So far this year our Compost Project has diverted over 1,000 pounds of organic waste from the landfill! We collect kitchen scraps at our Community Compost Dropoffs every Saturday from 11am – 1pm. Want to learn how to turn trash into nature’s best soil amendment? Join our Compost Team! No experience necessary, we’ll teach you everything you need to know. Contact Kady Ferguson - kady(at)sustainableflatbush(dot)org – to learn more.

WHAT: Gardening and Composting
WHEN: Saturdays 9:30 – 12:30 (garden open hours), 11am – 1pm (compost open hours)
WHERE: Flatbush Reformed Church Complex, East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace [map]

See you at the garden!

Photos by Sheryll Durrant

Over 30 groups/organizations (more than half of them from our own Flatbush neighborhood!) will be present with hands-on activities/demos to talk about their projects or simply share a skill with you! (See a partial list below.)

We’re also super-excited to be honoring the 300 East 25th Street Block Association, aka The Greenest Block in Brooklyn!

300 E25th Street aka The Greenest Block in Brooklyn!

Sustainable Flatbush will give workshops on Gardening with Native Plants, Urban Composting, and Solar for Community Gardens and Backyards. Come and learn something new with us!

Here are just a few of the amazing folks who are coming, and what they’ll be presenting:

BK Farmyards – Urban Chickens Guessing Game
596 Acres- Your Vacant Land
Freegan Gardening – Waste Not, Want Not: free and almost free ways to improve your diet
Compost for Brooklyn – Composting with Worms
Newkirk Cares Collaborative – DIY Tree Guards
Tsuh Yang Chen – The Houseplant Doctor is IN!
Flatbush Food Coop – Special Diet Foods and Sustainable Household Products
718 Collective – preview of “Salt & Vinegar: A Food Preservation Series”
The POOP Project – Turning Waste to Resource: Brown is the New Green
Crown Heights Farmshare – Fast Food vs. Healthy Food
Flatbush Farm Share CSA – Spend Your Money Wisely
Office of NYC Councilmember Jumaane Williams – Participatory Budgeting in the 45th District

We’ll finish the day with live music from Gaitambo and a delicious vegan Community Meal cooked by local chefs!

Don’t miss this one! We’ll see you there!

Greening Flatbush is free, with a suggested donation of $10 for the event and the community meal.

WHEN:

Sunday, March 25, 2012
2pm–7pm (Community Meal starts at 5)

WHERE:
Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue [map]
(corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues)

Let us know you’re coming! Please RSVP!

Greening Flatbush is back, Sunday March 25th. Get involved!

Sustainable Flatbush will host our 4th annual Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are, on Sunday, March 25th at 2pm.

The event will be held at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church, host of our compost and gardening initiatives, located on Flatbush and Church Avenues.

This year, Greening Flatbush promises to be better than ever — an event the entire family can participate in and enjoy. Our annual extravaganza celebrating community gardening, neighborhood greening, and urban agriculture will feature, from 2 – 5pm, hands-on workshops, interactive demos, DIY projects, creative arts, and live entertainment, presented by Sustainable Flatbush and a curated roster of community-based groups. The day will culminate in a delicious Community Meal from 5 until 7pm.

What’s New at Greening Flatbush 2012

In addition to interactive displays from a wide variety of community organizations (check out info and photos from last year’s event!), Sustainable Flatbush will offer workshops on Gardening with Native Plants, Composting, Community Engagement, and Solar for Community Gardens.

There will be live entertainment and a delicious meal prepared for the whole community. Like our first Community Meal on January 28, which attracted over 120 people, this is an opportunity for neighbors to meet neighbors and to share, learn, and build relationships around sustainable living in our communities.

Why We Do It

Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are engages and empowers people from all over Brooklyn and beyond to participate in creating sustainable urban neighborhoods. Our goal is for YOU to discover (or create!) a project within walking distance of your home where you can get involved in making your community greener — whether it’s by learning to compost, joining a CSA or community garden, adopting a tree, or growing flowers on your windowsill!

While bringing more visibility and participants to sustainable neighborhood-based projects, Greening Flatbush will also be a great opportunity for all of us to get acquainted with like-minded organizations and people, form partnerships, and strengthen the growing network of environmental stewardship in Brooklyn.

You can be part of this event!
Click here for information on how to get involved as a volunteer or sponsor.

Greening Flatbush is free, with a suggested donation of $10 for the event and the community meal.

Details

WHAT:
Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are
WHEN:
Sunday, March 25, 2 – 7 pm
WHERE:
Flatbush Reformed Church
890 Flatbush Avenue (corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues) [map]

Let us know you’re coming! Please RSVP here.

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