As a native Clevelander, I take great pride in anything Ohio so I was over the moon when I first heard about Rid-All Green Partnership Farm. Rid-All is an exceptional example of not only how Cleveland is making a difference with urban agriculture but also how experiences at The Island School can easily translate to “the real world.” The most direct connection is their closed aquaponics system with Tilapia–sound familiar??

On Saturday December 22, 2012 Island Schools alumni, parents and teacher conference attendees gathered in the cold and snow to tour the farm. Co-founders Randy McShepard and Damien Forshe gave us the history of the urban farm, its progress to today and showed us where all the magic happens. The key to their vision is establishing the farm as a center for education and modeling systems. They have also developed a number revenue streams to sustain the project and ensure it’s ability to thrive and continue influencing locally and nationally the urban farming movement.  For more information on Rid-All please check out their website here.

Please enjoy the photos from our tour and we encourage you to visit this great place if you ever find yourself in Cleveland!  I know this will be the first of many visits by The Island School family and thank you to all who joined us for our first visit!

Happy New Year!–Mary Assini