sustainableflatbush.org

Bed-Stuy Blog reports that an Urban Farm Tour of community gardens in Brooklyn will be on the itinerary of visitors from the United Nations:

For two weeks in May, delegates from across the world will be visiting NYC as part of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. This is the first year of a two-year cycle in which the United Nations sets its policies on sustainable development. Agriculture is one of the major themes before the Commission.

New York City is a model for innovative urban food systems and agriculture projects, and the City Farms Tour will highlight several sites in Brooklyn, including sites in [Bed-Stuy]. We invite you to come out and be part of this exciting moment, when community-based food projects in your district are receiving international attention.

Hattie Carthan Community Garden (photo from BedStuy Blog)

The Tour will be held on May 10th (tomorrow!) and is open to the public. The announcement above is from the folks at Hattie Carthan Community Garden, which is part of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, a cultural and environmental institution founded in 1972 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other gardens featured on the tour are the Hollenback Community Garden in Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy Farm/Brooklyn Rescue Mission, and East New York Farms. Cooking, vermicomposting, and urban beekeeping workshops will be held along with tours of the sites.

photo by Flatbush Gardener

When I attended last year’s Brooklyn Blogfest at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Sustainable Flatbush had been online for only a few weeks. Most of the names and people and language of the blogging world were very new to me, everyone at the event seemed to be from Fort Greene or Prospect Heights, and covering Atlantic Yards was the primary reason for many of the blogs’ existence.

This year’s Blogfest (held at the Brooklyn Lyceum) was much larger and more diverse, and the one topic we could all agree on was that the word “blog” has become inadequate to describe the many different forms an online journal can take. Brooklyn blogs range from highly trafficked sites that specialize in real estate trends to painfully personal virtual diaries, and everything in between. Text, drawings, photos, and video are all part of the expressive palette, and Brooklyn bloggers wield these tools with great expertise, creativity, and humor. It’s a pretty impressive bunch. Did I mention that I had a great time?

Like a true sustainability geek, I was thrilled to meet the Chair of Brooklyn’s Solid Waste Advisory Board and chat briefly about anaerobic digestion. But mostly it was great to get introduced to new people/blogs such as Brooklyn Ron, CyclechicNY, and Gardenfork; to see the faces behind recent favorites like Clinton Hill Chill Blog, BedStuy Banana, and Flatbush Pigeon; and to hang out with the folks from Reclaimed Home, Fading Ad Blog, and those perky youngsters from Supervegan. A lovely evening, and an inspiration to continue with this adventure of blogging.

This evening was the Flatbush Food Coop’s Members Only Sneak Preview event, and the new store looks amazing! (No, I did not get a blogger’s press pass… I’m a member.) It is spacious and well-stocked, with an expanded bulk foods section - including flours, grains, fair trade coffee, and herbs and spices - and deli/takeout counter. The public “soft” opening will be later this week, with an official Grand Opening on May 18th. (Expect Marty Markowitz to show up for a photo op.)

Many people do not realize that this neighborhood institution has been around for decades, as their motto “Organic Since 1976″ states. It was originally 11 volunteer members operating out of a residence, then moved into a spot on Avenue H and East 16th, and for many years had been in its very cramped quarters on Cortelyou Road between Argyle and Rugby. The Coop’s new location, right across from the Q line Cortelyou subway stop, represents many months of effort on the part of staff, members, and the board. Congratulations to them and I look forward to shopping there!

Rebecca’s container gardening demonstration

Last Sunday’s event, “Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are” was a huge success! The Sustainable Flatbush Gardening Committee assembled a stellar program of speakers and demonstrations on topics including Container Gardening, Urban Composting, Street Trees, Permaculture and more.

Mela and Sandra talk trees

Karla advocates for worm composting

We can’t wait for spring to get our hands dirty and start planting up the neighborhood!

Here’s some great news for fans of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and fresh locally produced food in general:

Amantai Farm CSA is coming to Flatbush!

