September Community Update

This issue...Crop Mob - Courses & Workshops - Certificate Program - Books - Events - Jobs

Community Update September 2016

Featured this Month

Crop Mob Event

Crop Mob At Rise and Root Farm

On Saturday, August 13th, several FSNYC alums and friends attended the Crop Mob event at Rise & Root. Check out alum David Granik's report on the day:

The Crop Mob‎ work day up at Rise and Root farm on Saturday, August 13th was a splendid time for those of us who participated. I drove up with a car load of volunteer‎s--all of who were friends of Lucretia, another FSNYC alum. Merelis, Ysanet, and Lawrence rendezvoused with me in various parts of NYC, and after sorting that out, we wended our way up to Chester, where the Rise and Root farm is located. When we arrived, we encountered Fran Miller, from my Farm School class.

Everybody went right to work in the field, preparing the rows for the planting of the Fall Crop. First, we pulled out the large‎ deep-rooted weeds, then we used a Broadfork to aerate the soil. As part of the process, we amended the soil with lime, in order to promote a more neutral pH balance in the soil. Despite the challenges of the heat, we made much headway in prepping the field.

We were treated to a mini-tour of the farm operations, and we all took a break for a quick "Ploughman's Lunch".

Once we had all come in from the field, we all got sprayed down with a hose, and then spent a couple of minutes in the produce cooler‎. We left feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

Upcoming Course: Preparing for Winter

Are you ready for the winter? More importantly, is your garden going to be ready for winter? This course will supply you with practical methods for the winter such as cover seed saving, cover-cropping basics, and food preservation techniques.

Students in the Preparing for Winter course will learn what it means to broadcast rye and hairy vetch, learn how to use a planting calendar, and implement different sowing methods.

Instructors: Ursula Chanse and Kadeesha Williams in partnership with Bronx Green Up

Class schedule:

September 14- October 1

Wednesday, September 14 at 6pm - 9pm at Just Food Office

Saturdays 10am - 4pm at Taqwa Community Farm

Upcoming Course: Small Farm Planning and Design

Dreaming of running your own farm? Small Farm Planning and Design provides the foundational approach to creating a small farm by equipping students through each step of the way from budgeting, labor management, and crop planning.

The course will cover asset-based community mapping, beginning marketing concepts, program planning, record keeping for a garden, and elements of a community and school garden.

Instructors: Ben Flanner (Brooklyn Grange) and Jane Hodge (Rise & Root)

Class schedule:

September 28 - October 29

Wednesdays 6pm - 9pm at Just Food Office

Saturdays 10am - 2pm at various locations including Brooklyn Grange

Upcoming 1 Day Workshop: Greenhouse Build

Farm School NYC is partnering with Rise & Root Farm for an exciting full day workshop on building a high tunnel and techniques to extend the season. Participants in the workshop will work in shifts and learn how to build a greenhouse, plant fall crops, and tour Rise & Root Farm and their future commercial kitchen space.

The greenhouse build will be facilitated by Simon Ziegler from Sunsprout Farm and the owners of Rise & Root Farm - Jane Hodge, Karen Washington, Lorrie Clevenger and Michaela Hayes.

Date: Sunday, September 18, 2016

Time: 10am to 6pm

Location: Rise & Root Farm, Chester, NY (I'll include a map)

Price: $65

The workshop includes:

Hands on experience building a 72' x 30' high tunnel
Building instruction from Simon Ziegler, an experienced farmer and owner of Sunsprout Farms, with a successful hoophouse operation
A tour of Rise & Root Farm
A tour of Rise & Root Farm's future commercial kitchen
Fall crop planting activities
An opportunity to shop at the Green Onion, the local farm market offering the best local dairy, meat, sauerkraut, chili paste, spices, and of course produce from Rise & Root Farm, Sunsprout, and other neighboring farms
Work alongside the four owners of Rise & Root Farm, all of whom are founders and teachers of Farm School NYC. Find out more about them.

Learn More and Register

Upcoming 1 Day Workshop: Seed Keeping at Roughwood

Saving seeds is a radical act! Learn about crop planning, spacing, pollination, and recordkeeping for seed keeping -- all in one full day with Owen Taylor, grower/manager of 1000s of heirloom seed varieties at Roughwood Seed Collection, and Farm School NYC. Come take a field trip to PA to learn about seed saving through hands on activities!

Date: September 25

Time: 10am-5pm

Workshop Fee: $45/$65

To get more information and to register, click here or go to Events on Farmschoolnyc.org:

Learn More and Register

Certificate Programs Start November 2016: Apply Now

Application Deadline: September 30, 2016

We're excited to announce that starting in November 2016, Farm School NYC will be offering two certificate programs: The Certificate in Urban Agriculture and an Accelerated Certificate in Urban Agriculture, in partnership with The Youth Farm. Applications are open now and due September 30,2016 for both certificate options!

Program details, requirements, paper application version and tuition costs can be viewed here

A-peel-ing Books You Gotta Lettuce tell you about!

Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City
By Kristin Reynolds and Nevin Cohen

U rban agriculture is increasingly considered an important part of creating just and sustainable cities. Yet the benefits that many people attribute to urba n agriculture—fresh food, green space, educational opportunities—can mask structural inequities, thereby making political transformation harder to achieve. Realizing social and environmental justice requires moving beyond food production to address deeper issues such as structu ral racism, gender inequity, and economic disparities. Beyond the Kale argues that urban agricultural projects focused explicitly on dismantling oppressive systems have the greatest potential to achieve substantive social change.

Through in-depth interviews and public forums with some of New York City’s most prominent urban agriculture activists and supporters, Kristin Reynolds and Nevin Cohen illustrate how some urban farmers and gardeners not only grow healthy food for their communities but also use their activities and spaces to disrupt the dynamics of power and privilege that perpetuate inequity. Addressing a significant gap in the urban agriculture literature, Beyond the Kale prioritizes the voices of people of color and women—activists and leaders w hose strategies have often been underrepresented within the urban agriculture movement—and it examines the roles of scholarship in advancing social justice initiatives.

The book can be purchased through Amazon or the University of Georgia Press Website.

One of our certificate students, Shephali Patel, has contributed an essay to Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth By Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee

Our present ecological crisis is the greatest man-made disaster this planet has ever faced—its accelerating climate change, species depletion, pollution and acidification of the oceans. A central but rarely addressed aspect of this crisis is our forgetfulness of the sacred nature of creation, and how this affects our relationship to the environment. There is a pressing need to articulate a spiritual response to this ecological crisis. This is vital and necessary if we are to help bring the world as a living whole back into balance.

Bringing together voices from Buddhism, Sufism, Christianity, and Native American traditions, as well as from physics, deep psychology, and other environmental disciplines, this book calls on us to reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the Earth and wake up to our spiritual as well as physical responsibilities toward the planet.

The book can be purchased through Amazon or through their website. Click here to learn more about the contributors and make sure to follow spiritual ecology on Facebook!