Article about the Radix Center on All over Albany!

The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center

posted Aug 30, 2010

Scott Kellogg and his daughter on the site of the future Radix Center.

Scott Kellogg wants to teach you to live greener and be more self-sustaining — you know, grow your own food, raise a little livestock.

Hey, city dwellers — this means you.

Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew are the founders of the Rhizome Collective, a center for community organizing and urban sustainability in Austin Texas, and the authors of The Toolbox for Sustainable City Living.

Now they live in Albany, and they’re building a space called The Radix Center to teach city dwellers and suburbanites alike to do everything from compost with worms and grow porch mushrooms, to collect rainwater and raise their own fish.

Scott says not only is this possible, you’re actually going to enjoy it.

So what is the plan for the Radix Center?

We want to use the space as a demonstration site for ecologically sustainable tools and technology. We want to teach people to have more control over life resources — chiefly food, with the ultimate goal that they be replicable. Our first structure will be a greenhouse. We’ll teach people to compost with worms, remediate soil in their backyards, grow their own food, raise small livestock like chickens and goats, collect rainwater and raise fish and plants in ornamental ponds.

We’ve acquired a half acre lot in the south end of Albany on the corner of Grand and Warren Streets. We’ve gotten a use variance for the property and we’re applying for a permit to construct a 20 x 60 greenhouse — that will be the first building on the property. We actually got permission to keep some small livestock — chickens and goats — as well.

Raise fish in the city?

Sure, if people have small yards, they can put in ornamental ponds and create an aquaculture where they raise fish and aquatic plants.

There’s a lot you can do in the city. You can grow mushrooms on the porch or in the bathroom. You can compost with worms. You can have a backyard or rooftop garden You can collect rainwater in barrels…