City-Hydro

24/08/2024

Microgreen Purple Kohlrabi.

Why grow lettuce with the nutritional value of Kleenex?

Microgreens 40 TIMES the nutritional value of it adult version per volume.

From Seed to Consuming in 7-10 days.

Kohlrabi, like other members of the Brassica family, contains health-promoting phytochemicals such as isothiocyanates, sulforaphane, and indole-3-carbinol that are supposed to protect against prostate and colon cancers. It especially contains good amounts of many B-complex groups of vitamins such as niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), thiamin, pantothenic acid, etc., that acts as co-factors to enzymes during various metabolism functions inside the body.
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/kohlrabi.html

11/08/2024

Several folks have asked about my company City-Hydro "The Vertical Farm".

My wife and I started City-Hydro a vertical farming company back in 2011.

We designed every aspect of the systems from the special 12V LED lights, the food-safe plastic growing trays, to the growing process and growing meduim. We were one of the pioneers of vertical farming field.

We were featured on PBS Maryland Farm and Harvest and on the front page of the business section of the New York Times just a few of the new articles.

Today City-Hydro has over 25,000 vertical farmers worldwide using our systems and or processes.

Must have been my time spent working at the Benson Farmers COOP, and all the blue corduroy FFA jackets in halls at Roanoke Benson High School that influenced me to start our vertical farming company.

New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/business/smallbusiness/growing-greens-in-the-spare-room-as-vertical-farm-start-ups-flourish.html

PBS Maryland Farm and Harvest episode:
https://youtu.be/vV1NIK6AsEQ

LED lighting and short growing periods have helped the rise of indoor farming, but scaling up is tougher.

11/08/2024

Opal and Genovese Basil PESTO - Making it by hand makes you appreciate it even more ;-) 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves or 2ea pads of PURE Living Opal and Genovese Microgreens .

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic.
1/4 cup pine nuts.
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil.
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Grind garlic, and pine nuts to a coarse paste, Grind Basil to a fine paste using a glass muller(this can also be done in a food processor).

Grate Pecorino Romano cheese to a fine dust. Add all to a large mixing bowl and blend all ingredients well.

🙏👨‍🍳🍽🎊🌱🍃

08/08/2024

Today I was Googling City-Hydro and this pop up...

Wow what a great opportunity meeting John Kohler he does so much for growing your own greens..

An AMAZING individual 👏 🙌

https://youtu.be/fO9Q2bnQvLo?si=q39HyeiJdf-09kAH

08/08/2024

A few more blasts from the past as we did lots of research on City-Hydro growing methods.

We setup an Aquaponics test in our backyard (yes in downtown Baltimore City) using our Koi Pound (12 large fish 1 turtle).

Building a bell siphon bio filter to turn the nitrates (fish waste) into nutrients for the plant fertilizer worked very well.

We let the bio mass build for 12 months in the bio filter before our first crop.

Its was AMAZING SETUP awesome results just not the road we wanted to go down, plus we used NONFOOD safe plastics in the POC (proof of concept).

One of our major concerns with most hydroponic systems and most growing trays available today.

Produce grew amazing. With just a very simple design.

07/08/2024

Our first City-Hydro Setup for tomatoes back in 2011. Hence our logo the huge tomatoe...

Zhanna came home from wholefoods with heirloom tomatoes costing $7.00 I said we can grow those and off to the races.

We soon learned it takes a lot of power to grow tomatoes, not a very good ROI under LEDS.

We then went to lettuces need lots and lots of space to make any money in that.

Zhanna kept saying 'MICROGREENS".

So here we are today City-Hydro now has over 20,000++ growers worldwide using our systems/processes.

We have learned a lot over the past years, the most important lessons were NO Fertilizers, No Pesticides and NO Soil, only use 100% Certified Food Safe Plastics and be honest.

03/08/2024

Gotta love dinner off the cuff.

Digging through the vegetable drawer and of course when you have fresh MICROGREENS right on your countertop it makes it so so easy.

Fresh microgreens in 7-10 days with just water.

No Pesticides, No Fertilizer and no soil all in 100% Certified Food Safe Plastics.

😋 🍃🌱🙏💥🙏🌱🍃😋

02/08/2024

Good Morning, Welcome to my office ;-)

No Smoke and Mirror here, No Mockups, No Photoshopped Images, No Staged Photo Ops, Its real, We live this everyday and have for over a decade.

