Today was my sixth Saturday working on the farm at the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn. I've mentioned the farm here before- it's a project of a small Brooklyn company called BK Farmyards which started up a little over a year ago to farm the backyards of brownstones and create a totally Brooklyn-based CSA. The Stacy Murphy and Bee Ayers, the two women who founded BK Farmyards, are cool cats and you can learn more about them and the company here. Every time I go to the farm I get a taste of what an apprenticeship will be like in the future- strenuous, dirty and a bit monotonous but instantly rewarding as I see a lawn transformed into a local food source--not just before my eyes but by my hands!
Today our project was digging out the last four beds, breaking up the clods of dirt, raking in compost, covering with landscaping fabric to ensure the demise of the sod and keep down weeds, and, finally, planting! We planted Swallow Eggplant today. Going down the rows on my knees, reaching my hands into the soil to make room for the seedlings, and easing the loose soil in around the young plants makes for an incredibly satisfying couple of hours! I will admit that I prefer the planting to the digging, and Bee and Stacey are kind enough to offer my many opportunities to indulge that preference. So far I've planted turnips, dill, collards and callaloo in addition to today's eggplant.
The community is increasingly engaged in and curious about the farm. The number of students coming to work with us has steadily increased since work days started in March. That's students coming to school on SATURDAY to dig in the dirt!! And every time we work some pedestrians will stop and ask about the project. It feels good to be contributing to such a dynamic community improvement project.
One final note- the biggest lesson I've learned over the last weeks is that grass sod is inedible, resource intensive, and incredibly difficult to get rid of. Why bother?! I'm not lucky enough to have a yard just yet, but I will take this opportunity to encourage you to kill your lawn- or at least a bit of it. For just a couple of hours a week you can grow food or herbs or flowers or put in some bioregion-appropriate plants that will require basically zero maintenance. The bees, birds, bugs and maybe even your neighbors will thank you! (and I will admire you even more than I already do!)
"For just a couple of hours a week..." Unfortunately, it would take a couple of hours a week for the rest of our lives to kill our lawn and terrace the hillside so we could actually do anything useful with the front yard. We tried to kill it by ignoring it during a drought, but it did not work.
See that's what I'm talking about-- grass is vicious!! Though I suppose on mountainous terrain such as yours it probably helps minimize dangerous erosion to reduce mudslides etc....