The Rise of Modern Hydroponics

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I bought myself a big old hydroponic garden system for Christmas, and I'm so excited about it. I'm obsessed with it. I can't even describe all of the levels of obsessed I am with it. And we could talk about my various adventures in gardening on Friday, but I am obsessed with this, which, of course, anytime I become obsessed with something, I want to watch them allion videos and look at a bunch of articles. And it got me thinking about, like, how did we get to a point where a company will be like, oh, yes, we'll sell you a thing you don't really have to do much, but suddenly you'll have lettuce in your house that has grown right there. And that got me down the rabbit hole of hydroponic's history, and also, frankly, the garden is one of the things that is keeping me from losing my mind in our complicated days. Yeah yeah, so perhaps for other people that are having stressy times in complicated days, thinking about plants growing and how sort of mentally and emotionally nourishing that can be will help you as well as me. So we're going to talk about the history of hydroponics today. Using water rather than soil to grow plants is not in the least bit new. Although the earliest uses of this technique are not well documented, some examples, like the hanging Gardens of Babylon, have to be discussed as possible examples. We don't even know for sure if the gardens, which are considered one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were real. Accounts written about them were pinned centuries after they were said to have existed, and there is no conclusive archaeological evidence to point to if they did exist, their likely location was right in the middle of modern day Iraq, and very possibly not Babylon but Nineveh. If the gardens did exist, it's possible that their terraces full of greenery would have been supported by an irrigation system with water brought in, likely from the Euphrates River. All of this very cool, but still this garden and the technique dated to the sixth century BCE are all theoretical. Additionally, while some historians interpret the existing writing about the hanging gardens of Babylon as indicating a hydroponic system of some sort. Others think that the terraces described involve some sort of soil or sand substrate as a medium that the plants are growing in, with the irrigation being used to water that substrate. Basically, there's not agreements on this potential example, not at all. Another instance of an ancient plant cultivation that isn't hydroponic but does represent an important step in the idea of growing plants in a controlled environment is the story of cucumbers. Maybe we'll get to that in a moment. Grown year round for the Roman emperor Tiberius, this is a practice which was recorded by Plying the Elder in seventy seven BCE. He wrote, quote, Cucumus was a delicacy for which the Emperor Tiberius had a remarkable partiality. In fact, there was never a day on which he was not supplied with it, as his kitchen gardeners had cacumus beds mounted on wheels, which they moved out into the sun, and then on wintry days withdrew under the cover of frames glazed with transparent stone. So while he is describing plants grown in soil also being raised on a wheeled apparatus which can be moved indoors or out, and which has a cover. So this is clearly an early greenhouse. And incidentally, while Pliny's reference to caucumus is often interpreted as cucumber, a paper published in the Annals of Botany in two thousand and seven and written by Jules Janek, Harry S. Paris, and David C. Parrish notes that quote the cacumus of Columella and Pliny was not cucumber as commonly translated, but cacumus mellow subspecies Mello flexuosis group that's snake melon or vegetable melon. The next historical precursor to modern hydroponics is the eleventh century Chinapus of the Aztec culture. This is a case where the nutrients that fed the plants were part of the naturally existing ecosystem, but there was a lot of human effort in establishing the gardens known as Chinampas. Lake Socimiuco, which is south of Mexico City, was and still is the site of a unique and extensive garden system that's based on human made islands. These islands are made using mud, dirt, and grasses and other plant material and then they are staked into the bed of the lake. These islands could be as large as ten by two hundred meters or thirty five by six hundred and fifty feet, and then into those floating islands go seeds. The water and the nutrients of the lake, including fish waste and decomposing plants, offer a rich mix of nutrients distributed by the water's natural movement. Yeah, there is also a significant amount of argument about these and whether or not you can really call them islands because some are connected to the land, et cetera. But they're still a pretty cool effort in hydroponic gardening. In sixteen twenty seven, Sir Francis Bacon's book entitled Silver Silvera was published. This was a posthumous publication these Bacon had died in sixteen twenty six, but it is often called the first book of water culture because it features the passage quote the water also doth send forth plants that have no roots fixed in the bottom. But they are less perfect plants, being