2023 Mezzacello Annual Report

Our Mission:

Grow, Maintain, Sustain, Explain

Mezzacello Urban Farm invites students, families, and communities to learn about sustainability in a live enclosed, interrelated ecosystem lab in a densely populated urban environment. With gardens, ponds, pollinator systems, classrooms, compost, livestock, fish, insects and various bacteria, we teach about life. Our farm includes a greenhouse, power generation and water collection and purification systems, and a series of labs for research and teaching. Our focus is on hands-on applied STEM and we integrate robotics, automation, coding, and sensor systems needed to maintain a healthy, balanced homestead in the 21st Century.

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Growth:

We were incorporated into a non-profit in 2021 and have been operating learning labs, tours and workshops here since then. In 2023 we saw ENORMOUS growth.

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2023 Highlights:

• 2024 Innovations included a new BioLab for Biotech research and greenhouse use, an expanded BioEngineering Lab including 3D Printing and data analysis, and expanded power generation and renewables.
• New for 2023 was the first iteration of my Student Leadership interns – a cadre of five well-trained and competent middle schoolers capable of teaching and leading with confidence.
• In 2023 Mezzacello presented 6 presentation on Applied STEM innovations to the Global Innovation Field Trip and in partnership with Franklin Park Conservatory and The PAST Foundation.

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Donations and Connect!

We created Mezzacello Urban Farm to make the world, or at least our local communities more innovative and sustainable. But we need your help. Please consider a donation to help us create a sustainable world.

Financials

That 10% in donations allowed 28 young people to attend camps at Mezzacello. Be a force for positive experience and change. Rick and I ourselves empowered 35 kids to join us here at Mezzacello Urban Farm. This is our first year in independent operation. 2024 holds so much more!

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Please Consider Joining Us Here at Mezzacello Urban Farm!

There you can learn more about our mission, camps, workshops, research and development or to schedule a tour, donate or collaborate.

Sponsors and volunteers are welcome as well. All this can be accessed on Mezzacello.org.

Become involved in our Mission Today!

Thanks to Our Generous 2023 Sponsors and Partners!

BioDome Automated Systems 2023

Gallery of the BioDome Automated Systems 2023 showing the steel frame, the dual insulated covers, and the systems inside to encourage tropical plant growth.

Well it was a bit of an obsessive struggle, but I can say I understand my modified geodesic system well enough to build and dismantle it now. I also discovered that I needed two layers of plastic to better insulate it. I also needed to add vents to let in fresh air – regardless of the external temperatures.

More Focused Sensors This Time

In my original iterations of the biodome I had too many sensors that were giving me data that I could not use. Too Hot, Too Humid, Too much sun, Too much chill. This time there are three sensors:

1. How much sun as a function of time
2. How often and long does water need to spray
3. What are baseline temps during day and night only

This will make it much easier to use the data from the sensors to give these fragile plants a better chance of surviving our Ohio winters. And the automation will save me a lot of time. I need to come up with a way to monitor scale and pests though.

So for now it’s a visual test. I am putting this system to the test now as i am on vacation and this system is running on automated systems. Wish me luck!

The Golden Ticket Presentation

This is the Golden Ticket Presentation I gave 10/15/2023 at the Global Innovation Field Trip. It is a very nice presentation and I am very proud of myself. I am a Willy Wonka for summer camps and workshops on biotech, renewables and sustainability!

I chose Willy Wonka because I know globally this reference is still relevant to many kids around the world. I wanted something fun and accessible, but still mysterious and a tad dangerous? Mostly I wanted kids to see that failure is the path to learning when we play rather than work.

Oompa Loompas AKA Student Interns

I also love my “Oompa Loompas”. These were my kid teachers. You can see them in the screenshot of the video above.

They are LITERALLY the three young (and only) girls in this photo. They were (from Left to Right) Milana, Summer, and Arya.They helped me run and teach this summer camp on BioEngineering to this group of 16 boys.

I never told them I thought any of my interns were Oompa Loompas of course. I didn’t know it then either. This idea of Mezzacello Urban Farm as a metaphor for Wonkaland is quite new.

