bk farmyards

A visit from John Jeavons!

2012-01-16T15:46:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday, we were lucky enough to host a workshop led by one of the leading teachers and authors in the field.
John Jeavons author of "How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine", thought of as the bible on growing bio-intesively. Mr. Jeavons was in town, holding a 3 day workshop on the principles of growing bio-intensively, which attracted participants from as far as DC and New Orleans as well as many NYC residents.

We follow many of Mr. Jeavons growing principles on the Youth Farm. Meeting him in person and having him visit our farm was truly an honor.

Heres a little description of BIO-INTENSIVE Growing:
The Biointensive Method is an organic agricultural system which focuses on maximum yields from the minimum acreage, while simultaneously improving the soil. The goal of the method is long term sustainability on a closed system basis. It has also been used successfully on small scale commercial farms.

Many of the techniques that compromise the biointensive method were present in the agriculture of the ancient Chinese, Greek, Mayans, and of the Early Modern period in Europe. Alan Chadwick brought together the Biodynamic and French intensive methods, as well as his own unique approach, to form what he called the Biodynamic-French Intensive Method. The method was further developed by John Jeavons and the group Ecology Action into a sustainable 8-step food raising method known as "Grow Biointensive." The method is now widely practiced. The technique is preferable because it grows large amounts of food for both local sale and donation.

.... and check out a little article about the workshops in the Lower 9th Ward Newsletter, from the Center for Sustainable Engagement & Development.

Chance Encounter on the Subway

2012-01-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

I got on the 2 train at Winthrop this afternoon. I was headed to the Union Square Greenmarket, because my fridge was too bare to wait until the Saturday Grand Army farmers market. I sat down next to a woman and her daughter. The woman instigated conversation and wanted to talk about her concerns regarding our food system. This actually happens to me a lot: I prefer chatting rather than staring at a screen or zoning out with some earphones. While it’s not unusual for me to chat up my fellow subway rider, what was unusual about this encounter was that this woman wanted to share her passion for food. She didn’t want to talk about the unseasonably warm day we were having, she wanted to have a real hear-to-heart exchange. As we chatted, her pre-teen daughter watched intently, obviously engaged in the conversation.

The woman came here from the Caribbean many years ago where she remembers a rich agricultural tradition, but fears it is being lost. While she thinks our government is not adequately protecting us from many scary things in our food system, she is optimistic that these scary things will force communities to get back to growing their own food. She was most concerned with GMOs, and introduced me to two concerns I knew nothing about. She has started noticing a difference in her lentils and did some research. She was nervous that GMO lentils had been introduced into our food system. Since there are no labeling regulations, there is no way to tell for sure. Secondly, she was horrified by Peta’s $1 million reward to make the first in-vitro chicken meat. I watched her daughter’s stoic face as she joked about the possibility that we were going to out-think ourselves into extinction.

We were so engaged in our conversation that I nearly missed my stop, and then in my haste to get off the train, I never got her name. I feel extraordinarily blessed in this chance encounter. Wherever you are, I thank you for a great conversation. NYC has 8 million people, and we all have at least one thing in common…we ALL eat. Therein lies my hope for a just and sustainable food system that values life and nourishes us all.

Interview with a Brooklyn Youth Farmer

2011-12-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

I recently had a moment to sit down with one of the Youth Farmers from the High School for Public Service to ask her about farming in Brooklyn. Brianna is a junior this year at the High School for Public Service, which is home to a 1.3 acre thriving school farm.

SM: Do you remember what school was like before the farm?

Brianna: I first heard about the farm in 9^th grade. I overheard some people in the hall talking about a farm coming to our school, and I was like, ‘WHAT? How is that even possible?’ I wasn’t expecting a farm in Brooklyn.

SM: How did you first get involved with the farm?

Brianna: The first time I volunteered on the farm, I double dug along the fence around the whole front yard (note from SM: this is 600 foot perimeter!) so that we could plant flowers. There were maybe 20 of us out there that day. I still remember helping each other find rocks and passing them down like an assembly line to make a border for the flower bed that we dug. I think the flowers make the farm look really pretty from the outside.

SM: What was your experience like in the Go Green! class? (For readers, this is a year round curriculum that focuses on sustainable food systems, health & nutrition, media awareness, food justice, environmental stewardship, and of course…farming.)

Brianna: My first reaction was ‘What IS that? What does that MEAN?’ I knew it would involve the farm, but what would we be doing? The class is fun. You learn a lot. Learn about what you eat. I now look at nutrition information and read labels. I still eat it sometimes, even after looking. You learn to cook in the class, healthy foods. Making smoothies and juicing was really tasty. You learn where your food comes from. You learn about fair trade and have chocolate taste tests. We found out how workers are getting paid under the minimum wage.

SM: How did come to work on the farm in 2010?

Brianna: When I was applying for the Summer Youth Employment Program, I personally chose the farm. I thought it would be a nice experience to explore, because I’ve never worked on a farm before. I don’t think I had any expectations except we would be working with food and animals. I knew I would help water, plant…and replant. I didn’t expect all the workshops and field trips. I thought we were going to work all day. Instead it seemed like we were cooking most of the time. The days went by so fast.

SM: You REALLY pursued a job on the farm for a second season in 2011. Why were you so eager to work on the farm again?

Brianna: I was excited to come back and see different things, and there were going to be more farmers to work with. I was hoping to work more at the market. I like when people ask me what the vegetables are and how to cook them. I like doing cooking demonstrations at the market. At first, it was hard to figure out how to cook and also think about what to say to people, but it got easier. Especially when you know the recipe.

SM: After working for two years on the farm, you know how much work is involved to grow food. Is it all worth it?

Brianna: Kids can learn more about what they are eating and how they can make their diets healthier so life expectancy could be longer. The farm is worth it. We can get more for a lower price. The food tastes better. It’s not processed and it’s local.

SM: What would you like to see happen with the farm in the future?

Brianna: Veggie eating contest (laughs). That, and I would like to see the farm food eaten by students in the school cafeteria.

SM: What’s your favorite farm recipe?

Brianna: Raw kale salad. I made it for my family this Thanksgiving, and they asked me to make it again for Christmas.

Please DONATE now to help us continue the work at the Youth Farm!

Help Us Grow the Youth Farm

2011-12-14T19:24:00.001-08:00

Dear Farm Supporter: In Crown Heights, Brooklyn a group of high schoolers are counting on you.

This year, we nearly doubled our growing space, expanded our farmers market offerings which serve many EBT participants, led a Summer Youth Leadership Program for 12 teens, and continued the popular Go Green! class at the High School for Public Service. But our work isn't done, and we need your help to continue these vital community services.

Now, we ask for your support to continue our important work with the High School for Public Service and the East Flatbush community. We have big goals for next season – continuing to build youth engagement in food advocacy, using our new hoop house as an outdoor classroom year-round, expanding our food security workshops, and more!

DONATE HERE

We are thankful for a year of food, sun and farming, and to you, for your gift that keeps our farm growing.

Your donation will be processed by Green Guerillas via NYCharities.org.

Delicious Food Starts NOW

2011-10-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Imagine yourself picking the most gorgeous Brandywine tomato from your yard or local vacant lot next August. If you want a lush landscape with delicious, cheap produce that transforms throughout the seasons, fall is the time to start.

Like any new building or project, designing your dream farmyard starts well before any seeds sprout…even before the first seeds are planted. Fall is the season that farmers and gardeners assess conditions for growing the following season; boost soil fertility; and start to create crop plans.

Nutrient-rich veggies start with rich, healthy soil. Often times people are disheartened when they find out just after the first thaw of spring that their soil is not suitable to grow food. This usually leads to increased set-up costs in the form of transporting top soil or compost and creating raised beds. When you start in the fall, you have the time to filter toxins in the soil and boost fertility all at once.

In order to be fully prepared, it is imperative to get a soil sample tested before the ground freezes completely. (Soil is 25% water, so the mixture becomes very difficult to dig once the thermometer starts dropping.)

Among the fall soil preparations that may be suitable for your dream farmyard are lasagna composting, Bokashi composting, or cover cropping (see diagram). If you want to go crazy, you can combine lasagna composting with cover cropping. Lasagna composting is just what it sounds like: alternating layers of organic matter that will decompose with time and build fertility in your soil. Bokashi in Japanese refers to the process of fermenting organic matter. The method uses anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation to ‘pickle’ organic matter in an airtight container with a bran that is inoculated with effective microorganisms. Cover crops can trap residual nitrogen in the soil and, in the case of legumes, fix atmospheric nitrogen, as well as prevent erosion of precious soil. Cover crops are typically tilled under in the spring as a ‘green manure.’

BK Farmyards can help you get started! Our staff members have a combined 23 years organic farming experience with vegetables, flowers, chickens, and honeybees. Our consulting services range from soil assessment and crop planning to maintenance and harvesting schedules. We can create a garden or farm plan that is right for your finances, time, and skills. To get started now, please submit an online form. Grow your own food (with a little help from your farmer friends).

