This is one of our favorite channels on Youtube. Kirsten Dirksen along with her husband Nicolás Boullosa feature a wide variety of videos about sustainability and simple living. Through their ongoing videos we discover a rich diversity of people with interesting lifestyles and innovative projects throughout the country and the world.
A good example of their work, this video below is about a 85 year-old retired mailman, Russ Finch, and his wife, who grow citrus throughout the year in Nebraska —that’s right, Nebraska, the citrus capital of the country :). Finch has built their greenhouses using geothermal energy to cost efficiently provide a 100% of their heating and cooling needs in addition for their home. In answer to a question about the harsh growing conditions in the high plains where they live, Finch says that their trees thrive and they “probably grow the best citrus anywhere in the world at this latitude for size and quality”. Finch is able to rely on geothermal because the underground temperature remains at a constant 52F even when outside temperatures at times drop well below zero during the winter months.
Nebraska retiree uses earths’s heat to grow oranges in snow
For those interested in videos on similar topics, here are a couple of ours below that may be of interest:
Alan Kapuler: Kinship Garden and Greenhouse Tour