Peas out, 2020!

Sometimes your kale gets aphids. Sometimes it hails on your crop of just-matured tender lettuce. This year was a hailstorm of aphids. This year was the sharpest stone working its way under your pant leg, into your boot, and wedging itself right under the most tender part of your foot while you’re hustling to wrap up a busy harvest. Well, folks, it’s time to sit down and shake the stone out of your boot because this year is finally (almost) over. And before we lace back up and march into the new year, let’s take a moment to reflect on and appreciate the bright spots that did shine through in 2020. 

Designing and building
a greener NYC

You have never met a team of people who are worse at sitting around and waiting than those of us on the Brooklyn Grange Design/Build install team. So when the PAUSE order came down in spring, it took all our patience to put projects on hold. But the moment it became safe to do so, we masked up, dusted off our hard hats, and got to work building well over an acre of stormwater managing, urban heat island reducing, air quality improving, pollinator supporting green space in a year when outdoor space felt more valuable than ever. From our latest build, a 32k sq ft rooftop farm for The Nicotra Group’s Staten Island Corporate Park, to an 11.5k sq ft green roof atop 399 Sands St in the Navy Yard, you may just have walked by a BG D/B install happening right overhead! And that’s not to mention the 5,000 Northeast native perennials that we planted out in the meadow we began installing atop an LIC, Queens residential co-op last fall! Our dream is to build more public green spaces for New Yorkers to gather and connect with nature, and a great place to start is passing legislation like Rep Nydia Velázquez’s proposed bill to add green roofs to NYC public schools seems like a great place to start. But as we can attest, not even the sky’s the limit on what we can do to green up this concrete jungle. If you have a space that’s in need of a green-over, give us a shout. 

After losing two months of valuable spring planting opportunities, our Garden Maintenance team wasted no time in beating back the weeds at the dozens of sites they keep up. We were fortunate to be able to access most of the green spaces we maintain, ensuring that they continued to flourish through a Covid summer. Whereas our install team excels at building out big green infrastructure projects, our maintenance team is all about sustaining that green and stewarding urban ecosystems through close observation and care. For New Yorkers this summer, access to nature was a balm we sorely needed, and our maintenance team made sure nature thrived everywhere we went. It’s possible you even enjoyed a BG-nurtured green space, if you dined outside at Joseph Leonard, Fairfax, or Jeffrey’s Grocery in lower Manhattan! Our goal for our maintenance work in 2021? More edible landscapes, and more beehives! There’s nothing more empowering than growing your own food–even in non-pandemic times. And we’re here to help you do just that, so hit us up!

25% of the food we grew in 2020 was distributed for free

Fresh, healthy food must become a right shared by all. But the pandemic has brought us further from this vision than ever before, as it has devastated the ability for too many in our community to earn an income and access the nutrition they deserve. Last year, we forged our first relationship with a food pantry: The Table, operated by NYU Langone in Sunset Park. They taught us the importance of listening to community input on what crops are most welcomed and appreciated. This year, the numbers of community members served by The Table increased 800%. We went through a lot more rubber bands than we anticipated, bunching root veg and braising greens for so many grocery bags, and we are thankful to the private family fund that made that alliance possible and helped ensure that we were able to share our harvest with this incredible Sunset Park institution.  

In addition to The Table, we were also grateful to work with a number of other incredible organizations feeding our community, and we couldn’t have done so without financial support that allowed us to reallocate much of our field for donations. From the Tasmanian boot brand, Blundstone, generously funding our partnerships with Food Issues Group and Rethink, to the $11k you all came together and raised (thank you again), we were able to send a steady stream of vegetables to these two incredible organizations. And, thanks to the organization and direction of the Asian American Federation and Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, with whom we linked up in late August, we managed to send 180 local elders a whopping 3,179 lbs of comfort foods, including some crops we’d never grown before (Hon Tsai Tai broccoli) and some old favorites (Dou Maio and daikon radish). 

Our hope for 2021 is to do even more. If you are connected with a foundation interested in funding these farm-to-pantry partnerships, we would be grateful to connect. If you have the capacity to support these organizations, particularly now that federal aid programs are running out, please do so via the links above. We’ll be in touch in the new year with updates. In the meantime… 

2021 CSA program
- coming soon -

As we flip over the last farm beds and plant cover crop, we shift our focus to next year’s CSA program. The program details are coming together and we’ll have registration info online early in the new year! We’re excited to announce that next year’s program will feature a sliding scale for shares, more add-on options, and we’re also streamlining the process of accepting SNAP payments. So stay tuned over the next month for more information, and if you haven’t already, sign up below to be alerted when registration materials go online.

Programming and Events,
but make it distant

The word “distant” is a perfect antonym for our personality. Particularly our Programming and Events team. Suffice it to say that this year was definitely not our style. While we usually brag about the huge numbers of community members we bring up to the farm each season, our Programming and Events team doesn’t mind sharing the news that we hosted a small fraction of the visitors typical of years past; in light of the circumstances, we feel ok bragging that our largest event of the season included all of 25 people.