Grow Your Own Food!

2011-10-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Food Justice & Hay Rides

2011-10-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

our latest NEWSLETTER

FARM + carnival = FARMival!

600 Kingston Avenue
Wednesday, October 19th, 3-6pm (rain date October 26th)

Celebrate the harvest and bounty of the Youth Farm and the community. Visit our farmers market, bob for apples, take a hay-ride (urban farming style), toss some eggs, and visit the Art Bus. Bring your child, your inner child, or BOTH!

Moviehouse Presents: A Brooklyn Screening of American Meat

3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave
Sunday, October 9th, 7-10pm, $10 suggested donation

Come see a snippet of our hens in this amazing new documentary about animal husbandry. Afterwards, there will be a panel discussion with filmmakers Memo Salazar and Graham Meriweather (of Leave It Better); Donald Arrant, livestock manager at Glynwood Farm; and Stacey Murphy of BKFY.

Back to School...Field Trip?

As the season winds down, you still have a little time to bring your class or your group to the Youth Farm for a tour or a workshop. Our curriculum has something for everyone. If you're interested in scheduling a trip, check out our online curriculum guide and contact molly@bkfarmyards.com. We'll also come to your classroom this winter to cover a range of topics from nutrition & food systems to sustainable farming & food justice.

Food Justice Organizers to Occupy Wall Street TODAY!

October 5th, 4pm, Meet at Foley Square to form delegation

The food justice movement joins the nationwide movement to restore justice to our economy. BK Farmers are organizing a fresh food drop off to support the activists: please go in our stead as we man our farmers market.

'Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.'

Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference

There are many ways to get involved and 'Grow Health, Wealth, and Justice!' Farmers, activists, eaters from across the nation are convening in the Bronx this year.

October 14th, 6-8pm, Sweetwaters, Bronx
An Evening with Our Leaders in the Field

October 15th , 8am-5pm, 500 Grand Concourse, Bronx
Conference

October 16th, 10am-2pm
An Alternative Farm Tour including the Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service

We're Drooling over Pop-Up Farm Dinner Featured Chefs!

2011-09-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Can you imagine the taste bud fireworks extravaganza that this feast is going to create at tomorrow's Pop-Up Farm Dinner?!

There are several additional dishes that the Youth Farm staff is creating specially for the event. You're going to have to come to find out what they are...

If you have not purchased your tickets yet, there are just a few spots still available. Space is limited, so RSVP and payment online is required ahead of time.

Thank you to all of the fabulous chefs and restaurants that are contributing to the Pop-Up Farm Dinner. Juventino, 61 Local, Brucie, Court Street Grocers, SCRATCHbread, Four & Twenty Blackbirds...we are so blessed with your generosity.

Event is at 600 Kingston Avenue, September 17th, 5pm - sundown.

Pop-Up Farm Dinner: Know Your Farmer, Know Your Chef

2011-09-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

The High School for Public Service, Green Guerillas and BK Farmyards invite you to a Pop-Up Farm Dinner on our dynamic Youth Farm at 600 Kingston Ave. Take a guided tour of over 70 varieties of vegetables and flowers, while listening to live music and sipping freshly-made farm drinks. After seeing everything the farm has to offer, sit down to a family style dinner and dessert prepared by a team of local chefs using ingredients straight from the farm. The Youth Farm will use proceeds from the event to help repair damage from Hurricane Irene and help expand our teen and community programming. Please RSVP here to save your seat.

We cannot wait to see you on the farm!

If you can't make it, but still want to help, you can always contribute at www.supportyouthfarm.org!

Stay tuned as we feature all our local chefs here...you don't want to miss this dinner!

Youth Farm Instructor Apprenticeship Fall 2011

2011-08-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

BK Farmyards is looking for an innovative, engaging educator to join us at our teaching farm at the High School for Public Service in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Over the course of the year we run programs that challenge our students to think about their own access to affordable fresh food and nutrition, and we give them tangible career building skills through workshops and experiences on the farm. This role is best suited for someone with a passion for food justice, experience teaching youth and a love of community organizing.

Responsibilities:
· Improve existing curriculum and pilot new, innovative programs that challenges students to re-envision and reinvent their relationship to food
· Manage our Media Campaign , a program where students study marketing techniques used by junk food companies and co-opt them for marketing fresh food
· Lead group activities on the farm (including, but not limited to: harvesting, spring planting, crop planting, digging new beds, composting)
· Lead hands-on, in-classroom exercises related to food justice and community organizing
· Help plan and execute year-long programs
· Opportunity to grow role into full-time, paid position

Qualifications:
· Studying to be a teacher or educator and/or educational experience with youth
· Farm or garden experience in an educational role
· High energy, positive attitude with excellent communication skills
· Quick study and curious learner
· Keen interest in food policy, nutrition advocacy
· Preferred candidates have experience mentoring youth, but it is not required

The position is a great opportunity if you are looking for a food systems job, teaching experience, and a strong role in a growing organization. While it is not currently paid, we are in the process of funding the position.

The role is 10 hours per week, starting September and running five months (through the whole school year preferred). Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume to Stacey Murphy at Stacey@bkfarmyards.com, by September 2.

Operations Internship Available Fall 2011

2011-08-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

BK Farmyards is an innovative network of Brooklyn farmers growing local, nutritious food in the cracks of the urban landscape. BK Farmyards seeks to engage and empower our local communities through programs ranging from youth-led markets to apprenticeship programs. The Operations Intern position is primarily administrative, with a focus on a holistic, operational understanding of grassroots urban agriculture.

Working closely with our Operations Manager, the Operations Intern will:
· Experience the day-to-day undertakings of urban agriculture in NYC
· Help brainstorm future development events and community-engagement projects
· Assist in long term financial strategizing, planning and implementation
· Learn basic grant management strategy
· Oversee individual projects, with latitude for personal judgment

A potential intern should have an interest in:
· Learning the strategy and process of building a dynamic urban agriculture venture
· The intersection of technology and community building
· Finding creative solutions to logistical and operational challenges
· Creating healthy communities through balanced food distribution
· Direct marketing of produce in an urban environment

Qualifications:
· Currently enrolled in or graduated from an accredited university, or comparable experience
· Creative, detail-oriented individual that can see short term and long term goals simultaneously
· Excellent research, writing and communication skills
· Friendly, dynamic and positive energy

Fall internships are 8-10 hours a week from early September to mid-December, and available for college credit where applicable. To apply, please send a short cover letter and resume to sas@bkfarmyards.com.

Graphic Design Internship Fall 2011

2011-08-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

BK Farmyards is an innovative, network of Brooklyn farmers growing local, nutritious food in the cracks of the urban landscape. BK Farmyards seeks to engage and empower our local communities through programs ranging from youth-led farmers markets to adult apprenticeship programs. We are seeking a Graphic Design Intern to work directly with our Executive Director and Operations Manager to help re-envision our brand and marketing strategy in anticipation of a relaunch of the organization.

STYLE & CREATIVITY. We're looking for strong visual design skills, with an emphasis on typography and effective product marketing. You should be able to comfortably collaborate as well as manage projects independently. You should be able to discuss and quickly mock-up several options to a single problem, incorporating client and management feedback into your work.

SKILL. Have an advanced understanding of Adobe Suite, direct marketing strategy, and an understanding of local food systems. Web design skills preferred.

PERSONALITY. Work well with others, passionate about food justice and able to communicate effectively with many different personalities. You read design and food blogs daily, and are passionate about the intersection of design and food justice.

FLEXIBILITY. We work with a variety of organizations and communities which means many strategies and projects. As well as basic marketing design, you'll also be designing email campaigns, event materials, blogs and print collateral as needed.

EXPERIENCE. Current design students or recent graduates encouraged to apply. At least 3 examples of your work must be available in your portfolio. Be prepared to elaborate on your involvement in the projects.

Please send at least 3 examples of your work, cover letter and resume to Stacey@bkfarmyards.com by September 2, 2011.

'Change is Inevitable' by Ken Kailing

2011-08-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

There are moments when you open an email and are unexpectedly inspired. I hope you are equally inspired by the sentiments of Ken Kailing from Good Food World. While we are on seperate coasts, this note made that distance seem insignificant:

'History shows change is inevitable and sometimes occurs abruptly; at tipping points. I believe we are about there when what economists call "externalities" are going to become key variables. I also know there is an alternative food movement because I work within it every day. It isn't perfect of course, but compared to the way things have been with corporations determining everything, we have become a milestone and are being recognized. What's interesting is the speed with which young, new food producers, processors and marketers are inventing a new system at the grass roots--much faster than bureaucrats or academics (for the most part) can comprehend it.

It is definitely a people's movement, learning and building structure as it develops. Our president had it right with "Yes We Can!" at the beginning of his campaign. I don't know if he is there anymore. But we are there; we know change is upon us---natural and social systems have reached the threshold of stress, realignments are occurring.

