Happy fall fellow farmers!

Summer is winding down and school is starting up. After collaborating with the folks over at the Academy for Urban Planning in the summer months, construction is nearly finished on hydroponic systems that complement an already impressive soil garden at the school.

With both farming approaches  running side by side, students will get [...]]]>

Happy fall fellow farmers!

Summer is winding down and school is starting up. After collaborating with the folks over at the Academy for Urban Planning in the summer months, construction is nearly finished on hydroponic systems that complement an already impressive soil garden at the school.

With both farming approaches  running side by side, students will get to sharpen their math and science skills as they collect and compare data on their produce. Viva hands on learning experiences!

The systems at CDSC are humming along quite nicely these days as well. In fact, the successful partnership between CDSC and Boswyck Farms has earned us a spot in this year’s Seed Grant guidelines as a featured Urban Farming Specialist/Consultant . We are quite grateful that they included us in their documentation and look forward to bringing more greens to the communities that need them!

Any social service providers who are interested in building hydroponic systems to supplement their pantry food supply should check out the grant guidelines here at www.feednyc.org.

And with a new season comes a new face-lift for the loft farm. Over the past few weeks, the Boswyck Farmers have been working on a complete redesign of the systems at Dekalb Ave. While the rooftop farm at the Bushwick Starr has been our summertime pride and joy, we are eagerly looking forward to having the loft looking just as lush and lovely this winter as the Starr has been these past few months. We are reusing our building supplies as always, looking to re-purpose whatever materials we can.

PS. Keep an eye out on Chrissy from Chrissy’s Cooking Club, she is working magic with our produce at the farmers market in Bushwick! 

We planted the first bed with lettuce seeds in November and 5 weeks later the first harvest took place. It is very exciting to see the members harvesting the lettuce. It was then used for salads in the cafeteria.

The rest of the beds planted will be planted and in full production by the end of [...]]]>

We planted the first bed with lettuce seeds in November and 5 weeks later the first harvest took place. It is very exciting to see the members harvesting the lettuce. It was then used for salads in the cafeteria.

The rest of the beds planted will be planted and in full production by the end of the year. We hope to be harvesting around 40 heads of lettuce each week by the middle of February. The members at Fountain House will be planting, monitoring and harvesting. We are also teaching carpentry skills along the way. It has been a lot of fun working on the project and the help from members, especially Vincent and Gary, has helped make it all possible. We all have been nibbling along the way and I hope to eat some of the salad this week. I have learned as much as I have taught. Three of our interns (Chris, Victor and Logan) have pitched in with the construction work. We will keep you up to date and give more details of how the systems work in future posts.

Here is a slide show of the harvest

It’s been quite a blast building the grow room at Fountain House, a NYC non-profit dedicated to helping adults with mental illnesses. We’re hoping that this room will supply most–if not all–the greens they need for their cafeteria. The size of the room we have to work in is 165 square feet. [...]]]>

November 10, 2010
By Joanna

It’s been quite a blast building the grow room at Fountain House, a NYC non-profit dedicated to helping adults with mental illnesses. We’re hoping that this room will supply most–if not all–the greens they need for their cafeteria. The size of the room we have to work in is 165 square feet. To date Lee, our volunteer carpenter Chris and some of the folks at Fountain House have built 4 flood & drain grow beds for greens. They’ve been seeded and we’re looking forward to the first sprouting!

All in all 16 tiered flood & drain systems will be built with a total of 128 square feet of growing space.

The title pretty much says it all so I’ll start off this report with the obvious: our last sunflower has died. I’m sort of sad as I love sunflowers. At least we’ve learned that 2 giant sunflowers in one pot on a very hot roof = a bad ending. On to happy [...]]]>

September 4, 2010
By Joanna

The title pretty much says it all so I’ll start off this report with the obvious: our last sunflower has died. I’m sort of sad as I love sunflowers. At least we’ve learned that 2 giant sunflowers in one pot on a very hot roof = a bad ending. On to happy news.

Round 2 of radishes has begun. We had a great harvest 2 weeks ago and are excited to taste this batch (except for me because I don’t like radishes).

Out with the old, in with the new. Bye to our tomatoes in the aeroponic system. We’ve replaced that whole system with a bucket flood and drain. Lee planted a new batch of tomatoes, which I am very excited to eat.

Our outdoor NFT system is looking fabulous with sage, Swiss chard, kale and more. Lee snapped some very pretty pictures of them after a rainfall.

Thanks to LunchNYC for shooting at the farm last week. We’ll be on an upcoming show. Details to follow.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

By Joanna

We just wanted to say many thanks to everyone who attended this past Sunday’s workshop, Getting Started With Hydroponics. We had people from all walks of life including teachers, architects and even a lactation specialist. Our participants asked great questions and were pros at building drip systems.

If you were at the workshop (or [...]]]>

August 2, 2010

By Joanna

We just wanted to say many thanks to everyone who attended this past Sunday’s workshop, Getting Started With Hydroponics. We had people from all walks of life including teachers, architects and even a lactation specialist. Our participants asked great questions and were pros at building drip systems.

If you were at the workshop (or attended earlier ones), please take pictures of the plants growing in your systems and send them to us!

About a month ago Lee built a vertical system which we planted with strawberries. They are happy in their new home and about 2 weeks ago began to flower. Even though they aren’t quite ready we did a small tasting this past Tuesday. The result? A little tart but a lot delicious. Our Caribbean Red [...]]]>

6/20/10

About a month ago Lee built a vertical system which we planted with strawberries. They are happy in their new home and about 2 weeks ago began to flower. Even though they aren’t quite ready we did a small tasting this past Tuesday. The result? A little tart but a lot delicious. Our Caribbean Red Cabanero peppers have ripened and they are…hot. We’re looking forward to pickling! Our Red Zebra tomatoes were harvested and are pretty and delicious.