We are super-excited to partner with The Cookbook Project to create a free and healthy meal for the  whole community — that means YOU!

Enjoy a delicious FREE vegetarian meal prepared by community chefs and Alissa Bilfield of The Cookbook Project, along with lively conversation about local food systems, food waste and composting, and the environmental, health, and budget benefits of eating a plant-based diet.

We will provide a cost-per-plate breakdown to illustrate that tasty, healthy meals can also be affordable! Come for an opportunity to share, learn, and build relationships around sustainable living in our community.

WHAT: Sustainable Flatbush’s Community Meal: Healthy Eating on a Budget
WHEN: Saturday, January 28th, 12-2pm
WHERE: Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY [map]

Also – we are asking for donations of soup bowls for the church’s food program, which currently uses disposable styrofoam bowls.  If you can spare a reusable soup bowl, please bring one to donate!

(photo by Jason Reif)

Potluck Feast! (photo by Keka Marzagao)

Come to Sustainable Flatbush’s first annual Buy Nothing Day Community Meal on Black Friday (November 25) 2011!

Buy Nothing Day offers an alternative to the consumerist excess of Black Friday: a chance to unshop, unspend, and unwind. Bring a dish to share, or bring ingredients (Thanksgiving leftovers are great) and join the communal cooking fun! Meet your neighbors and join Sustainable Flatbush as we build a local sharing economy.

The idea is to create a space where people can come together to enjoy a healthy free meal, get to know each other, and exchange ideas on how we as a community can become more engaged in the transformation to a society that is more equal and sustainable. To plug out of the mainstream for a day, abandon the tradition of Black Friday that comes with excessive consumerism, and discuss real alternatives.

Hope to see you there!
WHAT:
Sustainable Flatbush first annual Buy Nothing Day Community Meal!

WHEN:
Friday November 25th from 6 until 8pm

WHERE:
All Souls Bethlehem Church
566 East 7th Street (between Cortelyou Road and Ditmas Avenue)
Brooklyn, NY
(map)

In 2008, due to budget cuts, the NYC Department of Sanitation discontinued its program to collect fall leaves for composting, instead taking them to landfills as garbage. A group of community gardeners felt that this was both an outrage and an opportunity, as anyone who composts knows that leaves are a valuable resource and shouldn’t be wasted! Residential leaves represent both a major addition (20,000 TONS) to the city’s waste management burden and a missed opportunity to create free, high-quality gardening fertilizer for NYC residents and community gardens.

In 2009 a citywide coalition called NYC Leaves was formed to keep fall leaves out of the waste stream by composting them at local community gardens through a program called Project LeafDrop. Locations to “recycle” leaves can be found all over the city. So don’t put your leaves on the curb where they’ll become trash; bring them to the nearest Project LeafDrop site, where the gardeners will thank you for your gift!

Sustainable Flatbush joined the NYC Leaves coalition in 2009, and since then we’ve diverted many tons of leaves from the landfill. Join us for Project LeafDrop 2011 at our new community garden project, the Church Avenue Communal Garden, located at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church! Our Community Composting program at the garden is growing, so we need your leaves!

Fun with leaves at the Church Avenue Communal Garden

We’ll accept leaves brought by neighbors and collect leaves from the church property, run as many as possible through a shredder, and store these carbon-rich “browns” for our winter compost collections.

WHAT: Project LeafDrop at the Church Avenue Communal Garden
WHERE: East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace, Brooklyn (map)
WHEN: Saturday November 19th from 11am until 2pm

We welcome volunteers for this project!

Project LeafDrop is a great opportunity to get your hands dirty at the garden and learn more about compost, gardening, and urban soil remediation. If you’d like to volunteer, contact us at volunteer@sustainableflatbush.org or 718-208-0575.

Here are some additional Project LeafDrop sites in Kensington, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Windsor Terrace:

Compost for Brooklyn
Newkirk Avenue at East 8th Street
Sunday November 20th
2-5pm

East 4th Street Community Garden
East 4th Street between Caton Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway
every Saturday and Sunday through November 20th
10am-12pm

High School for Public Service Youth Farm
600 Kingston between Rutland Road and Winthrop Street
Saturday November 19th
11am-4pm

Prospect Farm
Prospect Avenue below the Seeley Street Bridge
Saturdays through December 3rd
11am-1pm

“The planet has been stuck for too long with governments doing nothing about the biggest problem we’ve ever faced: the climate crisis,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the international climate campaign coordinating Moving Planet. “This is the day when people will get the earth moving, rolling towards the solutions we need.”

For this global day of climate action Sustainable Flatbush will focus on local solutions, by providing opportunities to learn and participate in a more sustainable future right here in our own neighborhood!

WHAT:
Moving Planet Sustainable Flatbush

WHERE:
Church Avenue Communal Garden at the Flatbush Reformed Church
East 21st Street and Kenmore Terrace, Brooklyn (map)

WHEN:
Saturday, September 24th 2011, 11am – 3pm

This event will take place rain or shine! If it’s raining hard we will keep the outdoor portions very brief and move inside the church house building (located in the center of the property).