All I'm sure of is that the old economics is finished and the weirdness of a lot of nuts rolling around cracking into each other, in Washington DC, is just a symptom of the gross instability of a [worn] out monetary program and never-[gonna]-get-well economy.

I'm seeing a new kind of stability occurring at the grass roots. It's amazing. The corporate industrial complex is becoming inefficient (waste, recalls, breakups, you name it...) whereas, locals are joining up do things in days that normally take bureaucrats and industry years. There still isn't a machine that comes close to the human mind for ingenuity.

At my age, I need to have faith in something. I've worked in academia, government, and the private sector and been a part of the never ending rationalizations. So now I'm turning back to my [mother's] pragmatism, growing up on our small organic farm in Minnesota where everything was efficient and we all were very healthy.

All of us are the real people being screwed by this system; we are screwing ourselves. But there's someone near you who could use a hand loading up their vegetables for the market. Find them, get busy and share the good company.

As my best buddy used to remind me (he's gone now), "none of us are going to get out of here alive" so "don't let the bastards get to you."

So we still have choices here in the US; in that, we are very lucky. Most of the negative pressure on [us] is psychological, NOT real. And even with addiction, there's recovery.'

Farmers Market & CSA Start this Wed!

2011-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

The HSPS Youth Farm Farmers Market is located right on the farm, on the front lawn of the Wingate Campus, 600 Kingston Ave, between Rutland and Winthrop. Take the 2 or 5 train to Winthrop and walk 3 blocks east.

There are also still spots available in our CSA! Check out the BROCHURE HERE.

If you want fresh produce, and want to support youth and adult farm based education come on out!

Planting Seeds: The White House Garden & Us!

2011-06-18T22:54:00.001-07:00

check out this new video highlighting the HSPS Youth Farm and the White House Garden!

Bringing inspiration and fresh produce to communities

There’s a garden growing at the White House, and another in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Different home bases, with remarkably similar goals: to educate people about the benefits of growing and eating fresh fruits and vegetables. We met up with the organizers of each garden at the IACP Regional NY Conference to learn why gardens are such powerful resources in communities starved for fresh foods.

video platform video management video solutions video player

Support the Chicken Apprenticeship

2011-05-17T13:30:00.001-07:00

We are raising some funds to support our Chicken Apprenticeship Program on IOBY! The money will be used to purchase needed supplies and cover the cost of a chicken fieldtrip for the apprentices... AND there is a dollar for dollar match from the New York Restoration Project!

DONATE HERE!

The BK farmyards Chicken Apprenticeship is designed provide apprentices the knowledge and experience needed to keep happy and healthy hens in the city. The Apprenticeship includes hands on mentorship with Ms. Ayer independent work with the hens, independent readings and explorations, and field trips. Apprentices will spend about 4 hours per week in the Imani Garden for 15 weeks. The Apprenticeship will start mid July and run through mid November. We will have field trip on in August, according to everyone schedules. Classes will cover the following topics: • Basic chicken care • Safe Egg Handling • Dietary Needs • Housing needs and options • Providing a happy healthy life • Integrating chickens into a garden • Health & check ups • Direct marketing eggs • Seasonal Care • Cleaning & Maintenance • Breed choice

Report by New School Class,

2011-05-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

This past semester we worked with the Urban Agriculture and Food Activism Class at the New School. They just finished their final project, a report on bk farmyards, and we wanted to share it with you!
BK Farmyards FINAL

Thursday May 12th, Keeping Hens Happy and Healthy. Intermediate Level

2011-05-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

* Sorry for the mistake, but here is the updated City Chickens Institute Schedule

Thursday, May 12th, 5:30-7pm Intermediate Level: Keeping your Hens Healthy & Happy Are you interested in keeping hens for eggs in the city? This workshop is geared towards helping people figure out what they need to do to have their own flock. This workshop is for those with basic knowledge of chicken keeping. We will go over the more specific aspects of keeping chickens, including the time it takes, costs and where you can keep your own birds. We will also go over how to do a basic chicken check up and what to do when you have a problem. Please bring pictures or drawing of your yard or garden if you would like to talk about your individual sites.

Thursday, May 26th , 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens English/Spanish
Chickens in the city? Yes, please! Keeping chickens in the city can be fun and rewarding. Come learn the basics of how to keep laying hens and how to take care of them, from designing a coop to what to feed them. We will learn all about bk farmyards chicken keeping practices, and interact with their flock.

This workshop will be in English and Spanish, and is offered in partnership with bk farmyards, NYRP, GreenThumb, Just Food and La Union.

Thursday, May 26th , 5:30-7pm. Guardar Gallinas en la Ciudad English/Spanish

¿Pollos en la ciudad? ¡Sí, por favor! Mantener gallinas en a ciudad puede ser divertido y valioso. Venga para aprender los fundamentos de cómo guardar gallinas, y cómo cuidarlas. Aprende cómo diseñar un "coop" (casa para gallinas) y cómo alimentarlas. Aprenderemos las mejores prácticas de criar gallinas de BK Farmyards, y conoceremos su bandada de pollos.

Este taller estará en inglés y español, y se ofrece en sociedad con BK Farmyards, NYRP, GreenThumb, Just Food y el jardín comunitario La Union.

Thursday, June 9th, 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens

Chickens in the city? Yes, please! Keeping chickens in the city can be fun and rewarding. Come learn the basics of how to keep laying hens and how to take care of them, from designing a coop to what to feed them. We will learn all about bk farmyards chicken keeping practices, and interact with their flock.

Thursday, July 14th, 5:30-7pm Fun with Chickens! A workshop for Kids of all Ages

Bring your kids for a fun day in the garden with the chickens. We will be exploring chickens and eggs and the difference between factory farm and organically produced eggs. Youth will have an opportunity to hold the chickens and make art inspired by them.

Thursday, August 11th, 5:30-7pm Chickens & the Garden: Chicken Tractors.

Chickens can be a great asset to your garden. They provide fertilizer, can help prepare beds and eat up all those weeds. Chickens can also cause a lot of problems for a garden if not properly planned and cared for. We will talk about the benefits and drawbacks of having chickens in your garden. Together we will build a chicken tractor, a moveable coop for chickens without a floor.

Thursday, September 15th, 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens

Thursday, October 13th, 5:30-7pm Preparing for the Winter

It’s getting chilly outside! And yes, the chickens feel it too. We’ll go over how to prepare a coop and chickens for the winter, working with our ladies at Imani. From making sure your coop is warm enough, but still has ventilation, to preventing frostbite and colds.

Dancy Party TONIGHT! April 28th

2011-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Come kick your heels up with us tonight!

Brooklyn Contra
at the Green Building
452 Union St
7-10pm
$20

If you can walk, you can Contra. It's like square dancing without being so square. We got you covered with a great caller who will walk you through all the steps and a fabulous local band.

Your ticket gets you into the dance plus one farm-fresh beverage. Don't worry about bringing a partner, this is a social dance...you will have many dance partners all night long! It's a great way to meet people.

We have fabulous local swag up for auction from Franny's, Ici, Brooklyn Kitchen, SCRATCHbread, Whisk, Leda Meredith, GreenEdge, Raganella, Brooklyn Honey, Van Leeuwen, Egg, Jimmy's, Just Food, and MORE! All proceeds will go toward our Chicken and Backyard Farming Apprenticeship Programs. More information on the event site.

why support the Youth Farm?

2011-04-27T18:50:00.001-07:00

Heres a video that one of our donors made about why she supports our work.

Alyssa Picked from ioby on Vimeo.

Vote for Stacey for the Energizer Keep Going Hall of Fame

2011-04-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Our beloved Stacey has been chosen as a finalist in the Energizer Keep Going Hall of Fame! Please show your support for the Youth Farm and bk Farmyards by voting for her, and asking your friends and loved ones to vote as well. You can vote once a day from now till May 13th. Winning will mean $15,000 for the youth farm- a huge amount for our barely funded programs!

Please Vote Now Here

Crop Mob!

2011-04-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun last year with the Crop Mob NYC, that we are hosting 4 days this year!

Please join us!

Saturday, April 30, 10 am -4 pm
Saturday, June 18, 10 am -4 pm
Saturday, August 20, 10 am -4 pm
Saturday, October 15, 10 am -4 pm

Mobs will be at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm at 600 Kingston. Take the 2/5 to Winthrop and walk 3 blocks east. 10am to 4 pm, please bring a healthy lunch (we often go potluck style), good working clothes, a water bottle a hat and your enthusiasm.

Crop Mob NYC organizes aspiring farmers or the merely ag-curious to descend on farms around the metro area to help them for a few hours with whatever tasks are in front of them. "Learn about organic agriculture, meet cool people, have fun, get dirty"

Want to keep chickens in the City? Want a little more experience?

2011-03-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

whether you want to keep you own flock in the future, want to learn the basics, brush up on your chicken wrangling skills or you just want to spend some nice time with our friends..

We are now accepting applications for Spring Chicken Apprentices!

