February 2010 Archives

The Brain Trust and I moved to New York because I got a job here, and I had friends from college here, and I wanted to give the big city another shot now that I'm older, wiser and have a steady income. He would happily have stayed in Austin, TX (let's be honest, who wouldn't happily stay in Austin?) So I'm thrilled that he has grown to love so many things about NYC in general and Brooklyn in particular. One of the best things about this city is how dramatically we reduce our individual carbon footprint just by living here. We don't own a car, for one, and the urban density makes it possible for city services and utilities to be some of the most efficient per capita in the world. There's also a high density of high energy artist-geeks who inspire and challenge us both to explore new interests.

We are short-timers in this giant city, but the Brain Trust is dedicated to finding ways to carry those two aspects of life in the big city (energy efficiency and lots of awesome people) with us to our next as-yet-undetermined destination. For all intents and purposes what that means is we are now looking for a dream location (1) close enough to a city center to allow us to walk or easily bike to shops, restaurants, and entertainment; (2) with vibrant creative culture and lots of smart people to enjoy and build community with; and (3) that that will allow me to have a big enough growing space to produce a good portion of our own food with potential develop and grow into an operation that produces food to sell either at the farmers market or as a CSA, and that would allow for some small farm animals- particularly chickens and goats.

At the moment we're really not sure how to fit all of that together, but there are a few good examples of people who are making farming work for them in small urban spaces.

Exhibit A: Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Started just last year by a fellow Sarah Lawrence College Alum (no, we don't know each other), this farm is on the rooftop of a former warehouse turned soundstage in Brooklyn. The owner of the building decided to put in a green roof (link) and farm founder Annie Novak talked her into going one step further, allowing her to start a farm on top of the green roof installation. Last year they grew peppers, greens, corn and radishes, to list just a few of their crops. They sold to the community from an on-site Sunday farmer's market all from a rooftop overlooking the Manhattan skyline. The farm also keeps bees.

Exhibit B: The Dervaes family urban homestead in Pasadena, CA. Since 2001 this family has been annually producing 6,000 lbs of food on 1/10 an acre of land. They have pygmy goats and a flock of chickens as well as ducks, rabbits and bees. They sell some of their produce to local restaurants, eat and preserve the bulk of it, and sell some to neighbors. Because they're located in California, a region with some serious water concerns, they have some exciting bioregion-specific methods of watering, including the use of terracotta pots buried in their gardens that leach water slowly and deeply into the soil.

Exhibit C: Living in the city, farming in the country. Because of the high cost of land many aspiring farmers can't afford to live on- or own- the land they farm. This presents the possiblity of splitting up the operation across two parcels of land. The idea of buying two pieces of land- a home in the city and a plot without a house outside of town has a certain appeal from the perspective of this blog--it is certainly embracing the Dacha model! It might also work out better in terms of city regulations about keeping livestock, or neighborhood covenants on land use. But it has some major drawbacks. I'm not sure how practical this option is if I want to keep animals- my understanding is that they often need after hours attention that just wouldn't be possible if I were commuting from a house in town. Plus I just feel that a commute would really limit (or at least materially affect) the kind and quality of attention that I give the land that I will have- not to mention undermining the carbon footprint reduction of living in a dense urban area. All things considered, I'd prefer to live where I grow.

In the end it may be that the Brain Trust will have to sacrifice some density for the sake of farm and that I will have to sacrifice some farmland for the sake of accessibility. Whatever dudes--we'll make it work. And it's dang exciting to be making a real plan for it!

I like Lent and other ancient traditions of sacrifice and fasting and waiting. It seems healthy to me to take a break, alter the pattern, do less. This year I'm giving up no single thing, but a few different patterns. Here's the set-up:

(1) I tend to have a glass of wine when I get home from work or a beer when I'm out to dinner. I'm not passing judgment, but it is a pattern. So for this month, I'm having alcohol only socially, only if invited by someone else, only if others are also drinking.

(2) Maybe because it's winter, or maybe because I got married and stopped being vegan 4 months ago, I have been on a real baked goods and sweets kick recently. I manage to make a good bit of that stuff myself, but there's definitely been some extra-curricular goodies sneaking in lately at work and out on the town. So while I'm only taking alcohol in public, I'm only eating baked goods and sweets that I make at home.

In some ways I'm letting myself off easy- I reeeeeally don't want to eliminate anything completely from my diet. But I think this plan will shake up my daily patterns enough to present an interesting challenge. I've already noticed a change- a serious sugar craving! So far I've made the following to fill the void left by cutting out all the treats that I didn't really notice I was eating:

Olive Oil Cake (from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) flavored with rosemary and lemon juice and sweetened with honey.

Polenta

Oatmeal (with sweet and savory toppings)

Roasted Potatoes

Right now I have whole wheat sandwich rolls in the oven along with an acorn squash and I may also make come cookies later this weekend. It's definitely required a bit more pre-planning, but so far I'm feeling great and having fun with the changes. I have made one small adjustment to the rules-- if someone who loves me bakes something and offers me some, it's fair game. There's really only one person I know who has a tendency to do this (you can see some of her great works here) so I don't think that will get too out of hand....

And if you see me batting my eyelashes at you between now and Easter please invite me out for a drink!!

Welcome back! The long silence was due in part to my own disinclination to do any extra writing outside of work and in part to an internet snafu that was masterfully identified and handled by The Princess and her team of minions. (Thanks Guys!!) So I'm back and the first report is that young Ferdinand (alas, we barely knew ye) has crossed over into greener (we hope) pastures. After his demise I tried a seedling hydroponic basil plant from the farmers market in the 5-gallon bucket with not much more success. It held on to life, but it certainly wasn't healthy, and in the end it seemed the better part of wisdom to just make a batch of pesto and let by gones be by gones. I feel that with more diligent internet searching and some experimentation I would be able to get the light/ nutrient / acidity mix down pat, but to be perfectly honest the inherent wastefulness of the hydroponic system makes me loath to spend more time monkeying around with it. So for now it's dismantled again--not repurposed yet, so I may make another run at it if I get to a point where I feel like I know more about plant nutrition.

But don't fret, friends, there's still lot's a'growin' here at Combee Acres.

We have two cherry tomato plants and one jalapeno pepper in the Aero-Garden (yes, they came in a box in the mail from the Aerogarden company--I needed a sure win...). We also bought a trio of herbs at the Union Square Farmers Market a few weeks ago that are holding their own. Rosemary and mint are thriving on our bedroom windowsill, and oregano is sprucing up my office. I also started lettuce and radishes on the windowsill in the home office of the Brain Trust (my loving husband) and they've all sprouted and seem to be thriving.

So there's lots of life here. For my March home growing project I'm currently debating between an expanded living room window growing area and a kitchen worm compost bin.