almost but leaves, and those small ones such as that we call duckweed, which hath a leaf no bigger than a time leaf, but of a fresher green, and puteth forth a little string into the water far from the bottom. As for the water lily, it hath a root in the ground, and so have a number of other herbs that grow in ponds. So he recognized that some plants seem to not need soil and could actually float on top of water. But this is an interesting read if you ever go digging through it. Because he also thought that plants would change species if you neglected them, so he had some things a little bit confused about the natural world. Flemish chemist Jean Baptiste van Helmont wanted to understand how plants gained mass, and he started an experiment in sixteen forty eight to figure it out. The experiment began with a five pound willow tree, two hundred pounds of dirt, and five years of time. Ben Helmont only watered the tree in those five years with rain water and distilled water, and at the end of the experiment he weighed the tree, which had grown to a whopping one hundred and sixty nine pounds. But when he weighed the dirt, he realized it had barely lost any mass. So his natural conclusion was that water was what gave plants mass. In sixteen ninety nine, physician and naturalist John Woodward used water from natural bodies of water, rivers, and springs to grow a variety of plants, including spearmint and potatoes, among others. His experiments with soil as plant growth identified the need for not just water for the plants to grow before specific nutrients. He came to this conclusion after he had grown the same types of plants side by side, essentially replicating their environments, but giving one set distilled water and one set what he called non pure water, that was the water from the natural sources with no distillation or treatment. And this is really the beginning of the idea of testing water and soil and figuring out what was lacking for successful plant cultivation. Two German botanists working in the mid nineteenth century conducted experiments that led to the idea of preparing mixtures of nutrients to be dissolved in water and added to the soil to optimize growth success. They essentially pioneered the idea of plant food in eighteen fifty nine. They also really established the idea that if you want to study plants, keeping them in water culture instead of soil is the way to go because that offered easier observation of the roots and greater control of the nutrients the plant receives. I also, in preparing this outline, left their names out for Tracy, but it's Julius von Sachs and Vilhelm Knopp, So those are the people that were doing that work. Coming up, we're going to jump forward in time a little bit to the nineteen thirties and the man who is often called the father of modern hydroponics. But first we're going to pause and have a little sponsor break. On March first, nineteen thirty seven, Time magazine ran an article that opened with the following quote. Last week, a new science was given a new name, hydroponics by its foremost US practitioner, doctor William Frederick Gerrick of the University of California. Set Out in rows at the university's plant experiment station in Berkeley are a number of shallow tanks made of wood, concrete metal. From some of these tanks grow thick, towering clumps of tomato plants bearing rich red clusters of fruits. From other tanks, and in an equal state of vigor grow potatoes, tobacco, Gladioli, pogonias. The roots of the plants are not in soil, but in chemically treated water. William Frederick Gerrikey was born in eighteen eighty two in Nebraska to a farming family. After high school, he attended Ohio State University and then JOHNS Hopkins to study botany. In the nineteen twenties, he was working as a professor and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and it was while working there that he began serious research into raising plants without soil. Initially, Gerrikey called these projects tank crops, and that use of the word crops was very deliberate because he was working to replicate the kind of yield that would normally come from traditionally planted ground crops. He was actually hoping for more wanted better yields from his hydroponics than ground crops could produce. So, according to Gerrike's account, there were three scientific challenges that needed to be solved to make growing plants in water alone work. One, it had to be simple and economical. Two, it had to move away from the preceding lab work, which focused on studying mineral nutrients alone. For soilless crop growth to work, it needed its own study focus, which had to also include fluid dynamics. He noted that water use in agriculture was physiologic only, but in soilless plant development it was physiologic and dynamic, and its benefit to the plant was also dependent on how the water moved around the roots. And then three those water dynamics had to be formulated, meaning there had to be rigorous examination of the way a water only approach to cultivation impacts the root systems and documentation of the different root development structures. As he developed his system, Gherrik also sought to give it a name, and initially he was calling it aquaculture, but that was actually kind of a problem because that word was already in