But these five young interns were just that! The magic that makes the magical place work and come alive in the hearts and the imagination of the young people in the camps and workshops. I literally could not have had the success I did without them.

Impacts and Pride

They did a terrific job, and I am very proud of them. I am proud of all the kids in my camps and workshops this year! 160 kids in 13 programs, and an additional 103 in my online events and tours.

The success of this intern program has been so great that I am extending it into 2024 with a new series of workshops on leadership and peer to peer mentorship and training. I will be announcing details later in November. To those parents who have already reached out, I have your data!

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023.

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BioEngineering Summer Camp 2023 Guest Blogs

I love teaching Applied STEM summer camps. It never ceases to amaze me what kids will dream up if you give them a problem, some tools and then get out of their way. These are two BioEngineering Summer Camp 2023 Guest Blogs that were shared with me today.

Children Own The Future By Embracing Today Their Way

It is remarkable to see your impact through the eyes of a kid. It’s very important for me that you understand I presented a problem and these two created solutions that were manageable, doable, and sustainable. Creativity and problem-solving is an innate superpower of youth.

Liam’s Outdoor Data Station

This was Liam’s design for the outdoor data station. The requirements were:

• The work surface had to be mounted and retractable
• The station had to be covered and shaded
• The monitors had to be free from the table surface
• The entire array had to run on Solar, Wind, or Battery Power

Liam worked with his team and a high school intern who was also attending the camp. They had to provide me with detailed list of outside materials that would be needed and a drawing of their design. Liam is a great engineer in training, but he isn’t fond of mapping things out.

This is what Liam and his team designed. It works very well and uses the dedicated 5G wireless router signal that the Bioreactor uses at Mezzacello. The system is stable and easily mountable and dismountable. Below is the text from Liam’s description.

What I Did

I built a deck, mounted a monitor stand, managed setting up two Windows 11 workstations, created a database in Airtable, setup the wifi relay, and managed the entire Computer array storage system, used a solar-powered power station to power the entire system, hung chairs, and made an old compressor work from. Reused 12V 30Ah battery and spare wire. (more on this later)

Things I Did Wrong And Fixed

We put the desk in, but not on the (wall) studs. So we had to (take it down and) move it over.

Sketch Something I Did

Editor’s Note: Frankly I am blown away that he drew this from MEMORY! That lesson resonated with him. The plan view is a stroke of genius!

Fun I Had

Holding Alice Cooper was fun because he’s really cute.

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Max’s Automated and Distributed Watering System

This was Max’s design for the distributed and automated watering system. The requirements were:

• The watering source had to be circles large enough to cover the entire area of the potager gardens
• The system had to make use of the existing steel trellis
• No hoses could be exposed
• The water had to come on and off automatically
• The system could not use more than 3 gallons of water total on any one day

This is what Max designed. It works very well and uses city water for now but there are plans to integrate a solar-powered pump from the Bioreactor water tower at Mezzacello. The system is stable and easily programmed and run. Below is the text from Max’s description.

Mezzacello is a cool urban farm place that grows lots of stuff. I buried hoses in holes to make a sprinkler system for the garden. But I made the hole to big and deep. So I had to dig it again, smaller and closer. Then I had to fix some stuff.

Editor’s note: BioLab 4 is the shed on which Liam’s outdoor station station is mounted to.

Here is a plan view of the design.

There’s a lot of compost and animals and wind turbines, and solar panels and plants growing. And everyone is always working on something. I learned a lot there and I had a lot of fun too.

A Delight, A Privilege, and a Surprise

I pride myself on building and running programming that really captures the imagination and excitement of learning for kids. They need the opportunity to do things and fail and do them again. I am proud of these young people – all of them! – and I am delighted that they shared their journey with me in such a fun and unique way.

Applied STEM at Mezzacello is more than just science, technology, engineering and math. It is a true multi-sensory and disciplinary experience. I always strive to interweave lessons in leadership, cooperation, art, writing, and public speaking.

