Every now and again we get kudos from international friends. It warms the heart and loosens the muscles in our achey backs to see that the world all over is excited about good food and farming. This news blast came our way from Finland via friends at the Brooklyn Brewery who (along with the deserving Mast Brothers and other Brooklyn food makers) got a nod as well. How do you say “Thanks for the props!” in Finnish? We don’t know, but we did learn a new word: ”maanviljelijä” is Finnish for “farmer”!
Shout Outs from Northern Climes
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Pre-storm preparations
Late on Friday night and early again on Saturday morning, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farmers prepared for the oncoming rain and stormy weather. The ripen and close-to-ripe tomatoes and peppers were harvested, any loose buckets, boards and posts were brought downstairs, and the apiaries were weighted down with multiple cinder blocks. In case of flooding, the nursery flats were carried up to the farm and weighted down between the rows of taller pepper and tomato plants. The chickens were brought from their upstairs coop to the farm market room. The coop is too solid to move (and weighted down, as well), but for the chicken’s well-ventilated coop, there’s always the threat of sustained sideways-blown rain.
Dozens of tweets and phone calls came through all morning offering help. The final step, after the drains were cleared and everything was sealed off? Saying goodbye to this season’s sunflowers and cosmos, whose tender blooms may not make it through the wind.
CLOSED this SUNDAY
This Sunday due to predicted weather and transit closure, we are not open. We’ll be there–rescuing as many tomato plants and keeping an eye on our chicken coop–but you should stay home with a good book.
Market this Sunday!
Rain put the breaks on last week’s market, so we’re open this Sunday from 10am-4pm. Come on up and pick up fresh cucumbers (perfect for pickling), cherry tomatoes, greens, and extra-amazing fresh herbs. We have 40′ of basil that is begging to be made into pesto. Come on up!
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Mombucha-Kombucha!
Making kombucha–the vinegar and tea drink that has become a Brooklyn craze–is a tradition passed along to Rich Awn from his mother, Ruth. On a beautiful Sunday in early August he passed the mother from his mother along to farmhands and visitors at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm. For more on Rich and his delicious product, see http://mombucha.wordpress.com/ (Photo by Bob Brinkman)
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Ice Cream Social
Join us! $10 at the door (and two scoops of ice cream with that!) or $5 if you bring your own homemade ice cream in a pint container to swap. We’re following the rules of the Brooklyn Ice Cream club–check them out for details.
At 2pm we’re teaching a free workshop on making local ice cream flavors…yum!
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Times UP! at Eagle Street
It’s not every day that you can ride a bicycle on a rooftop–but farmers and volunteer green thumbs at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm were offered that unusual opportunity yesterday during the weekly 2pm FREE workshop with Times UP! , New York’s bicycle-friendly environmental direct-action group. An all-volunteer run organization that dishes out multiple free workshops a week, Times UP! is known for its bicycle-focused organizing, including the group ride “Critical Mass.” Mechanics from Times UP! brought two bikes up to the farm: a long cargo bike perfect for carrying pounds of fresh tomatoes and peppers, and a bicycle ready to be deconstructed and explained for the benefit of Eagle Street’s green thumbs. An hour later, wiser on the skills of flat tire-fixing, ball-bearing adjusting, and brake-tightening, the farmers went back to farming (finishing up sowing seed-saved vetch between rows of kale) and Time’s UP! mechanics rode back to their work space under the Williamsburg Bridge. Next time we farmers need to borrow a cup of sugar–or fix up a new cargo bike to transport compost back to the farm–we know who to visit!
Farm Market this Sunday, July 24th
Hurrah, the cucumbers and tomatoes are coming in with unparalleled abundace! We’ve cast our vote for Isis Candy as our new favorite cherry, and have been sneaking sweet bites as we harvest. It’s a real treat to eat something so sweet in this heat. Join us at our Farm Market this Sunday from 10-4p, lend a hand and learn a little as a volunteer from 9am-4pm. Join us at 2pm for a basic bicycle care workshop with the mechanics at Times UP! our neighborhood bike cooperative under the Williamsburg Bridge. For over a decade, Times UP! has led the famous Critical Mass rides, offering their expertise and services on a generous donation basis to get the world healthier, happier bicycle riders (among other awesome things). Their mechanics will show you how to get your bike ready for the veggie-laden rides home from the Farmer’s Market, from tightening your breaks to fixing a flat, what to grease and how to grease it. Come on up!
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Help Farmers, Post-Hurricane
What can you do? Buy locally and buy it now; buy more than you need and can it and put it up. If you’ve never made tomato sauce, get out to your Greenmarkets and make it today.
Specific farms are rallying together benefits and buyer options for future crops–we’ll keep you posted as we hear about them. On October 16th, 2011 the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is holding an all-day snack attack with Rockaway Taco to benefit Evolutionary Organics, our mentors in New Paltz, New York. Join us then and in the weeks before, shop locally.