The BK farmyards Chicken Apprenticeship is designed to teach the basics of raising hens in the city. The Apprenticeship includes hands on leaning with Bee Ayer, independent work with the hens, independent readings and explorations, and field trips.

The Apprenticeship runs for 3 months starting April 14th, and can be extended for additional months. Apprentices spend about 4 hours per week in the Imani Garden, between workshops, working with the hens and helping with the CSA. Apprenticeship meetings will be Thursdays from 5:30-7pm.

Please fill out an application (found here) and return it by April 5th.

You can also see our 2011Chicken Apprenticeship Press Release

Pictured above is Megan Paska of BrooklynHomesteader

Free Chicken Workshops 2011

2011-03-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

bk farmyards, NYRP & Just Food's

2011 City Chickens Free Workshop Series

Please join us every 2nd Thursday of the month for fun and educational workshops on keeping chickens in the city. The workshops are free and open to the public. All workshops take place in the Imani Garden (bk farmyard's chicken headquarters) on Schenectady between Dean & Pacific St.

Thursday, April 14th, 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens

Thursday, May 12th, 5:30-7pm Intermediate Level: Keeping your Hens Healthy & Happy Are you interested in keeping hens for eggs in the city? This workshop is geared towards helping people figure out what they need to do to have their own flock. This workshop is for those with basic knowledge of chicken keeping. We will go over the more specific aspects of keeping chickens, including the time it takes, costs and where you can keep your own birds. We will also go over how to do a basic chicken check up and what to do when you have a problem. Please bring pictures or drawing of your yard or garden if you would like to talk about your individual sites.

Thursday, June 9th, 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens

Thursday, August 11th, 5:30-7pm Chickens & the Garden: Chicken Tractors.

Thursday, September 15th, 5:30-7pm. Beginners Level: Introduction to City Chickens

Thursday, October 13th, 5:30-7pm Preparing for the Winter

2011 Egg CSA, Now Accepting Members

2011-03-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Do you want fresh delicious eggs laid by happy chickens here in Brooklyn?

Now is your chance. Bk farmyards is accepting members for out 2011 Egg CSA.

When you become a member of bk farmyards Egg CSA, you’re purchasing a “share” of the eggs from our chickens. Weekly from May through October, you will receive a dozen fresh eggs. Our chickens are cage free, and can go in or outside as they please. Our chickens are fed a variety of foods including spent grain, lots of veggie scraps, formulated feed, weeds from the farm, as well as all the grubs, worms and insects they find as they wander the garden. This means happier chickens and better tasting eggs for you!

• Join the CSA. Signing up is easy. Fill out an application and choose your payment methods. The CSA runs from May 5th to October 6th. Membership costs $90-$135 depending on your income, for 22 weeks. We have a variety of payment options; you can pay for the whole season up front, pay in two installments.

• Attend workdays and workshops. All CSA members are requested to attend one workday at the Imani garden. Members are encouraged to attend our free community workshops. Please engage with us in the process of raising chickens, building community and celebration!

• Pick up your egg share every week. Come by the garden every week to pick up your eggs. If you can’t make it one week, ask a friend to pick up your share. Picks ups will be Thursdays from 5:30-7pm. The Imani Garden is located on Schenectady between Dean & Pacific in Crown Heights.

• Enjoy fresh and healthy eggs. Every week you will receive about a dozen fresh eggs. Our eggs come from cage free chickens, fed organic feed and food scraps, plus all the grubs and worms they like while they wander around the garden.

Want to Join? Here is the Application

Membership is on a first come first serve basis, with preference given to those living in N. Crown Heights and Bed Stuy. Sending an emailed copy of the application form will hold your spot, until checks arrive in the mail.

For more information check out our brochure or flyer or email Bee@bkfarmyards.com

Like a magazine subscription for fresh eggs!

A Holistic Approach

2011-02-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

We often are asked whats the best way to fight childhood obesity, and if bk farmyards has any programs targeted at this. Its always harder to explain our belief in a multifaceted approach, but we think it provides a better result then simply changing school lunch or banning EBT junk food purchases (though we believe in that too!)

We take a holistic approach, and build our programs on the values of youth empowerment and social change. We are working on combating childhood obesity by providing youth opportunities to be able to make informed decisions about their eating habits. We do this both through our educational programs; focused on media awareness, health, nutrition and cooking; our farm programs giving kids a connection to food and fun exercise; and also importantly- providing access to healthy and affordable fresh food.

Our culinary programs have been a huge hit, making delicious healthy & affordable meals on the farm and in the classroom.

You can help by donating to our cooking program on IOBY, or donating high quality cooking supplies.

We always love hearing about other peoples work with high school age youth and love to collaborate!

Wont you be our Valentine?

2011-02-10T08:02:00.001-08:00

Be Our Valentine at Egg, 135 N. 5th St, W'burg

Here's how to give 3 Valentines gifts at once.
Gift 1: Take your beloved out to eat at Egg, and the food will seduce your taste buds.
Gift 2: Buy a Valentines Day card for your date and every one in your entire family and you will seduce your date with your generosity.
Gift 3: The proceeds from the cards you buy seduces us to grow more fresh, affordable food for our community. That's my kind of Valentine!

Cards are for sale now. Don't wait!

Help Brooklyn Teens Advertise Fresh Food!

2011-01-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

The 10th Grade Go-Green! class at the High School for Public Service has put together a campaign for fresh fruits and vegetables to combat the 10,000 junk food advertisements they see every year on television (not to mention billboards, magazines, and subway ads)! We have more advertisements on the way, so keep checking back to find new favorites. The teens have studied marketing strategies and graphic design techniques used in junk food ads, and they have co-opted these methods for promoting whole, delicious foods.

Instead of talking about what we shouldn't eat, we hope we can shake things up and get people talking what we WANT to eat: fresh fruits and vegetables. The ads range from a clever 'Got Carrot?' Bugs Bunny cartoon to a deceptively seductive 'Juicy Ain't It' strawberry ad. Advertisers watch out. Want to learn how teens would market directly to their peers and other kids?

We don't have $1.4 billion dollars like McDonald's, but we do have lots of friends on Twitter and Facebook. Please help spread the word! We want the message to travel world-wide.

Ads that Scare the HFCS Out of Me

2010-12-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

This marking period is Marketing Period in our Go Green! class. Last week, the teens deconstructed junk food ads and identified marketing strategies used to convince them to buy products. I saw an ad recently that showed a montage of a guy wearing a backpack and getting dumped by three girlfriends. He sits in a room alone with his backpack, and the ad says something similar to 'My backpack will always be there for me.' A backpack cannot replace a nurturing human relationship. Promoting a similar emotional desire for Ho-Hos and Big Macs is even scarier given their addictive ingredients that bring people back for more.

Junk food messages in the 50's were overt to say the least. If you can't read that fine print, here's what it says, 'Not soon enough. Laboratory tests over the last few years have proven that babies who start drinking soda during their formative period have a much higher chance of gaining acceptance and 'fitting in' during those awkward pre-teen and teen years. So do yourself a favor. Do your child a favor. Start them on a strict regimen of soda and other sugary carbonated beverages right now, for a lifetime of guaranteed happiness.' Message: you are a terrible mom if you don't get your child addicted to soda ASAP. Of course, there was also the scary Marlboro equivalent, 'Your child doesn't want you to be a high-strung mom. Chill out and smoke a cigarette.'

The teens in my class thought that these companies would be sued today if they tried these tactics. 'Everyone knows that smoking and soda are bad for kids!' They see less harm in today's ads where these same themes of peer acceptance and products bringing happiness are represented graphically instead of matter-of-factly stated. While the message may be less overt, the message is aimed directly at kids instead of at mothers who can make more educated choices. I can only imagine what it is like to go down the cereal aisle with a child: have you ever noticed how many of the sugary cereals are at the eye level of children.?

By the end of the class, the teens had countered all the advertising glitz with a couple hard realities: svelte and sexy, Shakira probably does not drink Pepsi; the Olympic athletes definitely don't drink Coca-Cola; none of the teens have ever seen Ronald McDonald or any other clown at McDonalds, let alone a clown playing the guitar; they do not suddenly become more unique and creative when drinking Pepsi; bigger is not necessarily better; with the plethora of Doritos out there, they do not need to guard them with their life; a product proclaiming it has 0% trans-fat doesn't also exclaim 'Mono-Diglycerides!'; Whopper does not have enough nutritional content to make you stronger...bigger, yes, but not necessarily stronger; and a Whopper definitely does not make you a Man.

We covered a lot of ground, but we only scratched the surface. The Center for Consumer Freedom is calling the Department of Health the Department of Hyp e while running these Big Apple /Big Brother ads. Somebody is getting scared that people are paying attention to those Pouring on the Pounds ads as soda sales continue to decline. I'm wondering who's behind those Consumer Freedom ads. It seems reasonable to assume who might be behind them since these ads came out right about the time Bloomberg announced his plan to tax soda.