Come join us, as we:

Kady and the composters (photo by Jocelyn Cohen)

Bump up the Compost!
Jump into hands-on education with Master Composter Kady Ferguson. We’ll collect and shred leaves (“browns”) for our 3-bin system, harvest finished compost, and add mulch to the garden beds. Learn how YOU can compost at home or here at our community compost site!

WHY COMPOST? Composting reduces waste by recycling organic matter that would otherwise be  considered garbage (food scraps, yard trimmings, etc.) into a nutrient-rich soil amendment through natural decomposition. That means fewer methane-producing landfills, fewer pollution-spewing garbage trucks, and more locally-generated rich fertilizer for NYC community gardens!

Blue Wood Aster (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Go Native… native plants, that is!

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener) will lead a tour of our native plant garden, explain the benefits of gardening with native species, and teach us how to identify native plants (and distinguish them from weeds).

WHY NATIVE PLANTS? Native plants provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies, and other desirable wildlife, even in urban settings. Native plants save water and energy (including your energy!). Because they have adapted to local conditions, once established they are hardy and require no additional watering or maintenance. That means no need for fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides!

SunBike! (photo by Keka Marzagão)

Show Renewable Energy in Action with the SunBike!

The Sustainable Flatbush SunBike is a mobile off-grid solar energy system that travels around on a cargo bike. We use it to provide power for outdoor events and activities – from street fairs to garden work days! The SunBike shows that clean, renewable energy can be a reality right now.

WHY SOLAR?
Renewable energy sources are a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. In New York City, solar could potentially provide 49.7% of the current estimated daytime peak demand and about 14% of the city’s total annual electricity use (NY Times). That means a significant reduction in NYC’s greenhouse gas emissions!

Spring Celebration potluck (photo by Keka Marzagã

Finish the day with a Potluck lunch!
Bring something tasty to share. Potlucks are a great way to meet your neighbors and build a resilient community.

WHY A POTLUCK?
It’s fun!

We will also have a photo and graphic display including information about 350.org and Sustainable Flatbush’s work, and an exhibit of climate-themed photos by Diane Lent.

About 350.org
350.org is an international climate campaign named after the safe upper concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million. Right now, the atmosphere contains 392 ppm of CO2. Scientists say immediate action is necessary to address the crisis.

Every year since 2007, we’ve  transformed the same parking space on the corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads in Brooklyn into a public park (with real grass!) and day-long festival on Park(ing) Day. Park(ing) Day is an annual international event where citizens, artists and activists around the world collaborate to temporarily transform parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: public places for a day.

This year Sustainable Flatbush will celebrate our success in turning the vision of PARK(ing) Day into a year-round reality! We’ve created a partnership with the newly-formed group Friends of Cortelyou Library and NYC Department of Transportation to install benches and planters in front of the library so it can serve as a permanent public space for relaxation, reflection and friendship. Park(ing) Day 2011 will feature activities for all ages including a puppet show, live music, art projects, a writing workshop, and even a hula hooping class! We’ll present information about our projects in the neighborhood and interactive workshops on how to live more sustainably in the city, with topics such as composting, gardening with native plants, renewable energy with the SunBike (before it heads off to Maker Faire for the weekend!) and more!

Playing cards at Cortelyou Road Park, 2010 (photo by Keka Marzagão)

The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat. For four years we’ve brought this discussion to the heart of Brooklyn by creating Cortelyou Road Park in front of the Cortelyou Library. The library’s plaza had no seating or other amenities, but since 2007 our temporary park has spilled into the plaza and transformed it into a vibrant urban oasis on Park(ing) Day.

Park(ing) Day is an opportunity to create a community gathering place, and to make a statement about how we utilize public space. In our neighborhood, despite all the beautiful homes and lawns and gardens, the amount of publicly accessible green space per person is much lower than the city average*. On Park(ing) Day we take 160 square feet of concrete that would normally be occupied by one automobile, and transform it into something magical that is enjoyed by hundreds of people, a place where neighbors can interact and build community.

Stop by on Friday September 16th to celebrate the newly revitalized Cortelyou Library Plaza with us!

• Check here for the day’s events schedule.
• If you’d like to volunteer for this event, please email us or call 718-208-0575.

Puppet show at Park(ing) Day 2010 (photo by Keka Marzagão)

WHAT:

Park(ing) Day 2011

WHEN:

Friday, September 16th, from 8am to 6pm

WHERE:

in front of the Cortelyou Library, corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads

If you have questions about this event, please email info@sustainableflatbush.org or call 718-208-0575

* Source: Municipal Arts Society’s Imagine Flatbush 2030 report

Our winning entry in the Empire State Solar Generation photo contest!

