Upcoming Events

• Embedded Reporter CVI Benefit
• ReciproCITY #1 Alan W. Moore & Sara Daleiden
• HOVER CRAFT
• Milwaukee Urban Gardens Garden Harvest Gala

Recent News

• Old News Made New
• Sweet Water, India & WEDC Meeting
• Sweet Water Wins Digital Media and Learning Competition
• Sweet Water’s Organic Certification Process
• Sweet Water Organics How To: Filleting Fish
• Our sprouts are really good, and really good for you!
• Plight of the yellow perch
• Sweet Water perch is on the menu for President Obama’s Dinner at mk Restaurant on April 14th!
• City wins grant to develop urban farms
• NPR Covers Sweet Water’s Work With Local Perch

Sweet Water Recipes

News and Events

Old News Made New

Q: Is your building for sale?

A: The building at 2151 S. Robinson has been for sale off and on for a few years now and the owner is currently looking for a tenant for the half of the space that we no longer use for our growing, education and community events. Sweet Water's operations take place indoors and on an adjacent property that is not part of the lease at 2151 S. Robinson Ave.

Embedded Reporter CVI Benefit

ReciproCITY #1 Alan W. Moore & Sara Daleiden

ReciproCITY
Communiqué #1
Start off 2013 with radical art history and practice, and join us for the inaugural event at a new experimental art space in Milwaukee.

Presentations by:

Alan W. Moore, "Art Squats"
Sara Daleiden, “MKE<->LAX”

Wednesday, January 2nd, 7:00pm
ReciproCITY: an experimental art space inside Sweet Water Organics
2151 South Robinson Avenue
Bay View, Milwaukee
http://reciprocitymke.tumblr.com/

www.facebook.com/ReciproCITY.MKE


Alan W. Moore is an art historian and activist based in Madrid whose work addresses cultural economies and groups and the politics of collectivity. Moore helped to found ABC No Rio after participating in Colab's Real Estate Show (1979), one of the best-known artist squat actions in New York history. He is the author of Art Gangs: Protest & Counterculture in New York City (2011), which explores the work of artist groups formed after 1968, such as the Art Workers Coalition and Group Material, collectives that greatly informed today's international art world. He is also the co-editor of the book ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery (1985). Moore earned a PhD in art history from the City University of New York and his writings have appeared in such publications as Julie Ault's "Alternative Art NY" and Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette "Collectivism After Modernism." His upcoming book "Art Squats" focuses on social centers in Europe.

Under the auspices of s(o)ul, Sara Daleiden directs the MKE<->LAX initiative. s(o)ul focuses on culture production and exchange through the creation of social interactions in developing landscapes. With a relationship to the arts, education and advocacy, s(o)ul consults with nonprofit and for-profit entities, as well as cultural workers of many disciplines, from emerging to established levels. With bases in Los Angeles and Milwaukee, the agency offers support for empathetic, structural development of individual, organizational and community identity, embracing various scales of experimentation, connection and production.


More info on ReciproCity at:

http://reciprocitymke.tumblr.com/

www.facebook.com/ReciproCITY.MKE

HOVER CRAFT

Shop local, support local, drink, eat, and have fun with your neighbors!

A celebration of all things local, Hover Craft is a venue that features a diverse range of creative individuals. Our main purpose is to offer an opportunity for Milwaukee-based artists, crafters, makers and performers to connect with their own community through showcasing and selling to their admirers directly. Additionally we offer ways to incorporate locally owned businesses by offering information to engage the public and encourage buying locally throughout holiday season and after.

Hover Craft is an annual buy-local event established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2010 by Alyssa Schulte, Cortney Heimerl, Ashley Chapman and Vanessa Andrew as a way to showcase the unique elements of our fair city.

Vendors range from seasoned artisans to amateur crafters and because of the amount of interest and the limited space, this is a juried event. We carefully choose participants not based on experience, but based on originality, execution and creativity. We are very interested in sourcing creatives from all backgrounds, whether from an established business or hobby crafters. Hover Craft wants to encourage creative people to create. We want to continuously strive to mine the depths of our community to foster a rotation of many individuals and continue to keep this event fresh for our attendants.

$2 Admission, children are free!

Milwaukee Urban Gardens Garden Harvest Gala

Sweet Water, India & WEDC Meeting

Another great step in our continued relationship with India.  This past week we had a meeting with numerous esteemed individuals:

Ms. Karuna Gopal (Vanakuru), Foundation for Futuristic Cities, http://www.citizensforcity.org, http://www.futurecities.org, Mr. Pranab Dasgupta, Confederation of Indian Industry – Triveni Water Institute, http://www.greenbusinesscentre.com, Mr. Irfan Yasin, Jammu & Kashmir Lakes and Waterways Development Authority, Mr. Vijay Kumar Garg, RUIFDCO - Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation, Mr. Sanjay Bhat, Voltas Ltd., http://www.voltas.com/index.asp, Dr. Sunny George, Mahattil Advisors Consultants and Educators, LLP, Mr. Shajan John, Mahattil International LLC, Lora Klenke, WEDC, Stanley Pfrang, WEDC

We would also like to thank our Water Council, Milwaukee Bio Culture Industry, City and Civil Society partners, along with the Sweet Water staff and supporters who made this important moment possible.