We designed and built our systems from the ground up, from the LED lights we use, to the foodsafe trays to the simple 5 step process that we uses all designed in house.

Like a recent visitor from the USDA said " Your system works, I have seen a lot of systems that don't".

We produce 12,000 lbs of microgreens annually in a 10'x15' room.

You can start with one rack and slowly build up as you build your business no need to invest thousands of dollars to get started.

As Zhanna Buyankina like to say "start small and let your business grow organically"

Thank everyone for your AMAZING support over the many years

🌱🙏

27/07/2024

Hard to believe we use to make our own LED lights in our dining room.

Today they are manufactured by a leading LED company and shipped around the world to over 20,000 City-Hydro clients.

City-Hydro lights last over 50,000 hours.. we have lights 10 years plus still going strong in the growroom.

Thanks to everyone for your AMAZING support

😎🙏🌱🙏😎

20/07/2024

Thomas Peitsmeyer and Pure Micro-Greens LLC at Eastern Market CRUSHING IT

🙏🌱🌱🌱🙏

17/07/2024

85% of our Homekit and PURE Racks are made in the USA 🇺🇸 Our HomeKit Racks are MADE IN BALTIMORE City ;-)

If you want quality has to be MADE IN THE USA 🇺🇸...

16/07/2024

There has been some question about the growing medium we use, we use coconut fibre a waste product of several industries.

We use coco fibre because of its ridge qualities unlike h**p, flex, swap grass or synthetic fibres.

The coconut holds it shape, when our clients pick it up it doesn't fall apart they can hold it in their hand and cut the microgreens without it falling apart and cutting down on yields hence the 5"x7" size.

We also prepare our coconut fibre before seeding thus washing out any impurities that might be in the mat it self.

Much of the h**p and flex fibre has been grown using non-organic pesticides, fertilizers such as Monsanto RoundUp that remain in the fibres which the microgreens can take into their systems thus contaminating our PURE microgreens.

The main industry using h**p and flex fibres is the auto industry in the stuffing for their seats and such thus the quality controls are not there for a medium to be used to grow food.

Coconuts are grown naturally, the fibre is a by-product of the palm oil industry thus it is a waste product no pesticides nor fertilizers are used in the growth of palm/coconut trees thus it is 100% organic and PURE.

We did extensive research on our grow medium, used dozens of different kinds and sizes at the end of the day we found coconut fibre to be the PUREST and best suited for our application.

We did changed suppliers of our coconut fibre several years back after learning they were acquired by a subsidiary of MONSANTO in keeping with our PURE mandate.

Today our coconut fiber pads are manufactured for us to our high standards.

Again when you do the research and extensive testing you know what you are using is the best for your clients and contains no harmful chemicals, its food it has to be PURE and safe.

12/07/2024

Starting 2011 as a small mom and pop microgreen business selling microgreens to local restaurants and at several farmers markets.

Growing hundreds of trays per month.

City-Hydro has grown into a international business with growers throughout the world.

Today thousands of people have come to City-Hydro to learn to grow microgreens and tens of thousands more have used City-Hydro's free YouTube videos to learn our growing methods.

Thank you all for the AWESOME support throughout the years.

🥳🌱🙏🍃🌱🙏🌱🥳

06/07/2024

Always standout in a crowd, GROW PURE, No Fertilizers, No Pesticides and No Soil and in 100% Certified Food-Safe Plastics.

For City-Hydro is all about health and wellness, our system were designed from the ground up.

Every component is 100% food-safe.

Our coconut fiber pads are 100% natural and veganic no animal byproducts or synthetic ingredients.

Our simple growing process was tested and tested then test some more, to ensure it was simple and repeatable time after time.

We only use PURE filtered water no fertilizers, mother nature provided all the nutrients the young plants need in the seed hulls for the first 20 days of life.

Zhanna and I eat 2 to 4 pads of microgreens daily and it shows in our health and wellness.

I recently had my annual check up. A1C 5, Colestrol 95, Weight 160lbs, Blood Pressure under control. All other numbers are in the normal range.

It's never to late to get healthy.

Zhanna and I thank you all for the GREAT support

03/07/2024

Have a wonderful 4th of July

Larry and Zhanna

28/06/2024

Microgreen Leek has an awesome flavour much better the onion or spring onion microgreens.

Use it in place of onion on a burger, in soup, on mashed potatoes even dress up your sushi so versatile.