use. It has long been used to talk about growing aquatic plants and also even caring for marine animals. But according to Gerrik, a colleague named William Albert Setchel gave him a good idea. He suggested creating a portmanteau from the Greek words for water that's hydro and labor, which is ponos so hydroponos, which Gheriky then refined to hydroponics. Gerrik would later write about the delicate nature of using just the right word for this science, noting quotes correct terminology is requisite to scientific progress. The incorrect terms which were used in attempts to discribe soiless crop production before its scientific basis could be clarified, have caused wide misconceptions of its principles and have markedly delayed the establishment of this method to wide use. He continued by mentioning other words that were used at various points and explaining why they were causing problems. Quote terms such as chemical farming, chemiculture, nutrient solution, culture, and kindred expressions not only were inappropriate, but did great harm to this development in its crucial formative period as they created a wrong perspective concerning the scientific basis of soilless crop production. These terms projected the function of the nutrients into the foreground and thereby distorted their relative position of importance to other essential factors. He also noted that any of the terms that use the word agriculture, like soil less agriculture, were inherently incorrect because agriculture infers land, which this science is purposely excluding. The word comes from the Latin word for agur, which means field and culture I meaning cultivation, and Gereky was really successful in his efforts and he shared his process with commercial growers in northern California. Soon a lot of farms were using his water growing methods and in turn, gerek was getting data from their crops. That time magazine write up reported that Gereke was so loved by the growers who used his methods that he routinely received five hundred pieces of fan mail a week. During his research, Gerikey worked with Pan American Airlines to establish water based crops at their refueling station at Wake Island. Wake Island sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and in the early days of commercial aviation, when planes had to midway through a flight across the ocean to refuel, that was where PanAm stopped. It was also where they would take on supplies for the next leg of the flight. But because of its position, it was impossible to have a fresh produce supply sent to the island, and there wasn't any soil on the tiny islands that could have anything grown in it. But Gherrikey took a half acre of land and set up a hydroponic farm at Wake Island. Yeah, Wake Island often gets referenced as like kind of the big proof of concept effort that happened in all of this. In nineteen forty five, William Gerrikey wrote an article titled The Meaning of Hydroponics, which appeared in Science magazine, and he described it in the opening this way. Soilist crop production consists of growing crops in water containing chemicals, large shallow basins for the water, and wood shaving sawdust, straw, or other waste vegetable litter for seed beds which support the plants in the water are essential equipment. Water causes the architecture of the root plants to become different from those growing in the soil. These differences in architecture are reflected in the functions of the roots. For this reason, some crops can be grown more economically without soil than with soil, and by the same token, others cannot. He goes on to explain that difference in root architecture, it's for the sort of obvious reason that if something is growing in water, it can't anchor anywhere the way that it would in soil. Gharrike explains it really clearly, while also basing it in science that people are familiar with. Quote. This change is according to a fundamental biologic law. An organ atrophies or changes in form and function in an environment in which some of its functions cannot operate. But though Gerrikee completely changed the entire field and really developed a lot of the printcess that govern hydroponic gardening today, there are some questions about his relationship with Berkeley and the other scientists there. Even though he was employed at the university and some of these experiments were happening at the lab there, he claimed that all of his work in hydroponics had been done on his own time, and he refused to share any of his information or data with the school or his colleagues there. Gerike left Berkeley before he published his book, Complete Guide to Soilist Gardening. It was not as though UC Berkeley had not been interested in hydroponics. There seems to be disagreement about the work Gerikey was doing and whether it was supposed to be for the school or for his own benefit. Either way, once he left Berkeley, the school assigned two other researchers to keep working on hydroponics and develop the work further. Those scientists Dennis Hogland and Dan kil Arnan published their own book on hydroponics in nineteen thirty eight, water culture method of growing plants without soil. It's possible to glean a little information about Gerrike's relationship with Berkeley by reading the preface to his book. This does, to be