Kingsborough students, get free vegetables today! Visit KCC Urban Farm between 11am-2pm (while supplies last) to get bunches of kale, fennel, collards, lettuce and so much more! If you can’t make it today, we’ll be back on the farm on July 10th distributing more produce. Mark your calendars!
Note: this distribution is open to KCC students, only. If you’re not currently a student, sign up for one of our summer classes or check in for future Continuing Education classes that are held year round.
If you’re planning on bringing your class to KCC Urban Farm more than once throughout the semester, consider applying for a class bed!
Class beds are 8’x4′ raised beds at KCC Urban Farm that will be available for research and classes that go beyond what we already offer. Download or fill out the application form below for faculty, staff, and students interested in applying for space. We are looking forward to reading proposals from a variety of disciplines that will help us expand the reach of the Farm in creative and thoughtful ways.
Applications for class beds for Spring and Summer 2015 semesters are due February 13, 2015. Contact Mara at mara.gittleman@kbcc.cuny.edu with any questions.
Need some ideas? Here are some that have been done in the past!
Here are some more ideas:
At KCC Urban Farm, we farm using organic growing practices. In organic agricultural systems, diversity is the key to a farm’s balanced ecosystem—and key to healthy, nutrient-dense yields. In place of using synthetic pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, we rely on a variety of soil microbes, insects, plants, animals, weather conditions and farmers to keep our farm growing.
The images in this collection serve to reveal the wide array of activities and life on KCC Urban Farm. From images of microbes to photos of sowing seeds, harvesting crops, turning compost piles, insect eggs and more, these images represent the diversity and cycles of life that define organic agriculture.
Join us on the farm to take home free plants for your vegetable garden! KCC Urban Farm is giving away seedlings for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, callaloo, tomatillos, basil, and parsley.
WHEN: Thursday, 6/19 and Monday, 6/23, 12pm-2pm
WHERE: KCC Urban Farm, between T8 and T2
See you there!
Would you like to spend the summer at KCC Urban Farm? Sign up for one of our continuing education classes today:
Check out our Continuing Education on the Farm page regularly updated list of available courses at KCC Urban Farm.
To register for any of these classes, call 718.368.5050 of click here.
Have you seen these funny looking garbage cans on the street lately?
image via Scott Lynch @ gothamist.com
They’re part of the NYC’s Organics Recycling program that just recently spread its pilot throughout additional NYC neighborhoods. If you’re lucky enough to be in a piloted area, the program gives you a starter kit that includes a brown organics bin and a small kitchen container. Collection is once a week with your normal recycling days. If you live in a neighborhood that isn’t currently part of the pilot, you can still dispose of organic waste at one of the cities many drop-off sites.
KCC Urban Farm is engaged with so many different parts of the Kingsborough community. We provide soil samples used by students and instructors in Physical Science labs, supplement work in Community Health and other classes, offer cooking demonstrations throughout campus, provide produce used in the Culinary Arts kitchens and deliver produce that is donated to students through KCC’s Single Stop, just to name a few. Take a look at some of our hard work in action:
Cooking demonstrations at KCC’s Single Stop and other events on campus.
Have you heard of My City Gardens? This yardsharing site (think freeshare, couchsurfing and car sharing groups) that connects landowners who don’t have the time or energy to roll up their sleeves and get dirty, with neighbors who are eager to get into gardens and grow things. Participants share land and skill, but also the fruits (sometimes actual fruits!) of their labor. My City Gardens is a Boston-based venture, but I feel like it’s only time until we see something similar in New York.
Looking at the map, some of the requests are really wonderful:
Have you heard about Rooftop Reds? They’re taking urban agriculture to such a wonderful niche! Check out an interview they just did with Gothamist.com, talking about things that come with rooftop farming in NYC including the process of securing permits, licensing for running a rooftop vineyard, and working with the climate of NYC to grow grapes. As for me? I’m super excited to try my first bit of true, Brooklyn wine. You can watch the video here.
Eating real food sounds simple enough, right? Mark Bittman with the New York Times pulled me in with his cleverly titled “Butter is Back” op-ed. Following a recent study that questions the link between saturated fat and heart disease, Bittman targets ultra-processed foods, hitting on the use of unhealthy unsaturated fats, antibiotic-laden processed foods and environmentally unsustainable farming practices. Basically, we’re losing our connection to food:
“Many things have gone awry with the way we produce food. And it isn’t just the existence of junk food but the transformation of ingredients we could once take for granted or thought of as “healthy.””
tomatillos, KCC Urban Farm, Brooklyn, NY
While we don’t have animals (this article focuses on the consumption of meat), the KCC Urban Farm uses hands-on, experiential learning to teach students about local and global food systems and to re-engage students with healthy, environmentally conscious eating. We hope to soon have an online resource for environmentally sustainable, healthy eating, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please feel free to email (KCCurbanfarm@kbcc.cuny.edu) or call us (718.368.6578) to get more information.