When I went in search of fresh fruit or vegetable ads, I came up short, very short. I found these Xtreme Baby Carrot ads, but come on! What's Xtreme about these carrots is that they are soaked in chlorine, processed, packaged, and shipped all over the United States. Looks like we have some work to do on getting the fresh food message out.

our year of Chickens!

2010-12-14T19:30:00.001-08:00

It has been a wonderful year for bk farmyards and our chicken projects. We were first approached by the New York Restoration Project only last March, and in less then a year we have accomplished so much! Here is a summary of our activities:

We built a beautiful coop, (we lovingly call Fort Hen) for the largest flock in Brooklyn.
We had over a hundred people from the community walk in off the street when seeing the chickens running in the garden (over 100 during bees garden hours on thursday alone!)
We hosted 3 elementary school classes, and one high school youth program at the garden for chicken workshops.
NYRP and us partnered with Just Food to host 5 workshops for the City Chickens Series
The workshops were very well attended, with about 25 people per workshop, and over 1/3 coming for the whole series; that's over 180 participants in educational workshops!
We had such a high demand for training that we started a more intensive apprenticeship program. we have had 9 apprentices so far, one of which is in the process of starting a new operation in fort green. our apprentices have spent over 450 hours in the garden, and i have given them over 48 hours lessons.
plus we brought lots of great attention to the Imani garden and NYRP through our networking and media coverage.

oh and the eggs!

we had 16 members during our summer/fall csa, and have 5 members for our winter shares.
our hens laid over 8,064 eggs
thats 52,416 grams of local sustainably produced protein, enough protein for 1,048 people for one day, or enough eggs for 18 people from may through January.

So in summary we are pretty happy with our first season. We greatly appreciate all the support and work from everyone involved. This has been a team effort, without the support of NYRP, the Imani garden members, our amazing apprentices, Just Food and Greg Anderson from Walt L. Shumel, all of this would not have been possible.

oh and did I mention all the press?

and someone just passed this on to me, its pretty funny how the word travels
http://brooklynian.com/forum/crown-heights-and-prospect-lefferts-gardens/egg-csa

Give a Gift to the Youth Farm

2010-12-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Friends, family, supporters:

Can you imagine a high school student excitedly telling their parents about their lunch - not cafeteria pizza, or McDonald's, but fresh kale salad?

At the High School for Public Service, students do just that, thanks to our innovative farm-based curriculum. And you can help deliver this curriculum to next year's class, and beyond - to nurture the next generation of healthy eaters, environmental stewards, and food justice advocates.

We all know our food system is broken. Scientists are now saying that for the first time in 200 years, our children have a shorter life expectancy than us due to chronic diseases directly linked to our food system. It is imperative that we teach teens the value of eating real, whole food; the importance of local, sustainable agriculture; and the potential they have to make an impact in the health of their communities.

Last week, I had the pleasure of sharing our first $1 Harvest meal with all the sophomores at HSPS in our new Go Green! class. As we ate and talked about our cultural traditions, one of the students said to me, ‘Every night I go home and tell my mom about this class.’ We do a lot of taste tests in class (like Wonder Bread versus home-made bread or organic versus non-organic apples), and we test recipes like fresh kale salad and tomatillo salsa, made with vegetables from our farm. One thing is very clear to me: when given the choice, almost all of the students prefer real food made from whole ingredients. It's also clear that they don't always have that choice, and that having the farm as a community resource is valuable to them and their families. Especially important, we grow culturally significant crops for the neighborhood: we are the only source for fresh callaloo and cerasee in the area which allows local families to cook traditional food.

Let’s set some goals together: In the next year

We will double the number of teens in our Summer Youth Employment Program
We will have teens running cooking demonstrations and distributing recipes at our farmers market every week
We will double our growing capacity on the farm from ¼ acre to ½ acre
We will incorporate indoor growing into the Go Green! curriculum
We will continue to host teen events on the farm such as harvest parties and festivals to provide a space for teens to give tours of the farm and express their feelings about the local food system.

We are scaling up our operations on the Youth Farm to be financially sustainable in the next few years, but we need your help to get us past some crucial hurdles this year. Myself and key members of my team have volunteered our time this year to make this project a reality. We have relied on your support in the past, and we are asking for your support again to continue the success of our programs.

Donating $25 funds our time for each class session.
Donating $200 funds 1 week for our education coordinator to teach the Go Green! class.
Donating $1,500 will fund all the culinary supplies we need for our students for a long time to come.
Donating $16,000 funds our education coordinator’s work for the whole year!

If you can give more, we are grateful. If you give less, be assured that we will make the best use of every dollar.

How to Donate:

Because the Youth Farm is a Green Guerillas program, you can now make a tax-deductible donation to the Youth Farm. To donate by credit card, go to the Green Guerillas donation page. At the bottom, where it says, ‘Designate your donation to a specific program or fund,’ type in BK Farmyards. If you do not do this, your donation will NOT go toward our Youth Farm. To donate by check, you can mail your check made out to Green Guerillas to their Manhattan office, but make sure you write, ‘BK Farmyards’ in the memo line to ensure that your money goes toward our Youth Farm.

Thanks so much for your continued support of our project.

$1 Menu

2010-12-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

Preparing a harvest meal with 93 teens is a great day on the job. Considering there were four different class sections, and I got to feast four times…it was a fabulous day on the job. We prepared the most delicious $1 meal: raw kale salad from the farm; curry quinoa with sautéed veggies from the farm; homemade bread; mulled apple cider, and pear crisp with local pears.

Some students struggled with teaspoon and tablespoon measurements while others debated the best way to cut the kale to bring out the most flavor. Some groups eyeballed all their measurements and modified the recipes according to their own tastes.

This harvest meal was the culmination of the second marking period of the 10^th grade Go Green! class I am co-teaching with the Community Action Now teacher at the High School for Public Service. The class is the students ‘health’ class, but it asks them to tackle one large question: what is sustainable agriculture’s impact on environmental and public health?

The journey has led to some amazing discoveries. The day we decided to do a blind taste test between organic and non-organic apples, we honestly didn’t know what to expect. We hoped there would be a recognizable difference, but would there be? And what if they preferred the non-organic apples? We bought non-organic Gala apples from Washington and organic Gala apples from New Zealand. In preparation for the class, we had to cut up all the apples 30 minutes before the taste test. By the time we did the taste test, all the non-organic apples were really brown.

We asked the students to consider taste, appearance, and texture. The results were almost unanimous, and remember all this is blind. As uncut, whole apples, 95% of the students would be convinced to buy the non-organic apples at the grocery store because of their uniform color and their glossiness. Indeed, they gleamed in the school’s fluorescent light. When considering texture and taste, however, 95% of the students preferred the organic apples. Many called the non-organic apple ‘nasty’ after trying a bite. It turns out that non-organic apples (or at least the ones we purchased) confirmed that their beauty was only skin deep.

This proved to be an instrumental lesson for getting teens to try new foods. Raw kale salad didn’t look appealing to some of the students. I wondered how to get these students to try at least one bite, when other students convinced them, ‘Remember the organic apples? Those looked nasty, but they tasted so good!’ I love when peer pressure is used for good and not evil.

For the second part of that apple experiment, we brought in local, organic Gala apples for the students to compare to organic Gala apples shipped form farther away. Again, it was almost unanimous that local apples were the favorites in taste and texture. Teens are prone to exaggeration, I know, but some teens exclaimed, ‘The best apple ever!’

While we hoped for recognizable differences between the 3 apples, we got way more than we bargained for. We don’t have to tell them that local and organic are more than mere words, they tasted the difference. It’s no longer abstract that something that is picked fresh from the farm is going to taste different (in this case better) than something shipped across the country.

I become more and more like my mom every day, believing that the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. Because our taste tests have been such big hits with the teens (homemade bread vs Wonder Bread, and salsa made fresh from the farm), I can’t wait to do a taste test of fair trade, organic chocolate versus Hersheys. While I think that being able to taste workers rights is a bit of a stretch, it’s sure going to be fun trying.

2010-11-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has already responded to our call for help at the Youth Farm after the freak October hail storm. While we lost $2k in produce, we are over halfway toward recuperating the damages: your total contributions are currently $1130!

The night the infamous hailstorm hit Brooklyn, I have to admit that I was staring out the window in awe of mother nature and thinking how other-worldly hail that size looks. As I thought about the farm, I had no idea the extent of damage I would find the next morning.

My morning was surreal. I am co-teaching a 10th grade health class on the farm, and our curriculum that morning was to harvest beans, okra, and tomatoes for the farmers market the next day. I was so busy setting up tools and equipment for the students that I barely noticed in my peripheral vision that the farm was looking a lot more barren and a lot less green than usual. In my hurried preparation, I didn't have time to take stock.

The students came out on the farm excited to harvest for the first time. We circled up and I opened my mouth to start the lesson when Jodi interrupted me, 'What happened?!' And then the jokes started, 'It looks like someone took a machine gun and mowed the farm down.' Finally, the question that shook me into reality, 'Wasn't there lettuce in these beds? Where'd it go?'

