A day past the solstice, the daylight hours begin to shorten. Now is the time in farming when the seeds and transplants are set, and we watch as plants move towards fruiting–a sort of cruise control mode, in which vigilance against pests, hoping for rain, and making sure the chickens have lots of fresh water become the main preoccupation of the rooftop farmer.

To celebrate the transition of spring into summer, another practitioner of a patient art came up to the farm–neighborhood yogis!  As the class raised their hands to the sky under a gentle rain, lightening began to crackle on the rooftop.  We moved indoors to keep going, but later as the air cleared, went back up to the farm to eat lettuces rich with atmospheric nitrogen from the passing storm. Yum, and om.

As the sun set over the river, crops and skyline, Dancing Bee Garden’s Ross Conrad carefully lowered a frame sticky with bees and honey back into the top bar hive at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm.  A class of rapt New Yorkers watched from above as Ross explained the parts and function of each section of the hive before climbing back up the staircase from the lower roof where the bees are kept to the green roof.  One and a half hours later, everyone went home having tried fine raw honey, brains overloaded with information on the use of pollen, honey and propolis for health & healing.

Class workshops are offered at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm as listed on our calendar.  Educational programing is facilitated by Growing Chefs.

Yesterday, preceding a beautiful sunset, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm held its inaugural pickup of the world’s first rooftop-based farm share Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  Farmer Annie blogged about the importance of CSA in this month’s Atlantic.  The June 8th 2010 share included lettuces (a rooftop custom-made mix), sorrel (recipe at GrowingChefs.org), eggs (chickens adopted from Liberty View Farm), and a freebie of mustard greens and fennel.

The next day, a love-letter came from a shareholder:

WOW!!!

these are some fresh greens:
spicy mustard greens….. check
amazing salad greens….. check
scallions pure and tasty ….. check

well done!
sarah and i are stoked.
see you next week!
sam

Many of our farm-fans have written to see if the CSA is full (it is).  But there are a lot of farmers still looking for shareholders.  You can find them at JustFood.org, NYC’s own CSA organizer.  One such farm is our friend Adam Foreman, of Holton Farms.  To get involved, contact him:
Main: 802.232.4207
www.holtonfarms.com

This week the rooftop chickens got an exciting new addition to their coop: a 25-foot-long chicken run handcrafted by Brooklyn’s own hOmE.  Over the course of a long, hot Sunday, designers and carpenters Evan and Oliver constructed a solid pine-wood mobile run while chatting with the farmhands, sampling sorrel and meeting the ladies (hens).  As CSA members, the brothers can expect a long future of Tuesdays enjoying more rooftop produce, while the chikkies gambol in their new home.

In an effort to have fun, build community, and fund chicken feed for the coming months of the growing season, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm partnered up with Growing Chefs and our neighborhood pie-bakers to host a potluck of pies underneath the farm in Broadway Stage’s beautiful sound stage.  With dozens of pies in the running, we were glad it was a feast of friends and not a competition: it would have been impossible to pick a favorite of the sweet & savories available.
Lively music was coordinated by BK Honey and the Rooftop Farm’s own CSA member, Sam Cohen.  Artwork was beautifully made by Elisabeth Timpone, Laura Cline, and Alice Forbes-Spear.  The pie potluck was coordinated by Christine Bonde.

Join us this Sunday May 23rd celebrating our beautiful ladies.  At 2pm our free workshop series continues featuring guest speakers from Just Food, Brooklyn Honey, BK Farmyards and special guest Orren Fox.  The farm market is open all day, and will have limited edition prints created by the talented Lis Timpone.  If you’re hungry at the end of the day, jump in on a pie-potluck–a pie gets you in, or $10.  All proceeds go to feed the chickens!

This past Sunday’s FREE Urban Farming Workshop was well-attended: dozens of green thumbs perked up under the springtime sun as rooftop farmer Annie Novak talked about the benefits of growing your own food on rooftops and elsewhere.  Particularly of interest were the nuances of finding soil and space in the city, basic plant care, and container gardening.  Even the New York Times made an appearance and lauded the Eagle Street Farm’s good work.

Due in large part to the beautiful, warm spring weather we’ve been getting, the farm held its first open market today.  This year’s spinach is as sweet as green beans–the radishes crispy and delightfully bright red–the mustards spicy and almost impossibly beautiful purples and greens–and the scallions and herbs sharp and flavorful.  The photo above shows the unique “Rooftop Salad Mix Number One,” as written up in the Atlantic Monthly.

Join us at the farm on Sundays for more delicious ways to make better brunches!

This week, the students of Francis Perkins Academy on Bedford Avenue completed the chicken coop designed to house the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm’s first chickens.

On April 27th of last year, the first seeds were sown on Rooftop Farm: peas (Cascadia) and cabbage (napa transplants).  The cabbage was for Greenpoint (Polish pride!) and the peas for their rhizobia, the lovely bacteria that help fix nitrogen into the soil in a plant-accessible way. 

It’s incredible to look back at the first spring of 2009 from the verdant May fields of 2010. Not only is the farm comparatively a month ahead of schedule, but in such a short period of time, the community of farm, farmers and food has grown exponentially.  The hundreds of people that have come to plant, harvest and eat at on the rooftop have grown the project larger than just seeds and soil, and into a truly inspirational piece of land.

The crops are doing well, too.  This year, I’ve already planted radishes, peas, mustard and lettuce mixes; transplanted kale, chard and sorrel, and sown flowers wherever the herbs aren’t already blooming along the easternmost rows.  Three new beehives dress the farm’s eastern rooftop, and a chicken coop build in partnership with a local high school sits ready to roll from row to row. 

When a brief lightening storm shook the roof late in the evening this past week, the following morning I woke to nitrogen-charged, neon green lettuces.  Their flavor, as it was last year with the rocky rooftop soil, was slightly salty and strong.  As the air cleared and the rain let up, I worked with the farm’s half-dozen apprentices to plant new seeds in the drying rooftop earth.  The sky was pewter and clearing, the sun peaking through the gray of clouds and city skyline.   The mockingbird that stalks around the secondary farm rooftop had returned, post-strorm to stike up every note in his songbook.  It was a great birthday.