Cleveland’s BioCellar, a new type of urban farming project, started as a vacant house. But Neighborhood Solutions, a local nonprofit, had a plan for that house, so when it was torn down, the basement was left intact. Now, there’s a greenhouse being built on top, and plans for crops to be grown in the basement. FastCoExist explains:
Why a cellar? At depths below four feet, the ground stays at a constant temperature, so even in the middle of a harsh Cleveland winter, the room won’t get colder than 50 degrees. With light flooding in from the glass roof above, food can grow year round.
Also, it’s run on solar. And, as appropriate for a basement — and also a nonprofit that wants to provide sustainable jobs for the people involved — the first crop will be shiitake mushrooms, which sell, the director of Neighborhood Solutions points out, for $12 a pound. That’s probably the most money you can get out of an abandoned basement without turning it into a meth lab.
