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.

By Joanna

Who doesn’t love a good radish? (Actually I don’t but that’s a whole other story.) We’ve had our first radish harvest! Some are sweet, some pungent and some right in the middle. Planted a little over a month ago, they grew up to be quite healthy and happy in our flood & [...]]]>

August 23, 2010

By Joanna

Who doesn’t love a good radish? (Actually I don’t but that’s a whole other story.) We’ve had our first radish harvest! Some are sweet, some pungent and some right in the middle. Planted a little over a month ago, they grew up to be quite healthy and happy in our flood & drain system. Lee decided the radishes are so good that he’s done another round of planting. These new ones are slated to be part of our hydroponic systems demonstrations and will make their premiere Sunday, September 12, 2010 at Farm City Fair.

By Joanna

This report is a little late in coming. The beginning of August found us waist-deep in workshops, not to mention planting, harvesting an incredible amount of Fine Verde basil and experimenting with a bucket flood & drain system.

Thanks to Growing Leaders, who are partnered with BK Farmyards this summer, for being the first group [...]]]>

August 19, 2010

By Joanna

This report is a little late in coming. The beginning of August found us waist-deep in workshops, not to mention planting, harvesting an incredible amount of Fine Verde basil and experimenting with a bucket flood & drain system.

Thanks to Growing Leaders, who are partnered with BK Farmyards this summer, for being the first group to participate in the soda bottle workshop in our space. Up to now we’ve always held our workshops off-site. You showed us that our magical, expandable kitchen table isn’t just for dining. It transforms nicely into a workbench. We’d also like to give a big thanks to Heather Butts for bringing several young adults from her program, H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths.

For more information on our educational program contact joanna@boswyckfarms.org.

We met husband and wife team Jason Hait and Ayelet Prizant a few weeks back at the Crown Heights Health Fair. Jason is the owner and Executive Chef at The Pour Gourmet. They were selling some of their amazingly hot sauces, marinades and mustards. Lee and Jason got to talking about peppers [...]]]>

July 20, 2010
by Joanna

We met husband and wife team Jason Hait and Ayelet Prizant a few weeks back at the Crown Heights Health Fair. Jason is the owner and Executive Chef at The Pour Gourmet. They were selling some of their amazingly hot sauces, marinades and mustards. Lee and Jason got to talking about peppers and viola! he offered to take the plethora of Habaneros we recently grew off our hands. Jason will be concocting something most delicious with them. We’re desperate for a taste and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s whiped it up. In the meantime, don’t miss out on other Pour Gourmet treats. I’ve got my eye on the Beer-B-Q sauce. I’m betting it’s fabulous on veggie burgers.

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.

Bushwick Open Studios was this past weekend. Hot and humid as it was we threw open the doors to the farm, inviting people in to see our seven different hydroponic systems. Those who came got to eat a little of our arugula, watercress and lettuce, not to mention Lee’s homemade and perfectly salted [...]]]>

June 7, 2010

Bushwick Open Studios was this past weekend. Hot and humid as it was we threw open the doors to the farm, inviting people in to see our seven different hydroponic systems. Those who came got to eat a little of our arugula, watercress and lettuce, not to mention Lee’s homemade and perfectly salted popcorn. (Our peppers and tomatoes were not quite ripe enough to sample but should be there momentairly so make arrangements to visit if you want a taste.) The recently planted strawberries have taken to their new vertical system and we were happy so many people admired how pretty they looked. Several people made hydroponic planters out of recycled soda bottles, seeded them with the basil of their choice and took them home to start a windowsill garden.

A tip of our hat to the peeps over at Arts in Bushwick for organizing another fabulous event. We’re looking forward to next year’s open studios!

Today Lee and Chloë will be interviewed by Bernie Wides on his show, The Naturalist. They’ll be talking about hydroponics, the work we do at the farm and our upcoming programs. The show airs between 12:00 and 12:30. Tune in if you can. It will also be available as a podcast.

The Naturalist is a daily [...]]]>

5/10/2010

Today Lee and Chloë will be interviewed by Bernie Wides on his show, The Naturalist. They’ll be talking about hydroponics, the work we do at the farm and our upcoming programs. The show airs between 12:00 and 12:30. Tune in if you can. It will also be available as a podcast.

The Naturalist is a daily radio program on Heritage Radio Network.

The day dawned with a torrential downpour–the gutters ran with [...]]]>

We like to give a big thanks to NYC Grows for inviting us to participate in this year’s festival. A huge event that marked the end of Earth Week celebrations in the city, it drew urban farmers, community gardeners, eco-crafters, sustainable technology creators, chickens(!) and more.

The day dawned with a torrential downpour–the gutters ran with deep streams of water, Union Square was a giant puddle. Nevertheless, Lee and Chloë packed up the clown car with our mobile kitchen cart, tubes, buckets, pumps and plants. With a table strapped to the roof they drove from Bushwick to meet Joanna for what turned out to be a great day, despite the deluge.

To be honest, the weather about killed our excitement. With rain pouring off the roof of our tent, we wondered–with the slightest hint of irony–if it was necessary to find water to fill our hydroponic systems. We decided it was and as Joanna went off with buckets she heard it remarked more than once, “Why is that woman looking for water?”

Late morning brought a surprising twist of fate. The sky became less ominous and the rains let up. By noon we had people swinging by our tent to see what was happening. We had several homemade demo systems on display. We set up our large NFT system in the front of the tent. Our aeroponics system was going strong and a huge, hot pepper plant was growing in our drip system. (We grow all our plants from heirloom seeds.) People were psyched as Lee and Chloë explained the beauty and relative simplicity of home hydroponics. We’re pretty confident we won some converts.

The other big seller was our free “build your own passive hydroponic system” workshops run by Joanna. Made from recycled soda bottles, gaffers tape and cotton rope these systems are a perfect way to introduce hydroponics. (We often use them in our school programs.) We originally envisioned the workshop to be for kids but it turned out that lots of adults wanted in on the action. Approximately 30 soda bottle systems were built and planted with basil. People also left with a package of nutrients and Chloë’s Boswyck Farms pesto recipe.

The only downside of the day was that we weren’t able to break out our one-of-a-kind mobile kitchen cart. It was just too wet to have people kneeling on the ground to make farm fresh pesto.

All in all we had a fabulous time. We hope to get the chance to participate in next year’s NYC Grows. In the meantime, keep checking back to see what we’re up to.