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)

Serviceberry bush on Church Avenue

Brooklyn Native Plants Tour May 15th, Spring Planting at the Garden May 21st, and Celebration with Flatbush Farm Share CSA June 8th!

Thanks to all who came out for our first spring planting at the garden on April 30th! We were able to score some beautiful native plants from the 12th Annual Wildflower and Native Plant Sale at Westchester Community College for the first installation of the Church Avenue streetscape, including a beautiful Serviceberry (Amelanchier) bush. The edible garden also looks great, and we’ve now planted okra, cauliflower, collards, cherry peppers, green beans, and more in sub-irrigated planters created from reclaimed materials!

There are several exciting events in the works for the garden over the next month, please save the dates! Events will take place at the backyard space of the Flatbush Reformed Church, at Kenmore Terrace and East 21st Street, unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, May 15th, 12-3pm

special off-site event: Native Plant Garden Tour

As part of NYC Wildflower Week, our own Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener), Director of Sustainable Flatbush’s Urban Gardens and Farms Initiative, will partner with Compost for Brooklyn to provide a tour of two native plant gardens in the neighborhood. The self-guided tour begins at Compost for Brooklyn, Newkirk Avenue and East 8th street, and continues to Chris’s home garden.
Register here for this free event (and for directions).

Planting the Church Avenue streetscape

Saturday, May 21st, 11am-4pm

Spring Planting and Potluck: Native Plants Edition!!!

Join us for a special spring planting day and potluck meal!

This is our second installation of spring planting days at the the Church Avenue Communal Garden. We’ll focus on beautifying the Church Avenue streetscape and preserving our urban ecosystem with plants that are native to the New York City region.

Enjoy a beautiful day outdoors at the historic Flatbush Reformed Church! A composting demonstration and workshop will be held from 11-12. Bring food or drinks to share with your fellow gardeners.

Wednesday, June 8th, 4-8pm

Spring Planting Celebration and Potluck with the Flatbush FarmShare CSA!
Join us for a potluck social at the Church Avenue Communal Garden to celebrate our spring plantings and the first day of the season for the Flatbush Farm Share CSA! We’ll have info tables, wine tastings, live music, and more. Bring finger food and/or drinks to share.

See you at the garden!

(photos courtesy of Alexandra Corrazza)

The Church Avenue Communal Garden is a new community garden located on the grounds of the historic Flatbush Reformed Church property at Church and Flatbush Avenues. The project is a partnership between Sustainable Flatbush and the Flatbush Reformed Church, and will include a rain garden and community space, an edible garden, and a native plant streetscape along Church Avenue. As we begin our first planting season this spring, the garden will become a community space for Flatbush residents to participate in workshops and events around nutrition, composting, container gardening, native plants, and local food, including special activities for youth. For more information email emily@sustainableflatbush.org or call 718.208.0575. Come get your hands dirty with us!

Choosing Seeds (photo by Alexandra Corrazza)

Join us on June 8th for a Spring Festival and Potluck Social at the Church Avenue Communal Garden to celebrate our new spring plantings and compost system, and the Flatbush Farm Share CSA‘s first produce distribution of the season!

After just a few months our newly-established community garden project at the Flatbush Reformed Church has a lot of accomplishments to celebrate: planning meetings and workdays that have engaged dozens of community and church members; an after-school gardening program for youth; the beginnings of a native plant streetscape on Church Avenue; a vegetable garden growing in containers made from recycled materials; and a 3-bin compost system we’ll use to create our own soil amendments as well as for community composting education.

Now that the school year is ending and the CSA season is beginning, we wanted to create an opportunity for youth (as well as other neighbors) to learn about the CSA and CSA members to learn about the garden; so we’re co-hosting a Spring Festival and Potluck with lots of fun activities. We’ll have ice-breakers and nametags to help mingling, and Sustainable Flatbush and CSA core-volunteers will be there to host.

Everyone is welcome to this family-friendly community event, come celebrate with us!

WHERE:
Flatbush Reformed Church backyard
East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace
Brooklyn, NY  11226

WHEN:
Wednesday, June 8th (not June 1st as originally announced!)
4 – 8pm

ACTIVITIES:
–Info tables and workshop topics will include community gardening, composting, recycled art, CSA volunteering and more!
–Wine tasting provided by CSA wine supplier T.B. Ackerson Wine Merchants
–Live music (to be announced)

WHAT TO BRING:
–Please bring some finger food and/or drinks to share. Any cups, plates, utensils, or napkins as needed would be welcome.
–A picnic blanket might be helpful to set up your goodies.
–If you choose to make something, you might like to include a recipe card and info on whether the food is vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free etc.
–CSA members, don’t forget your grocery bags and egg cartons, since you’ll be picking up your veggies/extra shares too.

Come for a tour of the garden, check out the CSA (it’s not too late to join!), and make new friends!