Those are the human skills that these young future leaders are going to need. They are tasked with changing the world in the face of Climate Reality. The very least we should be doing is allowing them to solve the problems on their terms and in their voices.

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A Shout Out To My Sponsors

I wanted to give a shout to Richard Riley for always supporting me, and Olivia Hickey for entrusting me with her sons and getting them to write these guest blogs. That was a delight! I love that I get to be part of the change I want to see in the world!

I also want to thank The PAST Foundation, Franklin Park Conservatory, Scotts Miracle Grow, The Columbus Foundation, Battelle, The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, Bronzeville Grower’s Market, and The City of Columbus Parks and Recreation for underwriting this particular grant.

I am grateful to all of them for getting the opportunity to help make a positive change in the world. I welcome all collaboration and partnership. Nature hates a vacuum and I am certain I can’t be the best or only force for positive change, so let’s work together!

A special shout out to Walker Evans at Columbus Underground for putting the idea of expanding collaboration at his inaugural #CivicSpeakeasy and the Columbus Metropolitan Club and the amazing Sophia Fifner for reminding us that ALL of us are better TOGETHER! Brava and thank you all.

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This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023

Deciding To Live With Purpose

Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on… So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything… The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all… We do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES. But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors…but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal… Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.

Hunter S. Thompson

This is the front screen from a presentation I gave to a global group of students from around the world on Saturday. I am building knowledge, insight, data, and lessons here. The biodome 2.0 project is as much about learning from failure as it is about learning to learn.

Here I am at a crossroads. A moment in my life where I get the chance (and the challenge) of deciding to live with purpose. It’s not that I have not been doing that, It’s that I am choosing to do it my way.

I want to turn Mezzacello Urban Farm into a tool for good in the coming climate, food security, and water insecurity era we are in. I want to leverage my passion, my farm, my talent for Applied STEM and inspiration for others. And I want to commit to this full time.

Transition

I love my job. But I am also a dedicated and hyper-focused worker and I left Mezzacello languishing (except in summer when I ran camps). I attempted to balance it all, but I am incapable of doing that with a full heart.

Transitions are NEVER easy. I and I KNOW it is privilege and luxury to get to chose a life lived with purpose. I am hoping I can make this work, and I may need help.

Change The World

If we are going to change the world, we need to start with action. Action, attention, inspiration and experiences that empower, advocate, and inspire hearts and minds young and old to realize their value and power to solve these problems. My mission has always been grow, maintain, sustain, explain.

Let me in the next few days do all of those for this audience. I will be announcing this on Monday, 17 April, 2022. Follow along if you will.

Interns and Mentorship on an Urban Farm

This is August my latest entry for Interns and Mentorship on an Urban Farm. They really love farming but freely admit to have living little experience. That’s OK, this is a place to be safe and discover what you do know.

I was delighted that August showed up. They are working with PAST Foundation, Impact Community Development and Metro Early College High School in the #Workforce Development Pathway at PAST Innovation Lab this summer. It is clear that August will not be a farmer – but they are going to be a killer technologist!

More Than Farming and Labor

After we got started on the chores I needed help with I discovered that they are not built for labor. They do have a keen mind and a driving sense of purpose. So we took a break and discussed what they were interested in. It turns out we have a lot in common and we need different things from one another.

August is working towards credentials in CAD and Additive Manufacturing at PAST Innovation Lab. It just so happens that I have two 3D printers that were gifted to me but I do not have time to learn to run. August will be designing and building on-demand tools for me throughout the summer.

The Beating Heart of Sustainability

I think this is an amazing tradeoff. I can’t get these things done, August wants to learn more about urban farming and how to leverage technology on an urban farm. Why would we not combine our passions and strengths?

This is what sustainability looks like. One system that needs and provides for another with minimal friction and hassle. August showed up at just the right time and for the right reason.

Restarting the Biodome and Optimizing the Bioreactor

The breaker in both the biodome and bioreactor projects is water acquisition and management issues that that I cannot use off the shelf parts effectively to create. It would be far better if I had customizable and replaceable parts to do the critical jobs I need done. It was August’s idea to ask me about these and remind me they were seeking credentials for solving problems just like this.