Every moment is an educational moment, but this was NOT the one I had hoped for that morning. We wandered around, took stock of the situation, and managed to harvest some beans among the ruins.

Afterwards, I flew to California to present BK Farmyards alongside the Buckminster Fuller Institute at the Bioneers conference. I had a heavy heart, and I was sad that I could do nothing to help clean up the farm from the other side of the country. But then, I started to see donations come in from people wishing us and the project well, and my heavy heart turned into amazement. I wanted to reach out and give Brooklyn a big hug from afar, but it wasn't just Brooklynites who were donating. People around the world were sending us love and their hard-earned cash to help us through this freak occurrence.

So this is my digital hug to all our supporters. We are blessed. If you haven't yet donated, we would love to raise the remaining $870. This was income that we worked hard for and were counting on for this year. Any amount helps. Please consider donating here.

Winter Egg CSA CLSOSED

2010-11-11T08:52:00.001-08:00

I would like to thank everyone for their support of our chicken programs and fast response to a call for Winter Egg CSA shares!
Our CSA filled up within one hour of putting out the word! Im happy to see such a demand for local fresh eggs, and sorry that we can not at this time provide enough eggs. We will be accepting new members for our Egg CSA in the spring, with many more spots available. Please check back in March for the 2011 Egg CSA Applications. Also stay tuned for information on new small scale poultry operations in brooklyn!

Sorry to everyone who is not able to be a winter member.

Here is a recipe from one of our amazing Chicken Apprentices, Stephanie.
Russian Style Crepes
ingredients for 2 person batch (or for lunch with breakfast leftovers for one!):
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup + 2 tbsp milk (at least 1%)
2 heaping spoons of sugar (or less/more to taste)
little bit of melted butter (about 1/3 in. in width)

need: spatula, pan, bowl, whisk or fork

Whisk all ingredients together in bowl with a hand whisk or fork until smooth, no clumps. Let crepe batter sit for an hour or more.

After batter is ready, melt a thin sliver of butter in a pan to just barely coat pan. Keep pan at medium-high heat. Pour small amount of batter in pan, tilting-swirling pan with wrist action to get thin layer of crepe batter on pan. When batter starts to solidify and bubbles form in center, flip crepe with spatula. Heat on that second side until ready and remove shortly thereafter and you have a crepe. Adjust heat down if your crepes are too brown or if the pan is smoking (may want to turn heat off to let pan cool if it's really smoking--it happens!). And, a little butter in the pan makes everything easier (and tastier).

To serve Soviet style, fill with sour cream and jam. Otherwise, whatever you like!

Interested in Winter Egg CSA Shares?

2010-11-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

Interested in fresh local eggs for the cold winter months?

The Winter Egg CSA will last from November to April, with a total of 20 weeks of shares. The cost will be $100, Payable in full or in 2 settlements. We will offer one pick up time a week. Shares will be picked up in Crown Heights on a weeknight.

Each member will receive a dozen fresh eggs every week, a mix of brown, white, pink, green and blue eggs. Laid within one week by our lovely hens at the Imani Garden.

This would be a very small CSA, with only about 7 members. Please let us know if you are interested ASAP.

please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think may be interested. but hurry we will probably fill up within a week!

As the rain turned to hail...

2010-10-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

Please consider a donation to help us continue our programs in the loss of our produce income. Donate Here

Last night I watched the rain turn to hail with 2 other urban farmers. We watched amazed and delighted by wondrous things Mother Nature can do. Then as we saw the hail grow bigger and louder and continue to grow our faces turned to looks of worry. Our thoughts quickly moved to our crops, spread across Brooklyn, from Red Hook, Ditmas Park, Crown Heights and East New York. We shared our looks of fear for what we would find in the morning.

It is amazing how an hour of weather can ruin months and months of work. The crops that we have nurtured and looked forward to sharing were ripped to shreds. The hundreds of pounds of vegetables we were counting on turned into confetti and thrown around the farm. Kristen from Added Value said it best “it’s as if someone threw a bucket full of rocks at the lettuce and then one thousand bunnies were let loose on them”.

I walked around the farm this morning wide eyed and in a state of disbelief. We lost almost all of our crops, 95%. Every eggplant is bruised and split, the okra is broken and torn, the lettuce shredded and powdered and the greens look like Swiss cheese. We have whole beds of the farm where I couldn’t even find the vegetables that were growing the day before. How does one literally loose 200 square feet of lettuce mix? It is sad to see so much so many people helped to create and nurture destroyed.

And all this is even before thinking about the loss of income. It is not just that we lost almost everything we were going to sell this week, but we lost everything for the next 6 weeks. We lost a quarter of our entire income for the year.

One of the things that makes bk farmyards different than some urban farms is that we are dependent on the sale of our produce. We do not have large grants that pay us a salary, or angel investors that help us to pay the bills. Our operations are simple; we grow the high quality food and sell it cheaply in areas that have little access to other options. We do this while teaching 4 days a week in the classroom, running an after school and summer program, year round volunteer days, 2 CSAs, a Farmers Market, apprenticeship programs, free workshops and working with other community members to build a healthier local food system. We do this for the love of the work and our commitment to creating a food system that is just.

Unfortunately this also makes us extremely vulnerable to extreme weather events like last night. We ask for your support as we clean up the farm and figure out how to continue our work in the next few weeks. We love the support of our friends with help on the farm and kind words of encouragement.

Help HSPS win the Do Good Brooklyn Award!

2010-10-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Now is the chance to make a difference for the Youth Farm...$5000 difference! Go to Do Good Brooklyn and vote for our principal Ben Shuldiner. You can (and should) vote 5 times a day for the next 11 days.

Cooking Equipment for our Farm Club and 10th Grade Go Green! class
Rakes, shovels, and hoes to help expand our farm from 1/4 acre to 1/2 acre next year.
A fabulous new tool shed to organize the farm and save us up to an hour each day carting tools around
Possibly a new greenhouse, too!

Set a reminder on your phone or your email to vote 5 times each day. It only takes a couple seconds a day, and it will mean so much to us!

You can Do Good Right here in Brooklyn!
http://dogoodrighthere.org/campaigns/271

Thanks so much...and as always, eat well!

Farm School NYC!

2010-09-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to be a part of this amazing initiative!

Do you want to become an urban farmer? Interested in going from a home gardener to a market gardener?

Just Food and an alliance of local horticultural and food justice organizations are pleased to announce the official launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture. The school will offer a unique, community-based certificate program with enrollment beginning in January 2011. The mission of the school is to provide comprehensive professional training in urban agriculture, while spurring positive local action on issues of food access and social, economic and racial justice.

Community gardens and urban farms throughout the city will serve as outdoor classrooms, and their neighborhoods and gardeners as inspiration for a vibrant, fair local food system that nourishes bodies and minds. Training programs will be accessible to adults of all educational backgrounds and income levels. In particular, Farm School NYC targets New York City residents unable to access traditional agricultural education and for whom skills in urban food production can contribute to reduced hunger and diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect low-income city residents.

"For the first time, New Yorkers and city dwellers from all over will have access to agricultural training that directly relates to the unique setting of urban agriculture," says Karen Washington, a nationally-recognized urban farming pioneer from the Bronx, and a member of the school’s Executive Board. "We grow it so we know it, and we’ve shown that city farming can make a huge difference in the health and nutrition of low-income urban communities.

to find out more please see: www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

calling all chicken lovers

2010-09-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

Want to learn more about keeping chickens in the city? Want to keep hens but just need a little more experience first?

Please join us this Tuesday, September 21st from 6-7 pm at the Imani Garden for an informational meeting about our Chicken Apprenticeship Program. We will go over the basics of the program and an introduce our operation and flock. This is an introductory meeting, so feel free to stop by even if your not sure you can commit for the 3 month program.

The bk farmyards Chicken Apprenticeship is designed to teach the basics of raising hens in the city and direct marketing eggs. The Apprenticeship will run for 3 months, and can be extended for additional months. Apprentices will spend 2 to 4 hours per week in the Imani Garden working with the hens, helping with the CSA and taking field trips. The Apprenticeship will include hands on leaning with Ms. Ayer and Ms. Murphy, independent work with the hens, independent readings and explorations, and field trips.

Back to Farm School!

2010-09-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

School is in full swing this week at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm. Our Summer Youth Employment Program featured in the Daily News in early August seems like forever ago. These students came, saw, and conquered it all: digging new planting beds, saving seeds, harvesting veggies, turning compost, cooking demos, and more.

As we start the 2010-2011 school year, we are talking about expansion of not only the farm, but also the in-school programs. All the 10th graders are enrolled in 'Go Green!' a class focusing on sustainable agriculture and its effects on environmental and personal health. We have a 1-acre outdoor classroom which is a laboratory for science, math, media and design experiments, and we will put it to good use.

Soon Farm Club will resume. In the spring, they loved to dig. Hopefully, they are ready to double capacity, and dig up another 1/4-acre.

If you want to pitch in and get your hands dirty, come join us for volunteer Saturdays: 12-3pm, 600 Kingston Avenue!