Shayna Lewis, last year’s market manager at the Cortelyou Rd. farmers’ market, is working with one of the farmers from that market, Jorge Carmona from Amantai Farm, to start a CSA in the neighborhood. They’ve already got 20 members signed up and their goal is 40. Here are some of the details from Shayna:

The share includes enough vegetables for a family of 4 for the week. Amantai Farm is not certified organic, but does not spray anything on their vegetables, which in my opinion makes them better than the certified organic farms who spray organic pesticides and fertilizers. It’s definitely a good deal for anyone interested in local and organic. Jorge will be doing just vegetables (and melons). In the spring he’ll have salad greens, spinach, peas, herbs, etc. moving into summer squash, cucumbers, a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, cilantro, sweet and hot peppers, summer greens, onions, potatoes etc into winter squashes, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, etc. He does produce honey and will provide it for CSA members at a discount.

DROP-OFFS: Saturdays will not work as a drop-off day, so we are going to pick either a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon/evening to deliver the shares to your house, or to have you pick them up at a to-be-determined location if you live too far away or you’d rather pick up. If anyone has a preference for or against any one of these days, let me know and I’ll try to make it work for everyone the best way we can. Get back to me as soon as possible.

CHECKS: Please mail your checks/money orders made out to Jorge Carmona to:
Jorge Carmona
10039 Ziegels Church Rd.
Breinigsville, PA 18031
All checks should have arrived by mid-April, so you have some time, just don’t forget :). The cost is $400 for basic participation, add $60 to include a dozen eggs weekly, $30 for a half dozen. Eggs can also be ordered weekly. For a half-share, cost is $200.

SPREAD THE WORD: We now have about 20 members, but are going for 40. Please, tell any one you think might be interested. Feel free to give them my email address.

REQUEST VEGETABLES: Now is the time to request anything that Jorge is not already planning on planting. Most seed orders have to be in in the next three weeks, so speak now or forever hold your peas (sorry for the bad pun).

For further info, contact Shayna at shayna.lewis [at] gmail.com.

Shayna will also be speaking about Amantai Farm CSA and Community Supported Agriculture at this weekend’s Greening Flatbush event.

2007 was the first fully operation year for Sustainable Flatbush, and I must say we accomplished a lot. Starting with our Kickoff Meeting on March 16th at Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore, the goal was to find people in the neighborhood who wanted to work on sustainability issues locally. To my amazement, 25 people braved a blizzard to attend this event, and we had a great discussion where some common interests and goals were defined. (Full disclosure: to boost attendance I scheduled this event one week after my birthday and combined it with a party… but at least half the people there were new faces to me!)

Park(ing) Day on Cortelyou Road (story below!). Photo by Keka

For our second event we celebrated Bike Month with a program of Streetfilms (curated by yours truly) and a guest appearance by their creator Clarence Eckerson. In keeping with our theme of overcoming weather challenges, Clarence’s flight from the West Coast was delayed by severe rains and while waiting for him we conducted a discussion on Congestion Pricing with Livable Streets luminaries Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives and Aaron Naparstek of Streetsblog. Clarence’s honorarium was a vegan cupcake.

Event #3, an Urban Permaculture Lecture with former Flatbush residents Wilton Duckworth and Joan Ewing of Green Phoenix, packed Vox Pop with permaculture enthusiasts who exchanged ideas on how to apply this sustainable design practice to city living.

Then we worked with Lower East Side Ecology Center to create the first e-waste recycling event south of Prospect Park: Cortelyou Road Electronics Recycling diverted a truck full of discarded technology (and its accompanying toxins) from the landfill. Many thanks to Christina Datz-Romero for her pioneering work to make New York City more sustainable through LESEC’s recycling and composting programs, and for helping me stake out the perfect spot to park the big red dumpster.