Another figure we’re proud of is 3: the number of LGBTQIA+ couples who tied the knot on our Brooklyn Navy Yard roof on one single day: June 28th. Donating our space for Pride Day ceremonies is a new tradition that we’re looking forward to continuing in years to come, for while these “Little Gem” celebrations were tiny–just six people each–they were powerful expressions of love. And they were made possible by an incredible community of vendors, like DAG images and Judson Rappaport who understand the real power of photography; the officiants (and sisters) of Once Upon a Vow, who very much live life by Biggie’s lyric “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way”; planners like Together Events who live and work all the way into their values; floral farmer-designers like Abby Lee who will sweat it out for what she believes in, and Patina Rentals, who always come through with beautiful and unique furnishings.

Our Programming & Events department might have scaled back our numbers this year, but we have enough love and gratitude for our community to make up for it. Our hope for 2021 is to share that love and gratitude with more of our community on the rooftops in new, safe, and creative ways. Want to book our roof to gather your community? Reach out.

Some pep in your step

HaBENero Flanner is back at again with this season’s hot sauce! Get 'em while you can! And a friendly reminder to give us a day or two to lovingly pack your sauce up in the mail. We’re expecting some shipping delays as we head into the holiday season, so order by December 16th for holiday gifting!

Not sure if your white elephant recipient likes hot sauce? Send ‘em a Brooklyn Grange digital gift certificate, the one-size fits all gift that everyone loves!

Grow veggies.
Grow your skills.

We’ve got fall and winter workshops coming your way, all focused around growing your own plants and food. And don’t forget! Brooklyn Grange offers scholarships to all of our workshops, both in person and virtual. See something on our calendar in which you’d like to enroll but aren’t in a financial position to do so? Reach out!

FALL 2020 VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING
Not so Basic Indoor Plant 101 | December 8th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Fit with Jane - By Donation Community Fitness Class | December 16th, 10AM

LIVE FROM THE SUNSET PARK GREENHOUSE
Virtual - Introduction to Hydroponics | December 12th, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Virtual - Introduction to Microgreens | December 12th, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

WINTER 2021 VIRTUAL PROGRAMMING
Tour of Brooklyn Grange’s Farm | January 12th, 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Introduction to Beekeeping | January 14th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Indoor Plant Lighting 101 | January 20th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Not So Basic Indoor Plant 101 | January 28th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Introduction to Green Roofing | January 12th, 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Planning Your Urban Vegetable Garden | January 12th, 5:30 - 7:00 PM

VIRTUAL 4 PART HYDROPONIC DESIGN & GROWING INTENSIVE
Part 1: Introduction to Hydroponics | March 10th, 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Part 2: Growing 101 | March 17th, 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Part 3: Designing Systems | March 24th, 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Part 4: Growout & Aftercare | March 31st, 5:30 - 8:00 PM

On City Growers, and why having kids on the farm matters

The farm is a better place because of the youth that visit through City Growers. Kids bring a curiosity that is contagious, and their absence this summer was felt keenly. But just because they weren’t on the roof doesn’t mean they weren’t learning about the wonders of the farm! The City Growers team was creative and resilient, and despite being dealt some incredibly tough circumstances–like big City budget cuts to their programming and school closures–they reshaped their programming and continued teaching young students about where food comes from and why it matters.

What does 2021 look like for City Growers? A hybrid learning model with both in person and virtual experiences so all students have opportunities to engage with nature, safely and at their own pace. It will also bring its fair share of challenges after so many months of lost program funding due to Covid. We ask that you consider supporting their efforts throughout this next year. Please visit this link or click the button below. Your contribution is fully tax-deductible, and will allow City Growers to continue connecting kids to nature.

We’re hiring!

We’re seeking a creative, organized storyteller with marketing savvy and a genuine commitment to contributing to a stronger, more prosperous community and a healthier environment to come aboard as our Content and Communications Manager! Think this newsletter could be better? Let’s see what you got! Read more and apply here.

As the ball drops…

For all our joking about 2020 being a stone in our shoe, the gravity of this year is not lost on us. The past months have dealt heartbreak and we, too, grieved family members and friends. We also witnessed overdue gratitude for those essential workers and first responders too often taken for granted. 2020 once again brought structural racism and institutionalized violence into sharp focus ushered in a tidal uprising for racial justice and amplified voices of BIPOC activists and leaders. There was too much hunger, and much yet to come. And in the face of that need, new mechanisms of support sprang up, powered by the sheer determination of community members: the number of food donation vehicles, community fridges, and mutual aid groups born in 2020 was staggering, and we are so proud of our friends, neighbors and team members who have volunteered their time and resources in support of this important work.

So, we have a 2021 resolution: let’s make sure this newfound gratitude for the people and businesses who make our daily lives possible, even in the face of a pandemic, remains deep, consistent, and backed by financial support. Let’s hold our new president accountable to making good on his commitment to root out the systemic racism on which this nation was built, and let’s pledge to listen to, learn from, amplify, and support our BIPOC community members who have shouldered too much of the load already. Our wish for the new year is that we’ll continue to be inspired by individuals and organizations rising to challenges and doing the work, feeding neighbors, giving generously, and channeling any fear of what’s to come into action that shapes our future. Our hope is that we will never again have to go without hugging our friends, even after a particularly steamy day in the field. When it’s finally safe to do so, we’ll be coming in for a long, tight embrace–which, knowing us, will probably be a little sweaty. And like that hug, we might know ahead of time that 2021 is going to be uncomfortable, but at least as this new year arrives, we’ll be ready for it.

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