Eagle Street Rooftop Farm

My friend Carlos who works at the Brooklyn Borough Commissioner's office helped to set up this visit on Wednesday to the impressive 6,000 SF Eagle Street rooftop farm on top of a warehouse in Greenpoint. There was a wide assortment of people from the community- my office, students from Parson's, people from the Borough Commissioner's office, and miscellaneous landscape and architecture friends who tagged along.

In 2008, founding farmers Annie Novak and Ben Flanner started this organic vegetable farm farm on the roof of the Broadway Stages recording studio (installed by Goode Green). 

 

With a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline beyond, Annie led our group around the roof, explaining what she grows, how she seemingly pulls it off so effortlessly (!), and even cradled a chicken in her arms at one point. She had a such an easygoing manner that we all felt comfortable with her immediately- good energy for people, plants, and animals! No squirrel or other animal issues up here!

 

After an initial study on the history and structure of the building, the green roof medium and thickness was carefully chosen so that no additional structural measures would be required to reinforce the building. 200,000 pounds of soil and a wide variety of crops were craned up there, and within one year, the farm was already hosting a Farm Market, CSA, picnics, potlucks and was offering internships and workshops. The crops are sought by neighborhood restaurants, which donate their compost-ready waste back to the farm.

 

Beets

 Eggplants!

 

One of the chickens on the roof

 Annie's team made a large platter of fresh bruschetta for us, with freshly picked tomatoes and basil!

 

Too bad it's so inconvenient for me to get to Greenpoint from where I am... I'd love to support them as much as I could!

 

Urban gardening 2010: Pear Tomatoes

It's kind of funny that the names of tomatoes are named after other fruits or food--- cherries, plums, pears, grapes, beefsteak...

Anyway, we got one red pear tomato this week! Let's hope the squirrels don't get to them.

Urban gardening 2010: Peppers (June and July)

Wow, we have so many peppers, we don't know what to do with them!

Peppers just peeping out of the flower blossoms (Mid/Late June)

 Late June

Early July

Peppers starting to change colors! (Mid/late July)

 Definitely some fire in there! (Late July)

We've already harvested about 10-15 peppers, this is the second growth... (Early/Mid August)

 More peppers- had to bring these to work and distribute (Mid August)

Urban gardening 2010: Eggplants (June, July)

The eggplants were getting stout, and flowers started forming in late June. The first few photos are of the eggplants in the long trough.

Mid/late June

Late June

Eggplant blossom (Early July)

I had read that eggplants are really difficult to grow, and especially pollinate, and many people end up having to "hand-pollinate"... These have been our easiest crop to date! They were the last things to go in the dirt outside, but we've basically watered them when they're dry, and have left them alone. I guess we had some busy-bees because the next week, you could see the swollen fruit forming inside the flower "cap"!

Early/Mid July

The eggplant is peeping out! (Mid July)

Mid/late July

Late July

The eggplants were hanging out there a little too long! (Early August)

The type of eggplants we were growing were called "green apple eggplants"- which totally makes sense. They are the size of small apples, and are pale green. The only way to tell that they're done is to squeeze them slightly to see if they have any "give". Otherwise, they are super smooth and hard, kind of like an unripe tomato.

P sliced them up and pan seared them with some bacon fat and served them with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Yummy! Oops, ate them before I could take a picture! 

These last couple shots are of the eggplants in the terracotta pot.

Mid/late July

Late July

A perfect apple green eggplant! (Early August)

Urban gardening 2010: Watermelon

Paul's coworker had given him some tiny watermelon seedlings in mid June.

We threw them into a medium sized galvanized bucket, not expecting much. But once we put them in the dirt, they starting growing like crazy!

Late June

Early July

Mid July

Watermelon blossoms! (Mid/Late July)

Bumble bee on watermelon blossom (Mid/late July)

First watermelon! (Mid/late July)

 Late July

Late July

We weren't sure when the watermelon was ready for picking, but since it hadn't gotten any bigger in a week, we took our chances (it was about the size of a tennis ball). P cut the watermelon open, and much to our surprise, the inside was was almost completely rind (the white part). There was a little pink-ish center and even the seeds, still soft, were whitish/clear. It looked more like a super round cucumber than a watermelon! Tasted like one too...  

 

Watermelon (& green apple eggplants) in  early August

More watermelons! Hope these are sweeter.... (Early/mid August)

Hydroponics 101

Carlos and I took an introductory Hydroponics Workshop with Boswyck Farms, led by Lee Mandell, their Chief Hydroponicist.

A basic explanation of hydroponics (from their website):
The word hydroponics is derived from the Greek words, “hydro” meaning water and “ponos” meaning labor. In short hydroponics is the art of soil-less growing. Rather than dirt, plants grow in containers using alternate mediums such as clay, gravel, sand, vermiculite and coconut fiber. There is a constant water flow mixed with a nutrient solution to keep plants healthy and happy... 

Growing hydroponically is highly efficient and environmentally sustainable. It’s estimated that hydroponic systems use 70%-90% less water than conventional growing because the water is continually circulated through the systems. In addition the problems of run-off and soil erosion are non-existent. Growing hydroponically means that crops can be grown in smaller spaces–a great advantage and practicality in urban settings–while producing significant yields of fruits and vegetables.

Sign me up!

We learned a little about the history of hydroponics, the benefits of hydroponics versus traditional soil growing, and about the many different types of hydroponics systems (aeroponics, floor and drain, Nutrient Film Technology, etc. We even built our own simple drip system with a 5 gallon bucket! I'm trying out lettuce, both in the little spongey "plugs" as well as throwing them directly into the expanded clay balls ("hydroton"). 

 A NFT system (the nutrient water goes along the bottom of these tubes in a thin "film") and gets recirculated around and around.

 Me building my bucket (that's the strainer inside the bucket that holds the hydroton in)

 

 Lettuce seedlings! They are being grown in an inorganic sponge-like "plug".

  The lettuce roots are coming out of the sponge plug (no dirt involved), time to stick them in the drip system bucket!

 The 3 sponge plugs with lettuce seedlings in the bucket, surrounded by the hydroton

 

The drip system bucket

1. The nutrient-enriched water is in the bottom half of the bucket
2. A large strainer about half the depth of the bucket holds the hydroton (the growing medium) and the seedlings.
3. A plastic vertical tube extends from bottom of bucket to the top, capped with a plastic ring (with holes around the bottom)
4. A low energy use (2W)  air pump (not shown) pushes air through the clear plastic tube, which pushes the nutrient water up through the vertical tube and out the holes in the plastic ring.
5. The water continually drips onto the hydroton, which in turn keeps the seedlings wet, and excess water drips back down in the bucket, where it gets recirculated up again.
6. The blue tube on the outside shows the water level inside the bucket, so you know when to refill!


We'll see how it grows!