If you're climbing the walls to harvest your  strawberries, lettuce and chives, then you're part of the newest trend in urban farming. Green Living Technologies in Rochester, N.Y., is expanding their successful green roof business into a purveyor and installer of edible walls.
     George Irwin, CEO and company founder, got the idea for edible walls after his young son and daughter asked him to plant lettuce seeds in a  2'x2' panel headed for a green roof project.
     Irwin was skeptical, but he planted the seeds. And got a bumper crop of lettuce. Now his company has built edible walls in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and other locations. The panels of either stainless steel or aluminum, are expensive, about $125 a square foot, but they can work in areas where space is tight. At a homeless shelter in Los Angeles, for example, clients tend a six-foot-high, 30-foot-long living wall that produces, among other crops, tomatoes, cucumbers and baby watermelons. 
     Watermelons? Just how "baby" are they, I wonder.
     New York Times reporter Ken Belson wrote about living walls, and you can read his story here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/energy-environment/19WALLS.html?scp=1&sq=green%20wall%20rochester&st=cse 

     What if there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and then there's another tunnel? That's the question Manheim, Pa., dairyman Steve Hershey asked the audience at the monthly Ag Issues Forum sponsored by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
     He said that while he and his two brothers are in fairly good shape, it's only partly because they sold a farm in 2009 to reduce their debt load and expenses.
     Two other speakers at the Forum, John Frey from the Center for Dairy Excellence, and Lowell Fry, an ag lender with Fulton Bank, agreed that the dairy picture is grim and nobody knows for sure when it's going to get better. One thing they all agreed on - not everybody is going to make it. There's a story about the meeting by yours truly in our current edition.


     Talk about fouling out...  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/marriage-proposal-rejected-at-basketball-game/83621A661DA53E6B11E283621A661DA53E6B11E2