Volunteer Saturdays!

2010-09-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

want to get you hands dirty?
School is open, the farm is producing huge amounts of food and there's lots to do!

Volunteer Day at the Youth Farm
Saturday 12-3pm
600 Kingston Ave @ winthrop

New Apprenticeships

2010-08-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Want to learn more about Urban Farming? Like interacting with the public? Love organic vegetables?

We are currently accepting applications for our
Farm, Market & Chicken Apprenticeships
Farm & Market Apprentices will work closely with the bk farmyards Farm Manager to run our weekly farmers market and operate the Youth Farm. Farm Apprentices will assist with daily farm work, including sewing, weeding, staking and harvesting. Market Apprentices will assist the Farm Manager in operating the Market & CSA including assisting with harvest, set up, distribution, outreach and planning.

This position will run from the beginning of September through the end of October. Market Apprentices will work Wednesdays from 2pm -8pm, with a second day optional. Farm Apprentices will work 10 hours per week. We work during all weather, and will be doing manual and rewarding work. This is an education based un-paid apprenticeship, however apprentices will receive free produce

Chicken Apprentices will learn the basics of raising hens in the city and direct marketing eggs. The Apprenticeship will run for 3 months. Apprentices will spend 2 to 4 hours per week in the Imani Garden working with the hens, helping with the CSA and taking field trips. Fall Chicken Apprentices will start on Sept 20th.

For more information or to apply please email Bee (at) bkfarmyards (dot) com. Please send your resume along with a letter of interest and ability to commit.

Volunteer Work Day Tomorrow

2010-08-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Saturday August 21st is a volunteer workday at the Youth Farm. Please join us. We will be working on our fall plantings, taking care of some pesky weeds and as always eating some fresh veggies!

Volunteer Work Day
HSPS Youth Farm
600 Kingston Ave @ winthrop
10am-4pm

write up and movie from EcoCentric

2010-08-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

check out more here

People have always raised chickens in New York City but now a new demographic of young, eco-minded urbanites is getting into the urban chicken movement too and coops are sprouting throughout the boroughs. That is why the eggs in this story, unlike most of the eggs that you find in the shelves of your regular supermarket — which could have been standing there for up to two (!!!) months after they are actually laid by a caged chicken — are quite different. Watch the slideshow and find out why.

The Egg CSA is a project of Brooklyn Farmyards, an innovative network just over one year-old, connects owners of idle land in Brooklyn to people who are willing to farm it in a sustainable way. Their mission, as they put it, is “growing food between the cracks of urban development” and they were one of the finalists of last year’s renowned Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

Summer-of-Service Party on the Youth Farm!

2010-08-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just your average day yesterday at the Youth Farm...except instead of doing farmwork, Global Kids invited us to participate in a party to celebrate their Summer of Service Youth Employment Program and the DYCD grant they were awarded. So what do you get when you have 100 teens who are interested in food justice, nutrition, and agriculture on the farm? A bunch of teens showing off what they have learned on the farm and educating visitors through spoken word, dance, cooking demonstrations, farm tours, and information tables, that's what.

Global Kids have been working on the farm a couple hours each week for the past six weeks starting seeds, digging flower beds, and transplanting sunflowers. As you may have read, we also have our own Summer Youth Employment Program in partnership with Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders and their Growing Leaders program. Our teens are now experts on the farm after each working 135 hours on the farm, and Global Kids gave them the opportunity to strut their stuff yesterday.

Global Kids was chosen to have Commissioner Mulgrave attend the festivities. After a phenomenal spoken word on food justice (I hope to post here at a later date after the writer gets it copywritten), Brianna, Daysha, and Donasia confidently gave the commissioner a tour of the farm. Mulgrave was no newby in a garden, calling out crops as she saw them and asking the teens detailed questions about landscape fabric and flower companion planting. Global Kids put Mulgrave to the test...taste test that is...to see if she could tell the difference between organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables.

Meanwhile, Becky and Richard were tearing it up on a salsa cooking demonstration (all ingredients organic from the farm). People devoured the salsa, and I even watched a teen drink the jalapeno and tomato juice from the bowl when it was empty! The crowd demanded more, so Becky and Richard happily whipped up another batch. After two rounds of salsa it was time for Richard and Becky to lead a farm tour and Brianna, Daysha, and Donasia to lead a raw kale salad cooking demonstration. If you think that raw kale salad is a stretch for teens, think again. We have created 18 recipes for community meal on the farm and this was a recipe they chose to share as one their favorite. If you want to know the secret, you'll have to come buy one of their cookbooks at the farmers market (Wednesdays 3:30-7:00).

I know not all teens enjoy their veggies, but everything we cook on the farm they devour. My theory: you can't give someone frozen green beans and expect them to say, 'Mmmmm!' Teens have a fully-formed complex palette and their taste buds recognize good flavor. Make a recipe exciting, and they will eat the veggies and love them. At the end of the event, Global Kids raffled off some prizes including some fresh vegetables from the farm. Gabriel cradled his Swiss Chard even though he didn't know what it was and had never tasted it. He said, My mom's a chef...I'm not worried. It will be great.'

Our summer youth are fierce! Yesterday, they earned that title.

We accept EBT, WIC & Health Bucks!

2010-08-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Want to get more produce for your Food Stamp money?

Use your Food Stamps at our farmers market on Wednesday and receive $2 free in health bucks for every $5 in EBT purchases!

How it works:

Come to our market any Wednesday from 3:30-7pm
Pick out fresh and healthy vegetables
Pay with your EBT card
We hand you a free $2 Health Buck coupon for every $5 in purchase.
Use your Health Bucks same as cash next time you visit ours or other participating markets.

Where else can you use Health Bucks near by?
East New York Farms! Farmers Market, East New York Farm Stand, Cortelyou Greenmarket, Hattie Carthan Community Farmer Market, Seeds in the Middle Youth Market, Bedford-Stuyvesant Youthmarket etc.

Teens Chew on Hydroponics at Boswyck Farms

2010-08-10T09:07:00.000-07:00

Richard (left) and Becky (right) are guest bloggers from our Summer Youth Employment Program at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm in partnership with the Expeditionary Learning School for Growing Leaders and their Growing Leaders program.

What are hydroponic systems? They are another system for growing plants only using water and soil alternatives. “Hydro” means water and “ponos” means labor. Any system using soil alternatives and water is a hydroponic system.

There are many hydroponic farms, one of them that we visited was a hydroponic farm called Boswyck Farms located on DeKalb Ave in Brooklyn. Before we went, we imagined their farms to be outdoors like ours. Instead we found Boswyck Farms to be indoors. Here, we realized that growing plants can happen in rooms and other smaller spaces, even when there is no soil. Growing hydroponically is water-efficient, high-yield, and reuses some waste products like coconut husks. We were overwhelmed by the scenery that was around us. We met Lee Mandall (Chief Hydroponicist) and Chloë Bass (Community Outreach Specialist) who gave us a tour of their wonderful farm and answered our questions about how hydroponics work. He showed us many different systems that relied on water. One of them was an aeroponics system which places plants in a sponge to hold them in place and absorb water as nutrients are sprayed onto the roots of the plants. During the tour Lee told us that many experiments failed, but keeps working on the more experiments for better success in the future.

Many of the fruits and vegetable were shaped differently. In our farm, we would have soil to compact the growing vegetables to the shape that they grow into. Without soil, the plants here grew into different molded shapes. Some vegetables that they planted indoors were radishes, carrots, basil, lettuce, chard and others.

Next, we visited their roof top site. There, they had tomatoes, sunflowers, chard, cucumbers, kale, and more. The tomatoes that we tasted were different from the ones that we grew. Theirs were shaped like pears while ours are round. The cucumbers were also a different variety, apple cucumbers. They were shaped like apples, whereas ours are cylindrical. Apple cucumbers are reddish inside when they are ripe. There, Lee talked about how food systems have changed ever since WWII. In our food markets today, we do not see pear shaped tomatoes, nor apple cucumbers. Lee is always experimenting with things that not many people grow anymore. He believes that seeds from the past should be preserved, and that we should continue planting different varieties of food like we used to, instead of planting the same things like our centralized system right now.

After the Lee's tour, we were instructed to make our own hydroponic systems using recycled bottles. We enjoyed learning how simple a hydroponic system can be and got to bring those systems home with us by the end of the day. In addition, we met some other new friends besides Lee and —their cats, Hopper and Isaac, and Boswyck the sheep. We would like to thank Lee and Chloë for sharing a wonderful time during the visit and workshop.

Union Square Farmers Market: Teens take on Manhattan

2010-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Donasia (left) and Brianna (right) are guest bloggers from our Summer Youth Employment Program at the High School for Publics Service Youth Farm in partnership with the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders and their Growing Leaders program.

Wedneday, July 28th, we went to Union Square Farmers Market. Getting off the train station, our first impression was, “Wow!” We were acting just like tourists; we saw a lot of stores that we have never seen before. Tall buildings surrounded us. Unlike where we are from, Manhattan is more diverse. We felt as if we blended in with the crowd.