🙏🌱😊

27/06/2024

Love Nasturtiums, so simple to grow yet have such a complex flavour amazing addition to any plate.

We seed dense more bang for the buck for our clients, many growers charge per leaf our trays our $50.00 for hundreds of leaves ;-)

🌱🍃🙏😊

19/06/2024

Our Raven Radish mix just coming to life...

Awesome flavour and nutritional value is off the charts, 1oz of microgreens equals 12oz of full size produce..

🙏🌱🍃🍽🍃🌱🙏

06/06/2024

Quick dinner

Roasted Buckwheat tossed with diced spring onion and fire roasted red and yellow pepper. Topped with, hummus, roasted red beet, pickled cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, blueberries and pumpkin seeds, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste... and of course lots of microgreens

🌱🍽🙏

03/06/2024

Amazing Memories,

This father and daughter showed up one morning unannounced not scheduling or talking to us.

I opened the door and David said...

"Hello City-Hydro we have come from Israel to learn to grow with the Rabbi's blessing"

Growers from Israel, setting up their vertical farm just outside Tel Aviv starting with a 3 rack system.

Learning to grow PURE, they had to check with the Rabbi to insure our methods meet all their religious requirements and we PASSED.

City-Hydro methods meet all the requirements of kosher farming practices.

We dropped everything and started training them for the next 6 hours...

They picked up a home kit for their family in Brooklyn NYC and 5 PURE Racks to ship back to Israel.

🍃🌱🌏😊

01/06/2024

What a memorable day... 6 years ago

Land scape architectures from Turkey flew 1/2 way around the global to see our "PURE Vertical Farm" operation.

They are looking to open microgreen retail outlets in Istanbul using our PURE systems and growing methods...

28/05/2024

Microgreen Parsley is AWESOME, take a while to germinate 12 days on average but it has an amazing flavor.

🙏🍃😊🌱

25/05/2024

As America celebrates Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in our nation’s wars...

Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend and remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice we can be FREE

25/05/2024

We save a good chunk of change every year by growing microgreens on our kitchen counter...

Not only do we save on the grocery but add amazing health benefits to our lives...

Every meal has microgreens on it...

It so easy less then 2-3 minutes a day upkeep...

😊🙏🍃🌱🍽🏃‍♂️

23/05/2024

Everyone getting ready for their Farmers Market 🚜 opening day busy busy...

Zhanna Buyankina crushing it...

Thank you all for the great support 🙏🌱🙏🌱🙏

21/05/2024

Oh, what fantastic memories for Zhanna and me... moments we will cherish for ever. Over 2,000 people came to our house for training. Thank you all for the AMAZING Support 🙏🌱😊

19/05/2024

After 2 nights out with friends to restaurants...

It's nice harvest some PURE growen microgreens for the countertop and to open the refrigerator and pull out the weekly staples of Hummus and Adjika

To make an amazing breakfast 😋

🙏🍽🌱

18/05/2024

Pea Shoot Risotto

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped shallot
3/4 cup arborio rice
2 1/2 cups (or more) filtered water
3/4 cup finely chopped Pea Shoots (paste)
S/P to taste

Preparation:
Add olive oil to a heavy large saucepan over medium heat.Add shallots and sauté until soft, about 1 minute. Add rice and stir to coat.

Add 1/2 cups water and bring to boil simmer until 80% water absorbed fold in 3/4 cup pea shoots Add 1/2 cups water and bring to boil simmer until 80% water absorbed repeat until all the water is absorbed.

Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is tender and mixture is creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Serve risotto, with hay stack of microgreen leek and dusted with Russian Kale microgreens, drizzled with walnut and avocado oil, garnish with olive oil sauteed crimini mushroom and heirloom tomatoes

🌱🍃🙏🍽👨‍🍳😊

18/05/2024

Microgreen Leek,

All City-Hydro growers seed very densely more bang for the buck for their clients, we also prefer leek over any type of onion, leek as much better flavour profile, shelf life, germination rate and on average faster germination times.

No Fertilizers, No Pesticides and No Soil all in 100% certified food safe trays all PURE.

Leeks have a nice onion/shallot flavour with a hint of garlic

🙏🌱😊🍃

12/05/2024

Pasta Primavera needs some parmesan cheese flavor.

So we add nutritional yeast, adding the nice parmesan cheese flavor along with help with vitamin B intake....

🙏🌱🍝