Hello and welcome to a late, late, late edition of a community series that usually post at 9 p.m. eastern. There must have been a miscommunication and the diarist can't be found but seeing how there was none last week and just to let side pocket who is scheduled to do next week's know that Got a Happy Story still exists, I'll fill in.
Got a Happy Story is a community gathering every Monday night where we share stories large and small that have put a smile on our face. The Happy Story diary exists as a way to anchor the community in hope and comfort while we do the hard work of maintaining a permanent Democratic majority. Everyone and all sorts of stories and pictures are welcome. Consider this an open thread.
I don't have much to fill in but I have a little Happy Story that I posted over at La Vida Locavore, actually Two Inspirational Local Food Stories from the Big Apple. Or better yet, I'll round it out with a third green but not necessarily edible NYC story.
I woke up to a feature on my local cable channel on Friday morning that shows so much hope for a once written off section of the South Bronx and then opened my local paper to read another New York Locavore story that made me laugh because it just seems so New York.
Starting with the fun story from Brooklyn, the home of the extremely successful Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest that is sponsored by the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. An only in New York story as in the center of capitalism sort of initiative. What do you think about real estate brokerage that deals in back yards and turns those unused yards into organic gardens?
Actually the story Green business thumb: BK Farmyards turns little used spaces into booming produce gardens is less business and more inspiration than the introduction "They'll pimp your yard — with a farm" implies.
A Brooklyn company is converting private backyards into organic farms and splitting the crops with homeowners.
Stacey Murphy, 35, founder of BK Farmyards in Park Slope, launched the enterprise in May and has landed two contracts.
She plants, tends and harvests the crops in exchange for a cash payment or a share of the fruits and veggies.
"I think there’s a gap in the food system," Murphy said on Thursday. "There’s available land that’s underutilized, and people who want to use that land."
What a wonderful idea and Stacey Murphy has converted this exchange into a small business. The homeowners pay both a monthly maintenance fell and share the harvest.
"Growing vegetables is something we wanted to do, but we didn’t have the time, energy or knowledge," said Adrienne Fisher, 50.
Her weed-ridden 600-square-foot yard was transformed by Murphy and her staff, who planted 33 types of vegetables and herbs — some 8,000 plants.
Fisher pays for a quarter of the farm’s costs and gets a quarter of the yield — which should be about 250 pounds of veggies this season and some strawberries next season.
Startup costs were $900 — for soil, an irrigation system, and labor. And Fisher, who lives with her husband and three children, won’t have to pay those next year.
Fisher also pays BK Farmyards $37.50 a month to tend and harvest the plot during the season from April 15 to Nov. 15.
The idea of a roving crew of urban apartment dwellers going from house to house to make a living is fascinating. It's like returning to our agrarian roots but taking the 'A' train to get there. Stacy and her BK Farmyards sells their share and broker some of the owner's produce at food cooperatives.
Meanwhile up in the Bronx there is "La Finca del Sur," Spanish for "The Farm of the South." NY1, my local news channel did a short feature today on this organic farm in a very unlikely area billing it as "the first female-operated urban farm in the South Bronx."
The goal is to provide the community with affordable, organic foods as well as promote health awareness.
"Staff people used to walk by and notice this land that was just sitting here full of weeds and garbage and they said this would be a great place for an urban farm," said community organizer Nancy Ortiz-Surun. "So it was just inspired individuals who live and work in the community who noticed that this could be something more than what it is."
The hard work began in April when volunteers cleared the land. The soil there is contaminated with lead from past industrial uses, so planting was done in raised beds separated from the ground by plastic sheeting, cardboard, mulch and special landscape fabric. New soil donated by the New York Botanical Garden was trucked in.
It seems like in almost every local food story in New York City lately, somewhere in the story there is something about sponsorship or education being generated by one of the Botanic Gardens in this city. The gardens have always been educational but the fast transformation to promoting Greenmarkets and local farming is really a great sign of changing times.
But the best part of this La Finca de Sur story is the community building. About twenty-five years ago, 138th Street near the Grand Concourse was one of the worst areas in the nation and now;
"By having this place where they can meet, they can grow food, they can empower themselves at the same time," said volunteer farmer Demetrio Surun. "I think that's great for us to at least do something for the community."
The volunteers who run La Finca Del Sur want their greenspace to also serve as a community gathering place.
"We're going to be having some cardio classes, we're looking into doing yoga and Tai Chi," said community organizer Regina Ginyard. "Classes for adults, we have children arts and crafts workshops, a farmers market on the works, so a lot of cool things are happening here."
"People can come and farm and relax and get healing and make art and connect with other people," says Ortiz-Surun.
And the third story is the Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest linked above. Also the product of a public garden this time the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Check out last year's winner of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 2008 Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest. The 2009 Winners of Greenest Block in Brooklyn was recently announced too. The beauty of this story is that neighborhoods across the borough are competing for the bragging rights. It sure isn't the prize because first prize is three hundred bucks but the pride and neighborhood improvements are amazing.
You gotta love it. Now I know it's a bit late but if you got a happy story, I'm still hanging in and would love to hear.