Tag: august

Rooftop Reopens in September

We’re working hard to turn our spring and summer’s work into a delicious fall harvest.  Here’s a shot of what we’re busy with: delicious hot peppers that have made their way from seeds in Santa Fe to seedlings in New Paltz and now fruiting plants in Brooklyn, New York.

Our staff work this time of year includes keeping up on their health (so far, so good!) with organic care and nutrients.  We’re proud to say these beauties have been holding their own so far in flavor, color and heat.  We’re looking forward (in about 10 days-2 weeks) to the full color-change and explosion of harvest that we’ve been waiting for since our eyes first set sight on them in our seed catalogues.

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.

Learn to Cook Local!

Download this image and poster it all over town! This month and next, to celebrate the amazing abundance of the end of the summer, we’re growin’ and cookin’ with some of our food heroes.  This week it’s Van Leeuwen Ice Cream’s own Laura and Ben.  Besides making some of the creamiest, finest quality, interestingly flavored and well-sourced hot weather delights, they also have spunky kitchen skills.  Where better to hone your use of produce than in Bali (as they did, those sly cats), where the fruits and spices seem celestial in their deliciousness? This carrot-eater can’t wait to see what those two are going to teach us to make, Balinese-style, with local produce.  Moreover, we CANNOT WAIT to have the little Van Leeuwen ice cream push-cart appear like a deus ex machina at the hot rooftop farm to serve fine flavors around noontime.  Yum!