clear, involves some speculation rather than clear evidence, because no one is outright saying what their problems were. But there are some very specific things noted about how hydroponics research should and shouldn't be developed. In Gerrike's opinion quote, hydroponics can now be carried on without restriction by anyone who desires to do so, but scientific research on the subject must be safeguarded. The public must be protected from exploitation, and business interests must assume the responsibility for the development of the science. My own wishes are that research and educational institutions shall profit from the growth of hydroponics. That I shall be free to conduct research and teach the new subject without being responsible for business development, except in an advisory capacity where this is needed. Those private individuals who gave of their private funds to test the validity of new ideas, and who provided the laboratory of practice wherein the dross of impracticability was removed from the hydroponic theory have earned the utmost consideration. They deserve the right to be consulted before any publication is made of results obtained by their plans. So it kind of sounds like he felt that the university was focusing on developing business ideas for outside entities rather than trying to simply sustain their own labs and research teams. And it sounds like he wants to be left alone by the school administration and not be bossed around in his lab. Gerrik also lists the people and companies that contributed to his project, including his own family members and Pan American Airways, and the nurseries who donated plant stock. There's also the possibility that he had set up partnerships with people and companies as he was doing work that may not have been in his purview to do as a member of the school's faculty. In any case, the friction in play regarding his relationship with the school and his role in the sciences development seems to be referenced carefully in the pages of the preface. And we'll come back to Berkeley's side of the story in a moment. But then Gerrickee in this book makes a clear statement in the introduction just a few pages later that asserts that this work was his and his alone, and that it was done despite a lot of people telling him his ideas were foolish. Quote. Soilist crop production has captured worldwide attention. Thousands of inquiries have been received concerning it. My overflowing mailbox has not, however, been filled entirely with letters lauding the discovery of the world's newest crop production method. When I first announced that crops could be grown commercially without soil, the idea was received with skepticism by some and with outright derision by others. The work was done largely on my own time and with little aid from any scientific organization, notwithstanding requests. Therefore, not until private businessmen offered their cooperation was hydroponics given a fair trial. A lot of the writing Garrick he does in the book about hydroponics can come off as sort of conceited. He seems to dismiss historical hydroponic efforts as he mentions how strange it is that no one ever did it before. As the writing continues, it appears that he means at scale as a means to crop production. He notes that there have been some experiments with growing plants in water, but that they were all shortsighted in that the goal is to improve the soil culture of plants, not to replicate crop production through a wat nutrient culture. He notes, quote, scientists failed to realize the true value of a principle they themselves applied in laboratory experiments. The development of water culture as a means of studying the life processes of plants is covered briefly later in the chapter. It is enough to point out that plants have grown in nutrient solutions under experimental conditions for nearly a century. Modern scientific agriculture has been greatly aided by information obtained through these studies. By no means do I wish to disparage their value. Gerrik also makes clear that it's actually kind of hard to grow crops this way if you don't know what you're doing. He mentions that you can't rely exclusively on formulas of nutrient solutions, because there's just far more to successfully growing plants. He notes, quote, Your success or failure in hydroponics will depend more upon skill in working out a proper technique, indescribable in textbook language. That upon possession of a simple chemical formula, you must combine to some extent the knowledge of the chemist, the botanist, and the farmer, arming yourself with an understanding of the fundamental requirements of plant life, and developing through your own alertness and insight, a sure sense of the technique required. He also praises the insight of farmers for being able to manage all of the variables of light, heat, pest control, planting seasons, et cetera. One of the other big topics for Gerrikey in his book is conservation. He notes that quote, hydroponics will help us to conserve our natural fertilizers and to solve our future fuel problems. Of the fertilizers commonly applied to the soil, only nitrogen can be recovered completely. But in hydroponics the plant food need never be wasted, the dry plants can be burned and the ashes used for nutrient solution. In this way, the