Once we sat down at Wendy’s (They needed chicken nuggets) and I started sketching these things out, August told me that they new exactly how to model this in Fusion 360 and that we could print them in a standard 3D printer. I was delighted! They will not only design the part for me, but print it test it and provide the code to share on this website.

Finding Purpose

This is what Mezzacello was always designed to be: A catalyst for change and innovation. August and I will work through the designs and best of all, it will count for credits in their accreditation for coursework. It will be open source and replicable – a true win-win.

We have four weeks to get these systems designed, built, tested, and modified. The future starts today and it starts with a single opportunity to see each other for the value one brings, not what one hopes for. I dedicate this blog to PAST Foundation and to the incomparable Nikki Stancampiano who runs the Workforce program at PAST. Bravo!

Mezzacello: Home Is Where The Lab Is

It never occurred to me that people might think that Mezzacello is a place that I go to do my work. Increasingly I meet people that ask me where Mezzacello is and then are surprised to learn that My home and Mezzacello are the same place. Mezzacello: Home is where the lab is.

How This Came About

I have written on this topic before. I fell into an opportunity to build a series of gardens to explore growing food and developing ecosystems and systems that would make that easier. I also am employed by the PAST Foundation and it seemed mutually beneficial to create an Applied STEM laboratory to explore the intersection between food and community.

I credit PAST Foundation for inspiring me to start Mezzacello. It was when I began working with PAST in 2014 that I began to see the disconnect young people had between food and how it’s made and the wider disconnect between education and how what when we teach kids about food. I just copied what PAST Foundation was trying to model to schools and I never stopped.

Growing America to STEM Outdoor Innovation Lab to Mezzacello Urban Farm

PAST Foundation has been innovating in this space for over a decade. They ran a successful program in the mid 2000s called Growing America which sought to teach Applied STEM ideas to inner-city kids in the hopes that it would improve diets and understanding of food. And it did, but there was still a missing component.

Then I was hired to run the SOIL program alongside Kat Deaner (who was the PI for Growing America at PAST) and it was my job to help schools make good choices in implementing spaces for outdoor and food innovations. That’s where I learned that systems integration and commitment to seasons was key. It was that realization that drove me to create the learning lab at Mezzacello.

Complexity and Dependent Systems Integration

Very much like my job at PAST Foundation, it is not always easy to explain what I do here at Mezzacello – so I will make this easy. I live here and explore here to try to make the world a better place to live in and to find balance. The city is a dangerous place to be hungry and vulnerable in and I want to be a positive change for good in that space.

I love living in a place that inspires people and allows me to really manifest my mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, and Explain. During COVID19 lockdown, Mezzacello literally saved my life and my sanity. It was a beacon of hope and purpose for me in a world gone mad.

The key to success is a relentless commitment to iterative teaching and learning. Here I have failed – alot. But I learn from that failure.

The real innovation here is to not fear change and failure, but to treat it as a data point. I do hate failure, but I hate hard work even more. If I can develop a more robust and sustainable system via that failure, then that is a success in my book.

Here’s to continuing to push through and create a better world. The next steps are building my charity presence and non-profit status and finding new partners and sites to expand my mission. Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it.

Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report

I was surprised and delighted that Mezzacello Urban Farm was a highlight of the Ohio Farm Bureau 2021 Annual Report. I really loved working with them last year. And working with the kids, parents, schools, communities, and businesses was a privilege and learning opportunity for me.

Local Collaboration and Support

A huge shout out to The PAST Foundation for serving as my fiscal sponsor while I am waiting for my 501c3 status to clear. Also a shoutout to Bronzeville Agricademy, and Highland youth Garden. They kept me grounded and extended my mission greatly, even during pandemic.

It makes me proud to see what I did in print. It transformed Mezzacello completely. And through that transformation, I am committed to continuing to leverage that grant opportunity to create meaningful change in my community, and around the world as well.

Global Reach

Last year I shared the research and programming I was doing at Mezzacello with global audiences through the UN Food Challenge and through the Invent Future Global Innovation Field Trip; 200 kids from 16 countries all around the world. That was thrilling.