This Water Focused Trade Delegation from India will be a critical moment in Milwaukee's evolution as a 21st Century "organic and global city," advancing earth friendly bio-culture industry innovations that will create good careers for citizens in Milwaukee and India, promote sustainable development, and advance mighty collaborations across civilizations, cultures, and national boundaries.  We are creating technological innovations that will help heal the planet and enhance the health of our citizens.

The Sweet Water Foundation and Sweet Water Organics have many resources to share to accelerate the diffusion of what might became humanity's most prolific and earth friendly method of food production--ever! *3 years ago the Sweet Water Organics partners began to manifest visions of commercializing, democratizing, and globalizing aquaponics and other bio-culture innovations.  *2 years ago the Sweet Water Foundation was founded to harvest the information and the resource networks of SWO,  to acceleratge the education piece for the democratzing/globalizing ambition, hypothesizing that an aquaponics skilled and knowledge equiped work force and an educated population were necessary conditions for the commercial ambitions. *A year and a few months ago the State Deparment organized a Sweet Water visit to several Indian cities, right after IBM identified aquaponics in Milwaukee as a key innovation for a new world, followed by the Harvard Business School identifying the Milwaukee Sweet Water partnership as an innovation key to America's renewal. *A few months ago Shajan John , with Chaya Nayak of the SWF Board, with the help of Stanley Pfrang of WEDC, Maj Fischer of the UW Madison International Interns Program, built upon the work of Emmanuel Pratt, Jesse Blom, Jill Frey, and Matt Ray with a USDA/MTEC project for teacher training, to help set up an Aquaponics Demonstration center at St. Albert's College in Cochi, India.  Around the same time the MacArthur Foundation awarded the Badge Based Digital Training grant, while this season we are rolling out, with MPS and Growing Power, a aquaponics teacher training cohort.

Let's build upon India's organic farming traditions and understandings, information revolution resources, e.g. eChoupal, the powerful and subtle marriage of spiritual with scientific wisdom

Let's advance what Shajan John calls "eco change" experimental projects in urban agriculture and aquaponics, student/mindful eco change tourism projects, and other areas where Milwaukee's fresh water and other industries are complimentary with India's human and culture blessings.

Sweet Water Wins Digital Media and Learning Competition

September 6, 2012 - Milwaukee, WI—We are pleased to announce Sweet Water Foundation (SWF) has won a grant in the amount of $175,000 from the 4^th annual Digital Media and Learning Competition, held in conjunction with the Mozilla Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. Sweet Water was selected as one of 30 winners out of 500 international applicants for its innovative approach marrying lifelong education with project-based learning through urban agriculture and aquaponics, the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a closed-loop water system.

Created in 2007, The Digital Media and Learning Competition is a funding program provided by the MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla, University of California, and Duke University  to “find and inspire the most innovative uses of new media in support of connected learning”--- learning that occurs in and out of school, in physical places and in online spaces. The badge-based lifelong learning competition focuses on “badges as a means to inspire learning, confirm accomplishment, or validate the acquisition of knowledge or skills.” Ultimately the badge-based learning system aims to improve the academic achievement, economic opportunity, civic engagement, and opportunities for lifelong learning.

The funding from this competition will support Sweet Water in the development and implementation of an “AQUAPONS” online platform for learning and assessment in the emerging field of aquaponics. The Sweet Water AQUAPONS badge system will establish a methodological framework for connecting, assessing, evaluating, and placing emerging “aquapons” – people practicing aquaponics. The program will serve a rapidly expanding network of aquapons (locally, regionally, nationally, globally) and the emerging 21st century industry of aquaponics.  The long-term vision is the creation of a repository of learning and assessment models for aquaponics and urban agriculture that will give students of all ages and backgrounds a means of learning, sharing, validating, and showcasing the knowledge and skills that they possess.

Sweet Water AQUAPONS builds upon the curricular-based focus of the USDA-funded Midwest Aquaponics Expertise Development Initiative (MAEDI) and the Urban Schools Aquaponics (USA) projectsupported by a grant through the NEA Foundation and AT&T Foundation Partnership (2009-2012). Each of these initiatives have laid the groundwork for both an innovative teacher training and educational pilot program and the development of a support network advancing a hands-on, interdisciplinary curriculum to improve students’ interest and achievement within the Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (STEAM) disciplines. The  Sweet Water AQUAPONS program also builds upon the recent success of the The Growing NetworksWisconsin – Kerala Aquaponics Connection,  a collaborative partnership between Sweet Water, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Mahattil LLC, which introduced aquaponic farming to communities in Kerala, India this past summer.

