Responsible Consumption and Production IS Sustainable

Responsible Consumption and Production IS Sustainable

Warning! Huge Gallery Below!

As you can see from the massive gallery above, I am passionate about the idea that responsible consumption and production IS sustainable. Mezzacello itself is recycled. In 1868 it was a farmhouse and farm outside the city limits of Columbus.

When you have nothing, $100 might as well be $1,000,000.

Richard Riley

Now it is an Urban Farm and Biological/Agricultural Learning Lab to help inner city kids understand Applied STEM, Life Sciences, and Applied STEM in a farm environment. I love what I do and I do this particular UN 17 Sustainable Development Goal very well.

Our Founding Mission

Grow, Maintain, Sustain, Explain

Jim Bruner and Richard Riley

In 2014 Rick and I bought these abandoned property on Columbus’ near east side. This is what it looked like then.

The original state of the yard, just after we removed all the overgrown vegetation.

From grass, dog feces, drug needles, and oh so many weeds, we built an urban farm and food oases in the middle of the city. We used our own money, labor and time – nothing is more responsible or sustainable than that.

The Seduction of Consumerism and Convenience

Would it have been easier to just pay to have this done? The pointed answer is no. No one really knew we needed a system like this, least of all us, we just wanted it.

In our society, convenience is king. Save time waste money, bolster the economy and buy buy buy. My husband, Rick has a quote that I love. It’s “w”When you have nothing, $100 might as well be $1,000,000.”

That quote has always STUCK with me. I suspect that is truth for 80% of the US and 95% of the world. That is why this UN 17 SDG Goal 12 resonates with me so well.

I grew up lonely and poor. I have never known wealth or an easy life. Until I founded Mezzacello.

It is astounding how much joy comes from action and passion to a mission and a purpose. That is what these UN 17 SDGs are – Mission and Purpose for creating a world worth living in. I am all in on that – it is a transformational way of looking at the world.

It’s Not Living In Scarcity; It’s Living in Compassion

To many many people reducing consumption and living with a recycled aesthetic is an admission of defeat or a fear of scarcity. Search your feelings, you know this to be true. Nothing could be further from the truth though.

This planet is drowning in plastic, pollution, waste and poor decisions. We cannot keep taking and taking and taking and giving nothing back. That is the absolute OPPOSITE of sustainability.

Pride and vanity are really the enemy of sustainability. They cry out for more, more, more! But ask yourself -intimately – what do you get in return?

A life lived in service is the most profound transformation any human can experience. Caring and compassion in a world gone mad are acts of rebellion and courage. Be that, be better than fear; be hope, grace, kindness wisdom.

Try living this way for SIX months. Be MINDFUL of new over recycled. It will save you money, give you peace, and most importantly help everyone on this planet in some small way.

Change doesn’t have to be all or nothing. The best change is gradual and focused. The most effective change starts with you and your next decisions over the next six months.


Versailles at Mezzacello

Versailles at Mezzacello

Versailles-Inspired Tomato Planter

This spring, There will be a little bit of Versailles at Mezzacello. Last summer we found these amazing box planters at Monticello. I was obsessed with them, so much to the point that the tour guide advised me that I should speak to the head gardener and the director of operations.

Planter boxes at Versailles
Citrus Planters at Versailles

But I digress. They were so elegant and simple, and modular. But they are $600 a piece. No way was that going to happen.

Habitat for Humanity’s ReSTORE to the Rescue

I found these amazing store display storage boxes at H4H ReSTORE here in Columbus! They are PERFECTLY proportioned and well-built. Best of all, they were $15 a PIECE!

So I bought four. My goal is to set up a spray booth here at Mezzacello and give them a good cleaning and scrubbing, then a few coats of Zinzer primer. Then I will caulk and seal everything, and then give them a few coats of Mezzacello tan paint.

Then I will build a plastic cowl to protect the top of the boxes and line the interiors with rubberized paint and then a plastic heat welded liner. Then the finishing ledge and some finials.

I have plans for creating micro-ecosystems in each box. Standard suburbanite dirt and mulch matrix in one, hugelkultur matrix in another, Martian compost in another, and a swale and soil matrix in the last. It will be a fun experiment and a classy addition to Mezzacello.

A CAD Rendering Before and After

Teaching Tool

I am over the moon about these. The fact that the polka dot inserts can be removed and replaced just sets my imagination on fire! What could I put in there?