In July we teamed up with the Green Edge Collective for Event #4, Eating Sustainably: a meetup and discussion on Sustainable Food. The Green Edge ladies, known for their Eco-Eatery tours and Supper Club community potlucks, kept the discussion lively as topics ranged from healthy food shopping to plastic bags to the environmental implications of consumption. Lots of food for thought (ouch).

I spent most of August on the West Coast, playing music, visiting family, and touring Oregon’s Willamette Valley by bicycle with a group of sustainability-minded vegans. Who knew quinoa was such a useful grain?

We started Autumn off right by participating in the neighborhood’s biggest street festival, the Flatbush Frolic, with a table full of materials promoting recycling. Eve Martinez from the Department of Sanitation’s NYC WasteLess program brought her full compliment of recycling stickers, brochures, posters, and fridge magnets. (What’s a street fair without fridge magnets?) We got to know our neighbors and I scored my new favorite T-shirt.

On September 21st Park(ing) Day was celebrated all over New York City, the U.S., and Planet Earth… including right here in Flatbush. We occupied a parking space and created a park for the day, complete with real grass, trees, a bench, art supplies, live music… and lots of people, especially kids! (See photo above.) Naturally Streetfilms covered this event, and Cortelyou Road Park is featured in their piece… check it out! This event’s special thanks go to Lindsey Lusher of Transportation Alternatives, who coordinated resources and information for almost two dozen sites all over NYC, and especially to Keka Marzagão, without whom Cortelyou Road Park simply would not have been possible! In addition to providing every possible form of support (moral, creative, physical), Keka insisted that we have real grass, which provided endless wonderment and joy to everyone who visited our park.

Okay, so in October we recuperated. By November we were ready to kick off a whole new level of activities with our Town Hall Meeting. 25 people attended (our magic number, perhaps!), and six committees were established, each with specific goals and projects. We are now holding monthly meetings where newcomers can get involved and committees report on their plans. 2008 already looks exciting, with the R3 Committee’s Post-Holiday Electronics Recycling Event coming up this weekend, the Gardening Committee planning a Spring event in conjunction with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Livable Streets Committee working on a Transportation Conference with Center for the Study of Brooklyn and Transportation Alternatives.

That’s the news for 2007. Much much more to come…

Special Thanks (in order of appearance):
Keka Marzagão (website/logo design, photos, VJ, chief co-instigator)
Jeff Duneman (DJ Drummerman, groove provider for Events #1-3)
Sander Hicks and the staff of Vox Pop
Cacao Arcoverde and Ileana Santamaria (musical magic for Event #3)
Susan Siegel and everyone at Flatbush Development Corporation
Clarence Eckerson and all at Streetfilms
Christina Datz-Romero (Lower East Side Ecology Center)
Carolyn Gilles and the Green Edge Collaborative
Lindsey Lusher (Transportation Alternatives)
Eve Martinez (NYC Department of Sanitation)
Mark Levy (host of Sustainable Flatbush Mothership)
Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener)
Eli Kramer (Brooklyn Junction blog)
Gretchen Maneval (Center for the Study of Brooklyn)
Cycleliciousness blog (inspiration for a bike-friendly NYC)
The Flatbush community for supporting our green future
Brooklyn bloggers for setting high standards of journalism, neighborhood pride, and humor
YOU… for reading

Science Barge - Powered By Nature!, originally uploaded by Sustainable Flatbush.

Finally visited the Science Barge during GreenHome NYC’s Green Buildings Open House.

The Science Barge is a sustainable urban farm. It demonstrates renewable energy supporting sustainable food production in New York City. The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff. Operating from May to October in 2007 and 2008, the Barge tours waterfront parks in Manhattan, hosting thousands of visitors and public school students.

For more photos of this event, check out the Sustainable Flatbush Flickr gallery.