so called cycle of conservation has been completed for the first time. But he knows that for that to work, and for hydroponic crop production to become standardized, that both farmers and the public have to be educated about the processes to eliminate misconceptions about it. So we mentioned that other publication of a book by Hogland and arnun that grew out of their work at Berkeley following Gerrike's exit, and the introduction to that book is written by C. B. Hutchison, the vice president of the university and the dean of the College of Agriculture at Berkeley. His writing offers a different take on the very public facing work of Gerrikee and he kind of hints that he thought it caused problems writing quote. In the nineteen thirties, this development was given widespread publicity in newspapers, Sunday supplements, and popular journals. The possibility of growing plants in a medium other than soil intrigued many persons, and soon extravagant claims were being made by many of the most ardent proponents of the commercial use of the water culture method. Furthermore, amateur gardeners sought to make this method a new hobby. Thousands of inquiries came to the University of California for detailed information for general application of the water culture method to commercial as well as amateur gardening. Given that gerrikee had also mentioned issues with Charlatan's getting in on the popularity of hydroponics, it's a little unclear if the extravagant claims that Hutchison refers to were those that Gerrikey also denounced, or if he's suggesting that Gerrike's claims that hydroponics could outpay soil based crop production is the extravagant claim he's referring to. Then Hutcheson goes on in a way that makes it sound like detractors who may not have believed Gerrike's claim were the real reason that the university assigned two other scientists to the work. Quote. Because of doubts expressed concerning many claims made for the use of the water culture method as a means of crop production, it became evident that an independent appraisal of this method of growing crops was highly desirable. I therefore requested Professors D. R. Hogland and d Arnin to conduct certain additional investigations and to prepare a manuscript for a popular circular on the general subject of growing plants in nutrient solutions. So this seems to hint a friction between the school and Gerrikey was not just over whether he had done the work as a side project, but also involved the way he communicated with the press and the public about that work. The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants without soil has become a foundational book for the science of hydroponics, But even that writing of Hogland and Arnon seems to dismiss as outlandish the ideas that would eventually come to pass. Quote why badly circulated rumors claims and predictions about the water culture production of crops often had little more to commend them than the author's unrestrained imagination. Grossly inaccurate in fact and misleading in implication, most of these claims betrayed an ignorance of even the elementary principles of plant physiology. For example, there have been statements that in the future, most of the food needed by the occupants of a great apartment building may be grown on the roof, and that in large cities, skyscraper farms may supply huge quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables. One Sunday Supplement article contained an illustration showing a housewife opening a small closet off the kitchen and picking tomatoes from vines growing in water culture with the aid of electric lights. There has even arisen a rumor that the restaurants of a large chain in New York are growing their vegetables in basements. Stories of this kind have gained wide currency and have captured the imaginations of many persons. This cracks me up so bad, so it kind of makes you wonder did all of that friction at Berkeley kind of stem from all of these researchers simply not having the same vision of what hydroponics could be or become. Because so many of those examples that hog Linden are not held up as outlandish have one hundred percent come to pass. Rooftop gardens, some of which are fully hydroponic, have popped up in cities around the world. There are so many hydroponic setups for the home consumer that are designed to work in any room, even closets, using only a small footprint and artificial lighting, and a quick Internet search turns up plenty of restaurants that are growing their own produce hydroponically. I laughed a lot as I was reading through this outline earlier and read that paragraph. They're like, this is ridiculous. We are going to pause here to hear from the sponsors that keep the show going. And when we come back, we will talk about the role of hydroponics in World War Two. Despite the bickering that seemed to be going on in a subtle way in the books of Gerrikee and his colleagues, it wasn't long before hydroponics presented a solution for the US Army Air Force during World War II. Also, just as a reminder, the Air Force did not become its own separate branch of the military until nineteen forty seven, so some air bases that were in use in World War Two were just too remote or isolated to have access to fresh produce. The nutritional content of rations was