According to SWF Executive Director, Emmanuel Pratt, “the Sweet Water AQUAPONS lifelong learning program will be a game changer for SWF’s educational endeavors. This online platform will allow SWF to exponentially reach a global audience looking to explore the interdisciplinary opportunities in aquaponics and urban agriculture as dynamic pathways towards 21^st century careers.”

This 12-month grant from the Digital Media and Learning Competition will allow SWF to contribute to a robust badge ecosystem, where traditional and 21^st century skills and achievements are inspired, recognized, translated across contexts, and displayed and managed across the web using Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure.  All winning badge systems will launch and join the badge ecosystem in mid-2013. SWF will partner with a host of other Milwaukee-based partners, including SmartWave, Snowfall Creative, and Alverno College, who will work over the course of the next 12 months to launch the project.  An online copy of the proposal can be found at this link: http://www.dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=3197

Sweet Water’s Organic Certification Process

Update: We've received our USDA Organic Certification and our sprouts, micros and wheatgrass are all know USDA Certified Organic.

We're getting closer to our organic certification everyday.  While not 100% of the products we sell from Sweet Water will be certified all are grown from organic seed and are not treated with chemical agents.  Many of you have asked about the fish - there is no organic certification for fish in the United States.

Update:  A recent confidential complaint against Sweet Water was checked into by the NOP and closed without incident.

Update:

Where we are at – we’ve been working diligently over the last year to firm up USDA certification for our farm.  Yes, this should have been done long ago but it wasn’t a priority for our previous staff and our current staff has stayed quite busy between community events, education and the everyday running of the farm, regardless we’ve made progress.  Working with our organic certifying agency we’ve figured out which part of our operations can be certified right away and the ones that we’ll need to work on.  Once we go through our next inspection we should have more news and possibly a target date for a change in our retail packaging.

We’ve always been growing from premium organic seed, sometimes paying double over conventional seed.  We don’t use any non-organic pest or disease control methods (i.e. chemical fertilizers or pesticides) nor would we.  We still have ladybugs and a praying mantis family as farm residents to help control any pests that make their way in.  We will continue to grow good, clean, local produce and fish with or without certification and our products will always be GMO free.

Sweet Water Organics How To: Filleting Fish

Many people are intimidated by the thought of cleaning fish, Sweet Water volunteer Margaret Muza demonstrates just how simple it is to fillet a fish. Enjoy.

Images by Kelly Anderson and Joel Van Haren
Edit by Kelly Anderson
Music by The Fatty Acids

Our sprouts are really good, and really good for you!

Sprouts are considered as wonder foods. They rank as the freshest and most nutritious of all vegetables available to the human diet. By a process of natural transmutation, sprouted food acquires vastly improved digestibility and nutritional qualities when compared to non-sprouted embryo from which it derives.

Sprout nutrition facts
Broccoli sprouts: Broccoli sprouts have a mildly peppery flavor They are also high in the cancer fighting compound, sulforaphane.
Uses: Excellent juiced or in salads

Radish sprouts: Radish sprouts have 29 times more vitamin C than milk and 4 times the vitamin A. These spicy spouts have 10 times more calcium than a potato and contain more vitamin C than a pineapple.
Uses: Too delicate for cooking, radish sprouts are generally used to spice up salads or sandwiches.

Sunflower sprouts:  Sunflower sprouts are a rich source of lecithin and vitamin D. The sunflower sprout is known for its crispness and nutty flavor. It breaks down fatty acids into an easily digestible, water soluble form.
Uses: A delicious addition to salads. They can also be juiced and used in green drinks.

Pea Shoots: Pea Shoots are a nutritious leaf with high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A.

*  Add to tossed salads
* Use in coleslaw (cabbage, clover, radish)
* Try in wraps and roll-ups (alfalfa, sunflower, radish)
* Stir-fry with other vegetables (alfalfa, clover, radish, mung bean, lentil)
* Replace celery in sandwich spreads (lentil, radish)
* Mix with soft cheeses for a dip (mung bean, radish)
* Grind up and use in sandwich spreads (lentil, radish)
* Eat them fresh and uncooked in a sprout salad (salad mixes)
* Top omelet or scrambled eggs (alfalfa, clover, radish)
* Add to sushi (radish, sunflower)
* Saute with onions (mung bean, clover, radish)
* Puree with peas or beans (mung bean, lentil)
* Add to baked beans (lentil)
* Steam and serve with butter (mung bean, lentil)
* Use in sandwiches instead of lettuce (alfalfa, clover, radish)