“How I Spent My Summer Vacation” continues, with more photos and anecdotes from the sustainability bicycle tour I went on in August…

Maitreya Eco-village, Eugene, OR

The trip began in Eugene, where we camped for the first few nights at a place called Dharmalaya. This is a privately owned home with land that hosts a yoga and meditation studio and acts as a community center for concerts and educational events. It is also an experiment in sustainable living, with an organic garden, composting toilets, and greywater reuse system. (More on Dharmalaya, including their ups and downs with the Eugene zoning board, here.) We visited a community called Maitreya Eco-Village, where we received some lessons in green building techniques (specifically straw bale and cob construction) from founder and architect Rob Bolman. We dropped by the factory and showroom of Bike Friday, manufacturer of world-famous sublime folding bikes, and got to take a few for a spin around the parking lot. We also checked out Eugene’s Center for Appropriate Transport, which hosts a community bike workshop and educational programs that teach kids how to build and design bikes and bike accessories.

Center for Appropriate Transport, Eugene, OR

Once this show actually got on the road, the distances each day were pretty significant for my wimpy self. (One point of pride was that I did actually RIDE up the hilliest portion of the trip, albeit at approximately 1.5 miles per hour.) I discovered that I like traveling by bike very much, and am looking forward to doing more in the future. It’s a great way to see the countryside, silently self-propelled, while still actually covering some distance in the course of a day. The weather was fantastic and Oregon’s Willamette Valley is a beautiful place.

Willamette River Valley, Oregon

We camped at organic farms and spent some time with the farmers who shared the reality of their work and lives with our group, including some delicious produce! We got our hands a little dirty on these farms too (though I personally can’t claim to have been very useful). Seeing both the beauty and the difficulty of this life made me more determined than ever to support the people whose labor and dedication brings beautiful healthy food to the rest of us.

Cyndi gives her chickens lots of love!

Next: “How What I Did On My Summer Vacation Changed My Life”... for real!

Carolyn Gilles is a co-founder of the GreenEdge Collaborative, an event planner, and an organic chef. In this post she challenges herself and all of us to take some steps toward making our own lives more sustainable:

Be Mindfully Competitive with Yourself!

As some of you know, for the past 2+ years I’ve been studying and keeping up to date on the sustainable food situation (or lack thereof) and it has been my professional mission to share what I learn with my community. I believe that living by example is a strong tool for social change. I would like to encourage YOU to live by example with a “Sustainable Lifestyle Challenge”.

Recently, I have been studying the larger system of environmental and social sustainability. What initially comes to mind when thinking of the whole system is: What a mess! We, especially as Americans, have gotten ourselves into some serious trouble with Mother Nature. Global Warming is a hot topic right now and it’s becoming more and more fashionable to be “green.” While being fashionable can be fun and sexy, let us not forget the real issues at hand: mass consumption is out of control and has become synonymous with “a good life”; choosing leaders is a crucial part of creating a better future for our kids.

I am encouraging you to think about your consumption choices - where is your money going once you pass it over to the cashier, your waiter, or your banker? Think about the ripple effect of your actions and your wallet. In two words: Be Mindful.

To all readers of this blog, as well as the members of Green Edge NYC, for the next 6 weeks (end of August 2007) let’s take a moment each day to reflect on the choices we make and how they might affect our shared environment - physical and social.

The challenge is this: make a change in your daily life that will have astounding effects on our future sustainability. You could start taking your own coffee mug every day, take canvas bags to the grocery, rinse and reuse your small plastic produce bags, walk when you could take the bus, take the bus when you could drive, turn off your lights when you’re not in the room, unplug your appliances when they’re not in use, recycle, reuse glass jars, donate clothes, cook at home, eat less take-out, buy organic, support your local hardware store, buy less from “box stores”, take shorter showers, do some research on a company you buy from frequently, research your mayor or congressperson - the list can go on and on…

Let’s get the comment section of this blog going for discussion on how you plan to participate in the “Sustainable Lifestyle Challenge” and keep us updated on your progress.

My participation will include doing more research, walking more, and supporting smaller local businesses.

GOOD LUCK!

–
Carolyn Gilles
Food Lover and Event Planner
www.bluenotefoods.com