There were many statues in Union Square, a statue of Ghandi, one of George Washington, and some that we did not recognize. One in particular had a money jar in front of her. She was painted light blue and white, and looked like a Catholic figure. Some people put money in the jar. That was when she’d take a bow, and change her position until it happens again.

We found that there were many varieties of fruits and vegetables that were sold in the farmer’s market. Up to 120 varieties of tomatoes, 47 varieties of apples, 120 varieties of beans, and over 350 varieties of peppers come into the market. We started to walk around the farmer’s market to see what was sold.

The first farmer that we saw was a berry farmer. Across a long table in front of him, he had blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries laid out. He said that he only sells berries on Wednesdays and vegetables on other days. It was to avoid competition between farmers selling in Union Square on Wednesdays.

The next stand we visited offered pickled everything, from tomatoes to cucumbers, okra, corn, and many more. We tasted the pickled cucumbers (original and spiced), and pickled corn. There was some hesitation at first, but surprisingly it tasted good. There was a nice balance of sweet and spicy.

Later on in the day, we visited a farmer who takes care of ostriches and emus. His table was covered with ostrich skin. They sold their meat and skin, as well as their eggs which were the size of footballs and cost $30. One egg, cooked the same as chicken eggs, can serve 10-12 people. A fun fact that we learned is that ostriches would only lay when it’s sunny. The farmer there let us taste ostrich meat. According to the farmer, it was part of the poultry family, but it did not taste like chicken. It tasted like a part of the red meat family, and had the texture of steak.

Overall, the farmer’s market experience was great. The prices were more expensive than we were accustomed to paying. For example, our farm’s beets would be $2/bunch. In Manhattan, it would be $3. Strawberry iced tea there was $2 for 6 oz. (the most delicious thing ever). We believe it’s because their farmers are from upstate NY, and other surrounding states. Their prices should be more expensive compared to us: we sell our own produce in our farm without using transportation.

Overall, the farmer’s market is a great way to get fresh produce. The Union Square farmer’s market is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. We recommend visiting the ostrich stand, and trying some tasty ostrich meat. Mm mm good.

Volunteer Day this Saturday

2010-08-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Come out and volunteer at the Youth Farm! What a better way to enjoy the summer then lending a hand and enjoying the veggies of your labor.

Please join us this Saturday from 10am to 4pm for a farm volunteer day. We will be transplanting some fall crops, sewing some seeds and other general farm work. Also bring a dish to share as we will be having a picnic lunch among the veggies. We will be harvesting veggies fresh from the farm to enjoy as well.

Volunteer Day! 10am to 4pm
Youth Farm High School for Public Service
600 Kingston (take the 2 or 5 to wintrhop)

please wear closed toe shoes, clothes that can get dirty and dont forget your water bottle and hat!

ENYF! = Exciting Nutritious Yummy Foods!

2010-07-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Daysha (left) and Becky (right) are guest bloggers from our Summer Youth Employment Program at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm in partnership with the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders and their Growing Leaders Program.

Motivation….motivation , motivation, motivation! One of the many terms that describes the farmers of East New York Farms! (ENYF!). 12 years running and still going strong, it’s the place where positive attitudes are always active. Working as a team built strong with confidence, we received a warm welcome from many friendly faces when we arrived. The ENYF! mission is to spread awareness about fresh foods to the community, get youth off the streets, and to send a positive message that there is a healthier alternative in their neighborhood.

Suetanya & Cameal, who are Farm Education Interns, gave us a grand tour of their wonderful farm (located on 613 new lots avenue) starting with their bumble bee tool shed which we affectionately named Luis as a mate to our tool shed named the “divalicious” Lola . We saw many varieties of fruits and vegetables that the farmers hard work grew. One of their crops that surprised us the most was their bitter melon.Up tall, spiky, and containing a bitter taste that is optional to eat raw or cooked, this fascinating produce really made our eyes pop !

The farm provides, in our opinion, one of the most popular fruits on the planet, the acidic and sweet taste of the red juicy strawberries. Barely growing this season, a few strawberries were left over and felt the need to shine.

After the tour, which included a rain water collection system (far left), a green house powered by the sun (middle), a man-made bee hive (which they harvest honey from), a pond, a shade shack, a compost system (ABC, 123), a fabulous mural (right), a stone oven, and 70 different fruits and vegetables, we were given an opportunity that we couldn’t refuse…TO VOLUNTEER! Luis supplied us with tools to help us with the volunteer work we were ready to take on. Being a group of 7 added on to their 12 we made a positive step to help out their farming environment. Helping with compost & weeding, we used their tools to our best advantage. From helping them turn their warm, steamy compost, to pulling up every farmer's worst nightmare (aren’t weeds just the worst?!) we felt like we were a part of their farming community. We strive for “Motivation….Motivation, Motivation, Motivation” on our farm here at the High School for Public Service. It was more than a pleasure visiting ENYF! and creating new friends to make a larger dedicated community.

If you would like to buy produce at ENYF! visit them on Wednesdays 3:30-6:30pm and Saturdays 9:00am-3:00pm, 613 New Lots Avenue. Check out the ENYF! blog for a calendar of events and intern opportunities at the farm.

Teens Farming Brooklyn to Earn Money!

2010-07-24T14:39:00.001-07:00

This summer at the High School for Public Service Youth Farm, we have partnered with Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders and their Growing Leaders program to create an inspiring and exciting seven-week Summer Youth Employment Program for teens. The mission of the program is to provide youth with job training; teach horticultural and market skills to youth; and to foster communication and community building within the group. The project is also a pilot program to provide school with reproducible, fun, and rewarding food system curriculum on the farm.

Time flies by when you are farming! We are 3 weeks into our program, and the teens have already mastered a couple basic farming techniques and tried some adventurous new things. The youth have braved the 95-100 degree heat everyday for their new summer job, guzzling gallons of water in the process. They have forked and raked out 10 beds in preparation for new crops; dug up several cubic yards of grass to create a new planting bed on the farm; turned the compost; deadheaded all the flower beds; harvested hundreds of pounds of produce; transplanted two beds of seedlings; and dug up unknowable amounts of weeds.

Three days a week, the youth take a timeout from farmwork to prepare a community meal for everyone on the farm. There have been recipe ingredients that some of the students have never tried: kale, eggplant, mustard greens, and calendula to name a few. So far, the favorite recipe is our kale salad: amazing what our team can do with raw kale! Our Nutrition Intern, Nava leads community meal each day: she is studying at NYU and is teaching the teens not only how to prepare tasty food, but also how to increase nutritional value in a recipe. Look out parents, these students are ready to take over dinner preparation soon!

Market days are my favorite: everyone fans out to harvest food for the community. Some man the washing station while others forage through our planting beds for vegetable goodies. This week we sold a record 138 pounds of eggplant at the market! With all the different crops at the farm, the carrots remain the crop teens love to harvest. There is something about pulling bright orange veggies out of the earth that excites people every time. The teens are also learning market skills: how to arrange a pleasing array of vegetables on the table; how to welcome people to the farm; and how to entice someone to buy a vegetable she may not have tasted before.

Work on the farm provides all kinds of new adventures for these youth. Horticulture workshops on compost and soil health provide the perfect opportunity to turn the compost bin and see what's brewing in there. A field trip to our 50-hen chicken coop at Imani Garden allows the youth to hold a chicken for the first time and investigate what kind of habitat is required to keep our urban chickens happy. And yes, they also cleaned out the coop much to the delight of our ladies.

We have three main curriculum series on the farm this summer, horticulture , food justice , and communication workshops, as well as field work within the food community. In our first food justice workshop, teens studied ingredients in processed foods and did a taste test between Wonder Bread and bread that they baked from scratch. After the taste test, there was a lot of Wonder Bread still on the table while our homemade bread was completely devoured. Part of the teens field work was to discover how many of their favorite fruits and veggies were available in the neighborhood's bodegas and markets. Check out the teens and their reactions to doing a neighborhood food survey with the Brooklyn Food Coalition Mapping Committee.

We are looking forward to another productive four weeks with the youth. Stay tuned as they introduce themselves on this blog and report on their recent field work.

We are still looking for sponsors to help with community meal items such as olive oil and vinegar as well as transportation for the teens to visit an upstate farm. Please consider helping out in any way you can.

NY Times, on our workshop for Children Tomorrow

2010-07-17T18:17:00.001-07:00

For many New York City children, handling chicken means grabbing a nugget and swiping it through a trail of barbecue sauce. But on Sunday young residents will have a chance to pick up chickens that have never been near a stove — and never will.

The feathered and nonfeathered friends will meet at “Fun With Chickens!,” a workshop from the nonprofit New York Restoration Project, which reclaims city parks and gardens. One of the project’s sites, the Schenectady Avenue Community Garden in Brooklyn, now welcomes strutting hens — 49 of them — as well as strolling New Yorkers...

Read the full posting Here