"Foraging" for Mushrooms in your own backyard Part I

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Last Friday the autumnal equinox led us out of summer and into the fall, a time that I generally find myself reflecting on the past 12 months and projecting what I want for the next 12 ahead.  For me, the beginning of fall is more of a yearend than December 31, with the summer's close feeling like the end of a chapter in my life.  All the winter planning and summer fun come to a culmination here in the fall.  School starts again, people come back to a more full time schedule at their office jobs, even the media industry reigns in their "summer fridays" (yes, this really exists).  There is a sense of completion and review as everyone discusses how they just spent their warm summer days, what went right and what they would look forward to changing for next year.  Completing my first summer season on a farm, I can see a natural connection between my fall feelings and those of the plants I am working with.  Although this is a time of completion, it is not a time of sadness longing for more summer days, instead it is a time of great celebration.  Winter planning led to spring seeding into summer growing and harvest all culminating here in fall where the full harvest can be enjoyed.  In my opinion, early fall is the best season for food.  The diversity of flavors is incredible and delicious.  Summer tomatoes, peppers and potatoes finally meet fall squash, kale and mushrooms.  All the summer plants are pushing out their last fruits and at the same time all the fall and winter crops are starting to show up.  A great celebration where all of the plant families come together.  Almost 5 months to the date, these amazing...

Can't Nobody Hold Me Down...Oh no, I got to keep on movin

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I can remember walking through Manhattan for most of my life thinking that people must have planted all the trees and plants throughout the streets, but now I realize that for most of my life, all plants were the same and I never thought twice about their origin or diversity.  It never occurred to me that some of this natural green was actually still fighting a battle in an age old war between New York City and nature.   Without even the simplest level of understanding or desire to see individuality, things can look similar and unfortunately, this can lead to some pretty narrow-minded thinking and potentially stereotyping or grouping.  Living in the hustle of New York City, it is easy to forget that the city was completely created by man, but that the land it sits on was once almost all natural, even some farmland hundreds of years ago.  Empty of concrete slabs, streetlights, buildings  and almost 9 million people.  Even with all that history hidden under tons of asphalt, nature still pokes its head out constantly reminding us that...

Cob Oven Comeback

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There's no better time than now...after months of talking and debating about when to use this beautiful cob oven we helped build last year, it was finally time to take the plunge and light it up.  Almost a year to the date of it's completion this infamous...

Attack of these Killer Tomatoes

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But seriously, these are killer tomatoes and so many different varieties too, even without including the life-changing Sungolds that may or may not be a large part of my reason to leave Rockefeller Plaza for the Rockefeller Estate.  Before we slice into the names and flavors of this year's colorful crew, let's discuss what defines an heirloom variety, a term so often flaunted around at summer markets.  Unfortunately this term, although commonly used to describe specifically bred vegetables, is missing one standard and widely-accepted...

Pic of the Week

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Continuing our conversation on the Asteraceae family, a sunflower is another great example of a Pseudanthium.  These greenhouse grown sunflowers are doing much better than the field sunflowers which I believe has to do with our ability to control a lot of the variables effecting plant growths such as wind, water, weeds and pests to a certain extent.  Additionally, controlling all of those factors helps us maintain a more consistent soil.  This variety of sunflowers are called...

False Flowers: There's Power in Numbers

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Back in May, right before I started working full time on the farm, I helped the terrace team plant some Dahlias.  We buried the...

Acting "as if"

"How I live my life, that is my teaching"

- Mahatma Gandhi

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One of the beautiful things about farming are the moments of intense thoughtfulness that come with each task.  A goal is set i.e. prep a bed,  pull a bed, seed a bed, etc., the proper tools are gathered and the task is mapped out, then the work begins.  In these moments there is the need to find balance and focus.  Wandering thoughts come and go trying to break my concentration, thoughts of the future, reminders of the past, yet it's always important to come back to the task at hand and ensure that I am doing what I need to do and to do it well.  Recently I was working in the greenhouse in the late afternoon, there is something incredible about this "4 O'Clock" sun that puts a golden glisten on everything it touches as you can see above.  I've found that my best work gets done extra early in the morning and extra late in the afternoon.  Even if I'm having a sluggish midday and I think that I'm too tired to do good work, all of a sudden the sun begins its descent and a newfound energy arises in me.  This must be the nocturnal cityboy in me acting up again.  This particular afternoon, I caught myself in a familiar thought, something that I remember motivating me throughout my basketball days practicing alone late at night when all the coaches and players were home and it was just me and the game.  I started thinking about...

Growtown Motown

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The more I search, the more I find.  Last week I went down to Brooklyn for a screening of The Greenhorns, a film being shown around the country discussing the emergence of young farmers in America today.  A manifesto of sorts, the film looks to create awareness and empower the idea of change by exemplifying some of what is currently being done in the world of locally sourced food.  While there I met many people interested in food, farming and working on other projects of their own including...