Everything made it through the cold fine. The seeds planted on Tuesday are starting to sprout. Here are some photos of their older siblings.

Robert and I planted half the bed. We will see how they get through this cold spell. We are going to plant the rest of it on Tuesday. As soon as seedlings come up we will work on getting the second bed on line.

Lee Mandell of Boswyck Farms will be giving presentations on Hydroponics on the Waterpod on the following dates:

1. Sunday August 16th at 1 p.m. at Pier 5, Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBPDC).
   

   Subway directions: Take 4/5 to Borough Hall Station. Head west on Joralemon Street toward Clinton Street to Furman Street. Take M/R to Court Street, 2/3 to Borough Hall Sation Head west on Montague Street toward Cadman Plaza West. Turn left at Henry Street Turn right at Joralemon Street towards the river. Click here for a map

2. Saturday August 22nd at 6 p.m. at Staten Island (Atlantic Salt – this overlaps with the Atlantic Salt Festival). Preserving the Tidal Wetlands and Ecosystems through studies of the original flora and fauna of New York. Click here for a map
3. Sunday August 30th at 6 p.m. at Staten Island (Atlantic Salt – this overlaps with the Atlantic Salt Festival). Preserving the Tidal Wetlands and Ecosystems through studies of the original flora and fauna of New York. Click here for a map

The presentation will be an introduction to Hydroponics including a brief history of Hydorponics, an overview of common Hydroponic methods and hands on examples of some of these methods. For any questions or more information email info@boswyckfarms.org

The Waterpod is is a floating, sculptural, eco-habitat designed for the rising tides.

Times are subject to change check back for the latest updates

Lee Mandell of Boswyck Farms will be giving presentations on Hydroponics July 31st and August 1st, 2009 at the Waterpod, an art barge, which is currently docked in Harlem.

The presentations will be held Friday, July 31st at 5 p.m. and Saturday August 1st at 4 p.m.

The Waterpod is docked at 125th Street, Riverside (Parks). It is convenient to the 125th street stop on the 1, A, B, C, D subway stops
map

Tomorrow, July 16, will be the second basil cutting and pesto making. The first batch was a hit with everyone who tried it.

Here is a visual telling of the making of basil Boswyck Farms style

The basil crop before the cutting. We got about 1 1/2 pints of pesto.

Chloë chopping and blending

Boswyck the sheep supervises

mixing

And best of all the tasting

The weekend was very exciting and a bit exhausting. Dozens and dozens of people came by to see the farm. A lot of curiosity about urban farming, hydroponics and growing year round. We will be posting some photos from the event in the next few days. There were many questions and a lot of sharing of information. People saw three different type of hydroponic setups with a fourth in the works.

1. There are cucumbers that are doing so well that they are trying to take over some of the other systems. They are growing in a simple drip system.
   

   Cucumbers 6/9/09

2. The basil is growing in a deep water culture system built from pvc pipe and an 18 gal storage bin.
   
3. A grow room with a hybrid aeroponic/deep water culture system. There are tomatoes, eggplant and peppers growing in this system.
   

I will be posting more details about these systems in the near future.

There were problems with the system in the grow room over the weekend. The roots of the tomatoes have been so tenatious that they are clogging the return tubes causing the buckets to overflow. The system will need to be redesigned with larger return pipes. Probably increasing the size from 1/2″ to 1″.

Day one was quite busy. Even though we were only open for 4 hours there was a steady crowd. The excitement around urban farming and gardening is amazing. We have 3 different hydroponic set ups here with a forth on its way. The cucumbers are growing in a simple drip system and threatening to take over the farm. It is time to learn how to pollinate them since there are separate male and female flowers. Ideally there would be bees but since this stage is in my loft I would rather not live with bees. There is basil growing in a deep water culture system. There is a 100 sq ft grow room that is using a hybrid aeroponics and deep water culture. There are tomatoes, eggplant and sweet peppers in the grow room. There will be pictures on the blog in a few days but until then you can go to http://fishbabel.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4819 to see pictures.

We are open noon – 7 p.m. today June 7th. Come by and see the farm.

1609 Dekalb Avenue, 1D. At the Dekalb stop on the L train.

If you can’t make it the farm is open for visits by appointment. Send an email to lee@boswyckfarms.org