• November 17
• December 1
• December 15
• January 5
• January 19
• February 2

These Saturdays coincide with the Flatbush Farm Share CSA‘s winter share distribution. Check our calendar for last-minute updates before coming out in the cold!

WHAT
Winter Compost Hours 2012-2013

WHEN
Every other Saturday (see list above for exact dates, check our calendar for any updates)
10am – 12noon

WHERE
Flatbush Reformed Church property [map]

TIP Carrying food scraps in a reusable (and rinsable) container means no yucky plastic bag to get rid of at the garden!

NOT SURE WHAT YOU CAN COMPOST? See the list of What To Compost  to get started.

The post Compost Open Hours for Winter 2012-2013 appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

Our compost is HOT!

Summer is such a great time to make compost! With the warm weather in full swing, all the summer veggie scraps from Flatbush Farm CSA members and kitchen waste from the Flatbush Reformed Church’s meal program have been sizzling in our bins.

We were wondering exactly how hot the compost piles really were, so we decided to put our guesses aside and put a compost thermometer to use.  Maintaining high temperatures is critical for composting quickly, and this 19” stainless steel probe makes it easy to monitor the temperatures at the center of our piles; turns out they are averaging 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and 160 degrees Fahrenheit at peak.  Since bacterias work best at 120 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, we could easily tell when the compost needed more oxygen or when it was cooling down, and ensure that bacteria are working at optimal temperatures, saving us from doing unnecessary turning.

As much as our compost has been active this summer, so have we! So far we’ve:

• * Kept over 3000 pounds of food waste out of the landfill while creating healthy soil for our gardening projects
• * Spread lots of beautiful mulch around the Flatbush Reformed Church property to renew its damaged soil
• * Used compost to grow awesome healthy herbs and veggies for the church’s Bread for the Journey meal program
• * Provided compost and mulch for Plant the Plaza, our green space project in partnership with Cortelyou Library Friends
• * Hosted visiting youth groups and given workshops and education on waste management

Come check out our garden projects and join us for compost work during any open hours on Wednesdays 5:30 – 8pm and Saturdays 11am – 1pm. If you’d like to become a member of the Compost Team, please contact Kady (at) sustainableflatbush.org.

Compost Open Hours - come by and say hello!

Be sure to visit us on Saturday August 18th for a FREE community meal, where we continue our theme of Healthy Eating on a Budget – using summer foods.

The post Compost Update: August! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

Join Flatbush neighbors for a FREE, delicious, healthy, vegetarian lunch, prepared by our local community chef David Cohen along with volunteers from Sustainable Flatbush and Brooklyn Jubilee.

Kitchen crew at work

We will continue the theme presented at our first community meal earlier this year – HEALTHY EATING ON A BUDGET – this time using summer foods.

Our tasty menu will include:

• Bean Stew with Jamaican Pumpkin and Coconut
• Brown Rice and Quinoa with Scallion and Ginger
• Summer Tomato and Basil Salad
• Summer Berry and Peach Bake

In addition, there will be a dietician on hand to help us learn how healthy eating can greatly improve our health and well-being. There will also be an opportunity to receive FREE advice from Brooklyn Jubilee staff and volunteers on food stamps, health insurance, and other legal issues.

Fresh herbs from our urban farm

While you’re here be sure to visit the Sustainable Flatbush urban farm/native plant garden and community compost station! As always, we’ll be composting all food scraps from the meal to reduce waste and create healthy soil for our gardening projects.

If you love to cook and would like to join us in preparing this meal, contact us or email community chef David Cohen.

WHAT:
Community Meal: Healthy Eating on a Budget — Summer Foods
WHEN:
Saturday, August 18th at 12pm
WHERE:
Recreation Hall of the Flatbush Reformed Church
East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace, Brooklyn, NY [map]

Be sure to bring your containers, as there will be extra food to take away!

We would like to thank:

Flatbush Food Coop, Flatbush Farm Share CSA, and Kingsborough Community College Urban Farm for their generous donations of fresh organic produce.

Flatbush Reformed Church for hosting our Urban Farm and Garden program and Community Compost Project.

NYC Councilmembers Mathieu Eugene and Jumaane Williams for supporting our work.

The post Community Meal on Saturday August 18th at noon! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

We’ve been using our compost for all of our gardening and farming projects: growing Day Lilies and other flowers in our Pollinator Garden, herbs and veggies in the edible garden, and nurturing native species like Wild Ginger in our native plant garden. We can’t seem to make enough compost to keep up with growth, so keep your food scraps coming!

We’ve also been keeping it sustainable by using repurposed materials for all our garden projects. Come check out the peppers and tomatoes growing beautifully in repurposed rice bags, with our own home grown soil.

If you want to see the garden’s progress and get your hands dirty, you definitely want to come out this Saturday, June 23rd, for the BIG Garden Work Day! Join friends, neighbors and volunteers for a fun, educational, and interactive day.

WHAT: BIG Community Garden Work Day!
WHEN: Saturday, June 23, 9:30 am to 1 pm
WHERE: Flatbush Reformed Church, East 21st Street at Kenmore Terrace

Bring us your food scraps during compost open hours Saturdays 11am – 1pm and Wednesdays 5:30 – 8pm. Remember to check out What To Compost.

Contact kady (at) sustainableflatbush.org for more information or to join the compost team!

The post From Garbage to Gardens: Compost Update appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

The post Check out the photos from our Spring Celebration! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

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!

The post Church Avenue Communal Garden: May 2011 updates! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

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!

The post Spring Celebration with Flatbush Farm Share CSA! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

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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The post Greening Flatbush 2011 report! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

Photo opp for 350.org!

As part of 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party campaign to fight climate change, Sustainable Flatbush hosted an event in partnership with the Flatbush Reformed Church, the Brooklyn Food Coalition, and the Flatbush Farm Share CSA to clean up our new garden space at 890 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

We were very excited with the amount of new faces we saw on Sunday, from long-term residents to new community members to youth who came to help after church! There were also several participants who found our event through 350.org and wanted to be part of the Global Work Party campaign. Big thanks to everyone for making the event such a success!

During the event we were able to clean up the two spaces reserved for gardening, rake and create mulch beds for trees and bushes, and collect leaves and twigs to contribute to our future compost. The cleanup was followed by a potluck/meet-and-greet in which community members met, chatted, and discussed possibilities for the new garden space. We’re very happy to have taken part in 350.org’s global day of action, and we look forward to next year!

To see photos from 10/10/10 events all over the world, check out 350.org’s Flickr slideshow.

The post Church Avenue Communal Garden’s 10/10/10 report! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.

During the event we will clean up the church grounds, which by next year will be transformed into a simple and beautiful garden and greenspace for the community to enjoy! The cleanup will be followed by a potluck meal where everyone can meet, eat, chat, and hear what’s been going on in the garden.

This event was organized as part of 350.org‘s Global Work Party day to celebrate climate change solutions. From their website:

“On 10/10/10, in every corner of the globe, we will implement solutions to the climate crisis. From solar panels to community gardens, wind turbines to bike workshops, we’ll start to change our world from the bottom up. At all of these events, we’ll take a moment to shoot a group photo with a call to action for our political leaders. We’ll tell them ‘We’re getting to work–what about you?’ “

Please visit our event page at 350.org to learn more and RSVP. For more information, contact Sustainable Flatbush at info[at]sustainableflatbush[dot]org, or call us at 718.208-0575. See you there!

The post Participate in Sustainable Flatbush’s 10/10/10 Festivities! appeared first on Sustainable Flatbush.