This means it can be seen on a digital billboard in Times Square, along with the other winning entries, through July 24th! The New York Times Green blog also features our photo in a post about NYC’s solar potential. Background on Vote Solar’s campaign for the New York Solar Jobs Act of 2011 is available here.

The photo collage, by Keka Marzagão, features Solar Team intern Kimberly White with the SunBike and its solar panels.

The SunBike was conceived by Sustainable Flatbush Energy Solutions Project Manager Jocelyn Cohen, and built with support from ConEd.

On Wednesday, June 15th, Prospect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush are proud to present Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Dirt Talk Five: Permaculture

With Speakers Dan Miner and Olga Kuchukov

June 15th, 2011

7 – 9:30 pm

Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+

1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)

$5 suggested donation (proceeds benefit Sustainable Flatbush & Prospect Farm)

——-

Dan Miner has been involved with a variety of urban sustainability projects as a volunteer organizer with Post Carbon Institute and the Peak Oil NYC Meetup, and as past Chair of Sierra Club NYC. He wrote a 2008 report about how NYC can expand support for its climate change initiatives by preparing for higher and more volatile energy prices, and recently promoted the City’s white roof painting project in western Queens, referring 15 buildings to the program. At his day job, he assists Queens businesses as SVP of Long Island City Partnership. Dan completed a Permaculture Design Certificate program at Hancock Permaculture Center. He will discuss how the Transition movement’s organizing model and permaculture can be applied to NYC, and next steps in urban agriculture.
www.beyondoilnyc.org.

Olga Kuchukov has lived 34 plus years in NYC wondering why things are the way they are and how can they be better. As a massage therapist and solo sustainability warrior, she understands that change will come with a deep integration of thoughtful intention and habit, along with a healthy dose of practical new skills. After tuning in to the reality of our oil-dependent life, she traveled to Australia to help her friends who are building a transition town situation on their 6-acre property an hour north of Melbourne. She also visited the 2.5 acre food forest home of the co-originator of permaculture, David Holgrem. She will present her impressions along with viewings from the instructional DVD, Establishing a Food Forest with Geoff Lawton.

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.
http://sustainableflatbush.org/

Prospect Farm is a community group in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot, with the mission toward creating a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that can feed and serve our community.
http://prospectfarm.org

Proud Gardeners at Church Avenue Streetscape (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

This Saturday, June 4th, from 11am-4pm, Sustainable Flatbush will greatly expand the native plant gardens already underway at the Church Avenue Communal Garden at the Flatbush Reformed Church.

Native Columbine (photo by Flatbush Gardener)

Not only is this a rare chance to break ground on a native plant garden that will benefit the Flatbush community for decades to come (learn why here), it’s an opportunity to learn about plants native to our area, the many benefits they provide, and how they can be used in gardens.

Thanks to a very generous donation from the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation, this week we’ll be receiving more than 390 individual plants of over a dozen species propagated from wild populations around NYC. We will need a BIG turnout on Saturday to clear weeds, prepare planting beds, and get the plants in the ground! That means, we need YOU!

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener), Director of our Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative, will be there to share his abundant knowledge of native plants and their important role in New York City’s ecosystem. So this is a great opportunity to get your hands dirty, help beautify a historic site in the heart of Flatbush, AND gain some knowledge about our urban environment. You know you don’t want to miss this one!

WHAT: BIG Native Planting Day at the Church Avenue Communal Garden!
WHEN: Saturday, June 4th, 11am-4pm
WHERE: Church Avenue Communal Garden at the Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue (enter at East 21st Street and Kenmore Terrace)

Hope to see you there!

Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Talk Four: Native Plants

with Speakers Mariellé Anzelone (Executive Director, Founder, NYC Wildflower Week) and Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener)

May 18th, 2011 from 7 – 9:30 pm Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+

1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)

$5 suggested donation (proceeds benefit Sustainable Flatbush & Prospect Farm)

——-

Mariellé Anzelone, Executive Director, Founder of NYC Wildflower Week

Marielle Anzelone is a botanist, urban conservation biologist and native plant landscape designer. The idea for NYC Wildflower Week was born of her desire to share her love of flora and create an posse of passionate plant people. Prior to this, she was the Plant Ecologist for NYC Department of Parks’ Natural Resources Group for nearly 7 years. Her op-ed on the extinct flora of New York City was recently featured in The New York Times.
http://nycwildflowerweek.org/about.html

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardner)

Chris Kreussling is a garden coach with more than 30 years gardening experience in NYC. Chris is also the Director of the Urban Gardens and Farms initiative of Sustainable Flatbush and a community member of the Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities advisory board, a project of the Cornell Waste Management Institute.

Over the past 6 years, Chris has transformed a dusty, weedy backyard into a garden oasis of over 60 species of native trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses and wildflowers. He’s documented the process on his gardening blog, Flatbush Gardener.
http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.
http://sustainableflatbush.org/

Prospect Farm is a community group in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot, with the mission toward creating a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm that can serve the commmunity.
http://prospectfarm.org