right, I think it's clear, let's check it out. (door creaks

open) All right, check it out! This is their sustainable bathroom here. What they do is

they got a waterless urinal. So this is gonna save water. You know, most urinals may flush

like a liter, two liters, every time you flush it. But with this they're just taking the

pee and they're collecting it. And they're looking for a way to dispose of that pee,

and I recommended hey, why don't you, like, dilute it with some water and put it on some

landscape trees? 'Cause your pee is a very valuable source of nitrogen that you can feed

the plants with. But, you might not want to feed the plants the nitrogen fertilizer if

you're eating them. But we'll leave that one up to you. I tend to use my nitrogen fertilizer

on, um, trees and shrubs, or fruit-bearing crops instead of, like, leaves that I would

eat. And then of course right here they got a toilet. And yes, this toilet looks like

a standard toilet, but this is not a standard toilet. This is what's called a "composting

toilet." And here's a very simple diagram of how it works. Basically the, uh, the waste

is collected into a composting chamber, they add some peat moss and it's actually heated

up and it's composted out. And then what they're gonna do is they're gonna take the compost

and generate it and then put it off site on some landscaping trees. Once again, in general,

you should not use human waste directly on vegetative crops that will be eaten, just

in case. So next, what I want to show you guys is some ways they are composting. So

besides composting the human waste, you can also compost fruit, vegetable and plant materials

that's collected on board or brought on board. And they're doing this in two ways, by composting,

either worm composting or standard thermal composting. So they have a worm compost bin

and also a tumbling composter that I'm gonna show you right now to show how they generate

composts on the Science Barge.

So another way they're composting here on the barge is with worms. And they got the

can of worms here, and this is a nice worm composter, I actually have one of these myself.

And they're filling up the food scraps in here and all the worms are all inside here,

going to town, making a lot of good compost. Now I definitely wanna recommend you guys,

worm compost. Worm composting is the best way to bring microbial activities in your

garden. Whether it's fungi, the microryza, and the worm compost can be used to make compost

teas. It's just so rich in nutrients, you just gotta do it.

Now the other way they're composting here on The Barge is just a standard tumbling composter

or thermal composting. Many of you guys may have seen composters like this, where you

just like, put the compost inside and you kinda let it sit. You can't really turn it

that well. You know, these guys definitely work but I would recommend you guys upgrade

and get a tumbling composter. I found they just work that much faster and I have several

videos reviewing different kinds of tumbling composters. They have a tumbling composter

here that's actually kinda big and heavy and a little bit heavy to turn. (laughs) But,

uh, we're gonna go ahead and open that and show you guys inside. It's very important

to compost your food scraps. You know, most food scraps get sent off into the landfill

where they actually don't compost, they generate more methane gas and they're not being reused

in an appropriate way. You know I want everyone out there to take some responsibility for

the food scraps they generate by composting. Composting is super simple. Whether you're

gonna get a tumbler like this or whether you get a worm bin, you can even put it under

your sink, in a little box and have your own worm bin inside. But this way they're just

composting thermally. They're adding their food scraps plus a carbon source. They're

tumbling it... And guess what? Compost will happen. Once it's done take this out to grow

your plants and vegetables in it and they'll be healthy as ever.

Now I'm so excited we're gonna get to show you guys the greenhouse. I mean this is where

all the growth happens, the majority of it anyway, and they're growing many different

styles of growing food in here, and hopefully you guys are gonna get some ideas to let you

guys know how you may wanna start growing your food. So the first part about any growing

system, when they're growing food, is to start your own seeds. So what they're doing here

is actually they’re showing kids and actually the kids will start some of these seeds. They

got a little collection of seeds here that the kids will actually put into the rock wool

and then they'll water these guys and then they'll get the little plant. So here's the

little lettuces that they started, in a little rock wool. And once they got the little plants

here with the roots coming out, they're gonna take it over next-door to the system to grow

it. So let me go ahead and show you guys how they grow the lettuce.

I mean this is beautiful. I mean, you guys could have a head of lettuce a day for like

a whole year with this table right here. There's so many different plants. How this basically

is working is that they're starting the plants over on this side, and you can see all these

little baby lettuces in the first two rows. As they get a little bit bigger, then they

kinda move these over to the next rack, which are spaced a little bit further apart. And

they get them growing a little bit bigger. Then as they grow on, they maybe grow a little

bit further and then they get really large and that's when you can start harvesting the

lettuce and eating them.

So this way they're continually rotating the crop and they're making new seedlings to put

in the first couple rows and then letting the other ones grow out, and they'll start

harvesting lettuce and be able to eat it. Man, I love my lettuce. And besides the lettuce,

they're growing other things like some bok choy, which I really love, and some arugula

it looks like right here. And how they're growing this, they're in hydroponics. So they're

using their catchment water that they've sterilized over here and they're adding a nutrient solution

to. And this is simply called the thin film technique. And you can see here if we pull

this guy out, ...

(background/greenhouse noise)

... you can see all the healthy roots underneath there, they're growing in some rock wool here.

And this is standard hydroponics. You guys could do this easily at home, whether you

buy a system like this, or whether you just, you know, make it yourself out of some rain

gutters that you buy at home depot. So how this works is simply, they have a nutrient

bin here that's filled with water, a little water reservoir that they add the nutrients

to and there's a little pump in here, what happens is the pump comes on, it comes out

this blue pipe here, and it runs all the way up this little, uh, gutter system, all the

way to the other end, and it's pumped over to the other end, and then what happens is

the water flows down through gravity because it is on a slope, and then it runs all they

way down through the little gutter so all the water with the nutrients hit every root,

and then it comes down to the bottom here, into another gutter, where the water is then

drained back into the main tank here, where all the nutrient solution storage is. I mean,

this a super simple system. Anybody could do it. Now besides this hydroponic system,

they're growing a few other ways in hydroponics. So let me show you that next.

So here's another way besides that system. They're growing in this method as well. And

now this is very similar. Once again they have their nutrient solution here in the big

tank and the pumps come on and then they run it into each little pot. The nutrient solution

runs through the pot and then back into the collection tank. As you guys can see here,

they're growing many different things, including some cucumbers. There's a nice little cuke

right there on the vine, almost ready to get eaten. In addition they have some beautiful

pepper plants, I mean these pepper plants are looking lush and gorgeous, and look at

all these ripe peppers on here. Nice and red. I wanna remind you guys when you are harvesting