Grass-fed cattle at Grazin' Angus Acres

I learned many things but most importantly: cows as herbivores evolved to eat and digest grass – not corn.  Eating grass as they evolved to do, cows produce less greenhouse gases, and is way more efficient than conventional meat production.  While grass-fed beef is environmentally sustainable, but it’s not yet financially sustainable for independent farmers who do it.  On day one, we watched a documentary called “Green Beef” that highlighted the scientific and culinary importance of sustainably produced cattle. On day two, I learned that conscious beef is expensive to produce but does not have lucrative results for the chief executives. Dan told me that the farmers spend all summer and early autumn preparing for the winter months when fresh food for the cattle and his family are both in short supply. I get to purchase great meat like other New Yorkers at local Greenmarkets. That’s lessening our carbon footprint, and helping Dan and Susan Gibson meet their bottom line, but it’s not enough.

Now the foundation is laid, and we know what we need to do in order to ensure both the environmental and financial sustainability of our agricultural system:  

Carnivores, eat grass-fed beef!

Thank you Dan and Susan Gibson for your generous hospitality and warmth.

Brooklyn Dirt: Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening.

Talk Three: Composting Inside and Outdoors

With Speakers Jenny Blackwell (NYC Compost Project) and Pieranna Pieroni (Brooklyn College)

April 20th, 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)

——-

Jenny Blackwell is project manager for the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Horticulture Certificate Program. A composting fanatic, she has worked with composting systems at Added Value, the Hollenback Community Garden, BBG, and the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy, as well as the myriad systems that Brooklyn’s backyards and community gardens have to offer.

Pieranna Pieroni is a Brooklyn Botanic Garden-trained Master Composter and educator (with a worm bin in her office at Brooklyn College) who works with New York City public school students around school-community gardening and ecoliteracy.

Talk Two: Garden Design
With Speakers Tom Angotti with Jesse Alter (Hunter College) and Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener)

March 16th, 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)

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Tom Angotti and Jesse Alter led a group to Cuba in January that studied urban agriculture and organic farming. Tom teaches urban planning at Hunter College and helped start Prospect Farm in Brooklyn. Jesse is a graduate student at Hunter and works at the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.

Chris Kreussling (aka Flatbush Gardener) 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.
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 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 serve our community. Prospect Farm is the community leader for the Kensington/Windsor Terrace neighborhood group for the Brooklyn Food Coalition.
http://prospectfarm.org/

Greening Flatbush 2011 – held this past Sunday, February 27th – was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came out and to everyone at the workshop tables.  We had an amazing turn out, over 100 participants!

After much time and effort put into decorating and preparing our room at the Flatbush YMCA, we were able to sit back and enjoy all the great knowledgeable people who came to do workshops! From learning how to grow our own mushrooms, planting using plastic bottles, learning about urban farms in the area, the new garden to be opened on Church Avenue, sprouting our own seeds, how to make the best use of trees in our area, and the oh-so-popular Earth Dumplings,  it was a day packed with exciting info.  Attendees enjoyed a great raffle and snacks and a fun time was had by all.

If you missed out we hope to see you next year and once again thanks to everyone involved!

Click here for more photos from this year’s Greening Flatbush!

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WHEN:
Sunday, February 27th, 2-5pm

WHERE:
Flatbush YMCA
1401 Flatbush Avenue (at Rogers Avenue)
Brooklyn, NY  11210

CONFIRMED PRESENTATIONS:
Church Avenue Communal Garden
How To Cultivate Mushrooms In Your Apartment with EcoAntworks
Start Your Own Seedling(s)
DIY Soda Bottle Planters
Brooklyn College Soil Lab
Flatbush Farm Share CSA
Compost for Brooklyn! community composting project
Gardening for Children with Emily Goodman
Lefferts Community Food Coop
Prospect Farm
Vermicomposting with Pieranna Pieroni, Master Composter

more to come!

Fast "Food"

The purpose of the event was to address the environmental and food injustices that plague our city and impede it from realizing its true equitable potential. We were there to not only realize the racial and economic disparities in health care (and, by extension, our food system), but we were there to elicit change – to empower ourselves with the ammunition of knowledge to change the system in solidarity with disadvantaged New Yorkers.

Every eloquent speaker further equipped us with the tools we needed to collectively dismantle New York City’s incompetent food system that is allegedly “subsidizing diabetes.” The minister invoked the fundamental principles of the Summit by praying for “the dismantling of the unjust societies that we enjoy which lead to the marginalization of poor people in economically disadvantaged communities.” The singer employed the egalitarian theme of the summit in songs that denounce environmental, economical, racial, and social inequities that results in the unequal stratification of wealth, power, and access to healthy affordable food.

Real Food

There was also a dynamic spoken word by Christopher Cero about building a just city in which we work in solidarity to build a food system that is healthy, accessible, and affordable. Cero says that this is the standard by NYC’s brilliance and magnificence will be evaluated. This spoken word entitled “Just a City” was a remarkable transition for the intuitive oration on food inequality in NYC by the former pastor of The Riverside Church in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

This summit served to unite people that are forced to dance with food inequality by economic disadvantages and people protected from marginalization by food security.

Lila Watson said, “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, we can walk together.” The inherent inequalities in NYC’s food system cannot be fixed by people who are not connected with the significance of ensuring food justice. I do not wish to deter anyone from drafting legislation to help the people marginalized by all sorts of inequality, but if there is not solidarity amongst the “haves and have nots” attempting to elicit change then the food justice movement might be in vain.