Growth, Health, and Change

But mostly it was thrilling that I get to leverage my unique health crisis, my passion for Applied STEM and my home to make meaningful and replicable change.

Change in my neighbor, my city, my region, nation and ultimately the world. I am a very lucky person and I am ready for even more transformation!

This year, I am continuing to innovate, run summer camps and as a member of the Columbus CEO Magazine’s #Future50 2022 cohort, I expect even more innovation and change!

The Biofilter and Critical Race Theory

Returning to the Farm

I went on vacation last week. It was much needed. As an #UrbanFarmer it is so easy to slip into #workMode 24/7. Sometimes the mind needs time to discover new things. But #realityintrudes. I forgot to clean the biofilter in the pond before I left for a tour of #Monticello and #MountVernon so I could slip back into #CriticalThinking and #Discovery modes. While I enjoyed my visits IMMENSELY, what I came back to was an Urban Farm that was largely unfazed by my absence (Yay! Systems Engineering) But the #BioFilter is a unique #Ecosystem. It REQUIRES human intervention (for now).

I had two big jobs to focus on when I returned from my vacation.

1. Harvesting the dried algae from backup bio-media
2. Cleaning out the biofilter itself

Reframe the Topic

Both are labor intensive and somewhat regular. I usually do them in a staggered sequence, and I have a robot to do the first. BUT! That robot got broken on accident during my July summer camp. So I had to clean the sponges by hand. As I was grating the sponges across the metal hardware cloth and into the the metal sorting colander I was thinking. I just visited two #Worldclass plantation that used (almost exclusively) slave labor for menial tasks. Here I was bemoaning my broken robot and having to do the work MYSELF! Gasp! This is why Discovery mode is so very important. I saw firsthand what could be accomplished with slave labor. I refactored “slave labor” as automation. But the result is the same. This is when I realized I was really talking about #CriticalRaceTheory.

We spend so much time focusing on the now of that word in opposition to the fact that these events happened, we lose sight of the REASON that the idea is important to begin with. All great human products require effort. Just reframe the concept of effort as a system and the details become obvious. I know this a #PoliticallyCharged topic, but it really shouldn’t be. While I was manually grating algae off those plastic mesh sponges and scraping the wet algae off the interior of that biofilter, I took the time to daydream about Thomas Jefferson or George Washington would have thought about that. Reflect on that and reframe your perspective

Today was the first day of spring that I have to do planting maintenance at Mezzacello. One of my primary tasks was making sure both the animal, aquatic, and botanical species that we grow here have appropriate levels of the essential elements to thrive and grow.

The animals are pretty well cared for at this point. Chicks and ducklings are thriving. The fish are spawning and the worms and crickets are out of the basement. My attention turns to the biochemistry of the fauna end of the Mezzacello ecosystems; namely the potager gardens and the formal gardens. More on the potager gardens later. Today I am spreading potash, potassium, and calcium amongst the formal gardens. Literally ash, potassium and chicken and duck shells and oyster shells on the ground for next years growth.

While Rick is planting bulbs, I am following behind him with a mixture of crushed eggshells and oyster shells at the base of peonies, gladiolus, and tulips. (Also some for the chickens and ducks for stronger shells). I just finished spreading a gallon of raw calcium on top of all the mulch above the bulbs that need calcium. As I was going into the house to prepare 2 Cap Cod Cocktails for Rick and I, I saw this egg that Richard had absent mindedly set in the impromptu herb beds on the side door stoop. It made me laugh.

I rushed out of the house at 6:50 this morning to serve as a judge captain at the Ohio Academy of Science’s State Science Fair #OhioSSD19 and asked Rick to feed the rabbits, fish, worms, ducks, and chickens. Apparently he had a handful of duck eggs and set one down in the herb bed next to the leeks we were growing from leek bases we’d nurtured in a cup of water in March and was now planted in this box. It made me laugh. Technically it is a source of calcium but it needs a bit more processing before Mother Nature can use it, dude. LOL! Never a dull moment.