Healthy food classes and training in Medellin

Happy spring! We've spent the beginning of the year working on our sustainable energy and permaculture projects, with some advances to share!

First, our biggest news: we have invested in solar energy for Vía Cocina, with 8 panels and a new roof structure that in theory should generate 50% more energy than we use today. This allows us to grow in the future, and the excess energy will go back into the grid where the local energy company pays us for it, helping to pay for the internet connection that I installed (the solar energy system needs wifi to send reports/diagnostic info), and hopefully it will also provide a bit of money to help with our gas/water bills too. In theory it should pay for itself in about 5 years, and last 25 years, so it is a sound investment for the project! The installation is now certified, we are just waiting for the energy company to change our meter for a bidirectional one, which allows us to sell back our excess production. The system has to be turned off until that happens, as the existing meter can't distinguish energy coming in from going out, and would charge us for the energy we give back instead of discounting it and paying us for it.

In March our friends from a univiersity in the USA who donated/constructed our biodigester with us last year were back! We made lunch for 30 of them and spent some time on the roof learning about our permaculture projects and how the biodigester works, before they went off the following day to a closeby town to build two more biodigesters on a cocoa farm. A couple students stayed back after the demonstration with their teacher and we worked on patching holes in our gas storage bag, so that we can start using the methane gas produced in the biodigester for cooking on the roof!

And we are now using the liquid nutrients from the biodigester to grow hydroponic plants, mostly herbs and bok choy, in our patio's vertical garden. Because the transparent roof over the patio has UV protection, the plants don't get enough UV light to grow fast and big, but we've installed UV lights to help them absorb more, and this is a learning work in progress, so we hope each iteration of plants will get bigger and stronger with experience. We are now on our second group of plants, and are enjoying the edibles in our cooking classes and events.

Thanks for reading!

Brian