pretty good in terms of balance, but it wasn't a substitute for fresh food. Additionally, the rations became really monotonous and they weren't always super happetizing, so in a lot of instances, soldiers skipped meals just because they didn't want to eat it anymore. Navy ships had the benefit of refrigeration units on board to carry produce, but that was not always the case at bases. According to the Air Force Medical Service, flight surgeons started to be concerned about nutritional deficiencies among the men. Conditions like depression, night blindness, digestive problems, fatigue, and other issues that could compromise performance were all traced back to diet. In an air Surgeon's bulletin from nineteen forty five, it was reported that quote medical officers in New Guinea as early as nineteen forty two recognized the signs of dietary deficiency and military personnel under their supervision. Reports from other areas in which fresh foods were unobtainable indicated clinical evidence of vitamin deficiency in local diets, with resultant fatigability and listlessness, and even or acute symptoms in the personnel. The Aeromedical Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio offered up the idea of hydroponic gardens as a way to get those crews fresh food, and that idea was approved. Fourteen hydroponic facilities were planned by the US Army Air Force, although they weren't all completed before the war and the program ended, but in the places that those facilities got up and running, they were pretty prolific. One facility on Ascension Island, which sits in the Atlantic between Africa and South America, needed to distill fresh water from seawater for their setup. It also required the hand pollination of crops because there were no bees on the island. This was not the only facility to deal with that particular challenge, and there were other challenges that popped up depending on location. In a lot of places they had to ship in bees. Some of the facilities in the Pacific had to really aggressively combat insect infestations. But this project ended up being really successful. The Ascension Hydroponic Garden produced nearly five thousand pounds of produce in a single month, which included lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, and radishes, among other vegetables. Even after the war, some of these facilities were kept running for a while until the program was shut down permanently. But even after all of that, there was still some nay saying about hydroponics. In the nineteen forty seven Yearbook of Agriculture published by the US Department of Agriculture, Neil W. Stewart, a physiologist from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils and Agricultural Engineering Rights quote, the idea of growing plants in water or sand without soil has fired almost everyone's imagination at some time or other. Whether it is called hydroponics, soilists culture, water culture, neutraculture, or whatever. Many an American has dreamed of using it to become rich or self sufficient when he gets out of the army, or retires from the office, or gets his little place in the country. But the truth is that soil less culture, a practice of great value to students of plant nutrition, has been over publicized and overpopularized so that many persons have false impressions as to its real possibilities and limitations. Stewart goes on to explain that people just don't understand water culture and that issues like aerration and physical support for the plants are major drawbacks. So many of these write ups to me sound so I don't know if I would call it gatekeepy or conceded on the part of scientists who are like the average person, just can't understand the idea that you need to pump involved. It's like this, This isn't rocket science, y'all. I don't have to do formulas. It's fine. Stuart then explains the various techniques of hydroponic gardening and crop production to remedy the various false impressions that people may have and then he concludes with a prediction about the future of the practice, which sounds pretty positive. Quote. Some technical training and considerable experience are necessary for the efficient management of soilist culture crop production. Its future development in the United States will probably be confined to the production of crops having a relatively high unit value ornamentals out of seasoned vegetables or seed links for transplanting under favorable conditions, yields may be expected to equal or surpass similar yields in soil, but so far the differences have not been outstanding. The method is also well adapted for specialized studies in plant nutrition, phytopathology, and plant breeding, where growth understandard conditions is desired. The indications are that soilist culture techniques will be more widely employed in the future. After World War II two, there were commercial growers who became more interested in hydroponics. The floral industry saw a number of nurseries adopted, and some large scale greenhouse operations also emerged. Then, in the nineteen seventies, General Mills made a lot of headlines when it announced that it was going to launch what the press called a vegetable factory. Yeah, they developed a whole system where they were producing vegetables indoors and were marketing them in that way