Boswyck Farms » nyc farms

All that is yummy

Joanna — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:56:44 +0000

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.

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Woot! We’re on CNN

Joanna — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:02:57 +0000

May 22, 2010

We think it proper to give ourselves a big pat on the back. In fact, we’re giving ourselves the World of Warcraft leveling “woot” because we’re part of CNN’s story on hydroponic farming.

The CNN crew took great footage of what’s happening at Boswyck Farms (the latest pictures can be seen in our gallery), on our rooftop installation at the Bushwick Starr, and of Lee, the self-named spice wimp, sampling a homegrown hot pepper. Check out the video–we’re the third segment in the story.

A tip of our hat to Britta Riley over at Window Farms who pointed CNN in our direction. Thank you!

Boswyck Farms Rocks NYC Grows

Joanna — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:40:04 +0000

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.