In my dreams it is a variety of things; Chalk boards, art describing the carbon, nitrogen, water, or Oxygen/CO2 cycles. Even a description and explanation for the four different bed types.

Even if Rick makes me go with lattice or chippendale, they will still be awesome. I found a Victoria’s Secret hanger in one of them, so I assume they are from one of those stores. They will have a wildly different life now, and I pun intended, support it!


Pride Goes Before The Fall

Pride Goes Before The Fall

$250 a roll bronze chain that has been pressed into new service.

“Pride Goes Before The Fall” — this biblical quote has haunted me my whole life. This year I decided to roll with it and stay adaptable. So the alternate title of this post is, use what you have and be grateful you have it, but SEO says that is too long a title.

The photo above is a spool of high-end expensive bronze chain I bought out of shame five years ago. You see, Rick wanted to hang pictures from the picture rail I built for him all around the common rooms of our 160 year old house. I destroyed his oven.

There’s a story there for sure. Anyway, I bought the chain and it sat unused in the greenhouse. This morning I needed chain in the chicken coop and all I had was this bronze chain. So I swallowed my pride and hung that poultry waterer with the best chain money can buy.

Chain is Chain

The museum quality picture hanging bars we used instead of chain.

Don’t feel bad. WE found an amazing deal five years ago at a store closing, (the amazing Katherine’s in German Village). We bought all of her museum quality picture hanging rods. The chain arrived a few days after, so I put it in storage.

I was busy mucking out the chicken coop today and I wanted to hang a waterer inside the coop. The heat lamp and my data, motion, and temperature sensors were telling me water does not freeze so it seemed like a good plan. Except I didn’t have any chain.

“But Jim,” you might ask, “why not just use rope or a bungee cord?” Because chickens and ducks are buttheads and chain is the only stable option that won’t flex. Trust me, I know from experience chain is best.

No Time To Go For a Drive

So rather than drop everything, lock the farm back up, drive to the suburbs (I live in downtown Columbus) and buy chain, I swallowed my pride and used the good stuff. It works really well. Chain is chain after all.

Morning Mischief Managed

Now I have to dust myself off, straighten my bow tie and get ready to go to work. I have an appointment to discuss Applied STEM and give a tour of the state of the art PAST Innovation Lab. Stay frosty kids, and always ready to pivot!

PS if anyone wants to help me install the double oven I bought five years ago that is still sitting out in the garage in its original box, hit me up. LOL!


The “Foundations” of Building an Urban Garden

What you are looking at is the foundation stones from a house that used to sit on this lot. Every garden bed we build we know we are going to excavate some foundation. Luckily at this point we have a pretty good idea of exactly what the footprint of those houses was. But it doesn’t make the job any easier.

At this point I have pulled 200 stones up out of the ground. At least half of those are now being used to shore up the interior foundations of the house. While the house was Abandonned some of the interior cellar walls collapsed. I have rebuilt those walls with “garden rocks”. Everything has a purpose and a use at Mezzacello. Everything.

When the houses that used to sit on the plots that comprise the grounds at Mezzacello were abandoned, condemned, and eventually razed, they only tore down the houses. They left the foundations intact and just below grade. One house burned down (you can still see the ash and char in the soil) the other house was dismantled for removal to another site, but that plan was abandoned when it became obvious that the house was riddled with termites. To add insult to injury they filled the now exposed cellars with rubble. Ostensibly this was to save on the costs of hauling it offsite.

This might at first blush appear as an annoyance, but we don’t think of it that way. I mean it is initially, especially when there is a stone in a place where we KNOW there was no foundation and this particular stone is actually an 18” x 36” limestone step that was probably the side door stoop at one point. But that’s where our imagination and sense of honor kicks in. These stones were people’s homes. Lives were created, lived, loved, and lost in and above those brackets of stone rubble foundation. It is the living heritage of living and building Mezzacello where we are building it.

One day, Mezzacello will no longer be here. But the energy we created, embodied, and expended will have mattered. Those stones matter. We all of us matter. When we honor that, we are living our best life. Now pardon me while I continue to prise this big *ss stone out of the parterre garden bed. I know I can use it somewhere.

Of course it wouldn’t be a true Mezzacello story if Rick didn’t claim that every stone, pipe, clay sewer line, and random artifact is the evidence of a long buried Roman ruin. He does this just to mess with me – but secretly I play along.