as an effort to try to help boost one their production and thus their profits, but also like to get people excited about this idea of a way to grow fruits and vegetables. And then in nineteen eighty two, hydroponics got a huge boost invisibility thanks to Epcot in Walt Disney World when it opened the Gardens of Tomorrow exhibit at the Land Pavilion and the Land Pavilion show cases still a variety of hydroponic growing techniques, and guests can see a variety of plants thriving in the indoor facility. You can either take the boats that are the standard ride, or you can do a behind the Seeds tour and walk through and get all kinds of extra information. Highly recommend if you're a plant person. The vegetables and fruits that are grown there are actually the ones that are served to guests at the various restaurants on property. Since then, the science of hydroponics and the desire to embrace it have grown in a world where there are increasingly dense populations in places that don't offer a lot of available land for growing food. Hydroponics and other soilists growing systems continue to be developed and researched in the hopes that in a world of shifting and shrinking resources, we can continue to find ways to feed people. NASA has had research projects and hydroponics for years, starting with the first vertical farm in the United States, which was assembled inside a decommissioned hyperbaric chamber that used to be used to test the Mercury space capsule. NASA continues to be a significant leader in the field, and a lot of commercial farms today have benefited directly from innovations in the field that were developed by NASA. And of course now you can go out and buy your own hydroponic system from a variety of options. The global hydroponic market is expected to be worth sixteen billion dollars this year. That's the briefest version of the history of hydroponics, which I'm obviously obsessed with at this point in time. I have yet another email about advent calendars. Look, I'm just focusing on things that bring me joy. This one is from Rebecca, who writes a message from the perpetually behind just finish the December twenty twenty three episode on advent calendars, you mentioned home made ones, so I thought I would share mine. My mom made felt wall calendars from my brother and sister while pregnant with my brother, who was due near Christmas. My sister was four when I the surprise baby came eighteen months later. She had her hands too full to get back to making me one for a number of years, so I actually helped her make mine when I was about eleven. I love this. Rebecca goes on to say we were never religious. My dad referred to himself as a recovering Catholic, and my mom was raised Southern Baptist but became an atheist. But she adored all of the traditions and pageantry of Christmas celebrations. As far as I know, Advent calendars were not a tradition in either family. I suspect it is something that she saw in Woman's Day or BHG or one of her craft magazines. She made my siblings calendar circ in nineteen seventy two. It's a basic Christmas countdown with a five y five grid, so it includes one for Christmas Day. Each day. You would move the piece from the grid up to the top. Mine has a stocking. My brothers was a sleigh and my sister's a tree. Traditionally, we would move the piece right before beds, so it would be the last act of Christmas Day to put up the last remaining piece. All of ours had a scan of for Christmas Eve and a Christmas tree for Christmas Day. The other pieces varied and were personalized. My sister loved angels, so hers included one. My brothers had a cake with candles for his birthday. Mine has a cat because of my love of them. Some of the pieces are the originals my mom made almost forty years ago. Others are more recent replacements I made my grown up. Embroidery skills were used for the snowflake and doll's braided hair. I still put it up every year. This year I even took it with me and put it up in my hotel room when I traveled for the holiday. I hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe feel inspired to try making one of your own. I've considered making a pocketed one with a different design on each pocket that you could then customize with your own treats like chocolates or teas or mini liquors. FYI, while visiting my friend for Christmas, I found out bun Mama has it's a jam Jelly Advent calendar. Totally getting one next year. I have had that calendar. It's good. This is the cutest thing in the world, and I love it, and I love family traditions that go on for so long. And seeing all of these adorable little ornaments you add to your Advent calendar is precious. I love it so much. And there's a little black felt kittikat on this one that Rebecca sent pictures of that. It's just a simple outline of a kiddie, but I love it so much. It's precious. Thank you so much for sharing this family tradition with us. It's very joyous and brings me a lot of delight. If you would like to share pictures of your Christmas decor, I don't care what month it is, you can do that in July. If you want Halloween year round, Christmas year round, I don't mind any of it. You can do that at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff you missed in History class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.