Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 5: Adjusting Expectations

I happily loaded my two empty Ronnybrook milk bottles into my tote bags this past Saturday for my usual jaunt to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. I was looking forward to not only the Ronnybrook Farm Dairy stand, where I would return said bottles for a new one (this being for the milk-drinker in my household) and also purchase a quart of yogurt, but I was also hoping for more sausage from Flying Pigs Farm. I could almost taste the pork. Yum.

Upon getting there, I found a much smaller market than in previous weeks. Ronnybrook and Flying Pigs were nowhere to be found! Shopping with admittedly less excitement than usual, I stopped at Evolutionary Organics (Ulster County, NY), where I found broccoli rabe and my excitement was restored. I love broccoli rabe. I also bought a red pepper. I then got a "party pack" of blackberries and raspberries and a bunch of arugula from Phillips Farms (Hunterdon County, NJ), and — my favorite food item of the day — grapes from Buzzard Crest Vineyards (Yates County, NY).

Then, I just couldn't resist the lure of the Lebak Farm (Burlington County, NJ) flower stand. I bought a bunch of sunflowers. Be aware about these though, if you're carrying sunflowers, you might be followed for a block or two by a bee (or two). Totally worth it though.

The grapes are fabulous — they taste like little balls of grape juice that pop open in your mouth. I didn't realize how bland store-bought grapes were until I had these. The fresh broccoli rabe tasted much less bitter than store-bought broccoli rabe. I blanched it and sauteed it with some fresh garlic (from a couple of weeks ago) and oil. I definitely didn't buy enough though, it cooked way down (duh).

We're going to a wedding on Long Island this Saturday, so no market again for a week! Oh well.

The Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket is held on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. year-round. The city's Greenmarkets are a program of GrowNYC, a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs. This particular Greenmarket, founded in 1989, is GrowNYC's flagship Brooklyn market and is its second largest market behind Union Square.

Related:
Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 4: Change of Plans
Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 3: On the Road
Fabulous Fresh Finds: Week 2
New Blog Feature: Fabulous Fresh Finds

Coming Up: New Green City Fair

Following the success of last year's "Green Brooklyn...Green City" fair at Borough Hall, GrowNYC will hold "New Green City" at Union Square Park's South Plaza on September 29 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The free, day-long event will feature a one-day textile collection, interactive exhibits, DIY tutorials, multi-media art exhibits and the Union Square Greenmarket.

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint!

Click here to go to a carbon footprint calculator on the Nature Conservancy's website. You fill in information about whether or not you use Energy Star appliances, what your most frequent mode of transportation is and whether or not you recycle, among other things. The number that's generated is your estimated greenhouse gas emissions in tons of carbon dioxide.

It's pretty cool, and you can see areas where you can decrease your number. Thanks to Hanna for the tip!

Green Block Party Coming Up in Carroll Gardens

On Oct. 2, local non-profit GreenHomeNYC will hold a free block party — "The NEW New York GreenHomeNYC's DIY Green Street Festival" — focusing on teaching New Yorkers how to green the built environment. It will take place on Third Street between Hoyt and Bond streets in Carroll Gardens, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

During the day, attendees will have opportunities to learn how to install and plant a green roof, learn about worm bin composting, complete an energy audit and learn how to capture and reuse rain water to water plants.

Various exhibitors will be on hand to showcase environmental programs, such as Brooklyn-based Vokashi with its compost system and kits and Foro Marble presenting eco-friendly counter tops. Also have the opportunity to see the Jerko, a motor-less houseboat with a built-in wetland, rainwater harvesting, solar thermal, solar photo voltaics, and a composting toilet.

Kid-friendly activities will include solar car building and racing with SolarOne, and jewelry making from bike parts with Recycle-A-Bicycle.

The Lower East Side Ecology Center will be on hand for electronics recycling, Wearable Collections will be on hand collecting clothing and textiles, and Recycle-A-Bicycle will be collecting bicycles.

There will be boating on the Gowanus Canal in conjunction with talks about environmental remediation. The Jerko, the Gowanus Water Vacuum, an off the grid houseboat will take its maiden voyage, surrounded by a built-in wetland. Hudson, developer of J Condo and the Village at Atlantic Center, will give tours of Third + Bond which is expected to be LEED-Gold and EnergyStar certified.

This event will compost its food waste, minimize the use of paper, utilize bio-fuel, and offset its carbon footprint.

Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 4: Change of Plans

This past Saturday, I was forced to wait at home all day for the DirecTV tech. Alas, I couldn't make it to the GAP Greenmarket. Not wanting to go another week without farm fresh produce (gasp), I made a quick trip yesterday to the Borough Hall Greenmarket, which is close to my office.

Facing limited options at this particular market on this particular day, I came away with tomatoes and onions from Phillips Farms (Hunterdon County, NJ), peaches from Wilklow Orchards (Ulster County, NY), plums and — most excitingly — juice from Red Jacket Orchards (Ontario County, NY).

The juice was raspberry apple. Having never seen this combination before, I decided to try it. It was refreshing. I will absolutely go back for a bigger bottle (I bought the individual size). We plan on using the tomatoes for a caprese salad and will snack on the fruit this week.

The Borough Hall Greenmarket is held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays year round, and on Thursdays from April 1 through December 30. The city's Greenmarkets are a program of GrowNYC, a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs. This particular Greenmarket celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. 

Related:

Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 3: On the Road

Fabulous Fresh Finds: Week 2

New Blog Feature: Fabulous Fresh Finds

Book Festival's Green Panel Wrestles With Consumer Decisions

In a panel entitled, “It Ain’t Easy Being Green” at the Brooklyn Book Festival this past Sunday — moderated by Ted Hamm, founding editor of the political journal Brooklyn Rail — environmentalists Colin Beaven (No Impact Man), Heather Rogers (Green Gone Wrong) and Anna Lappé (Diet For a Hot Planet) gathered to speak about the green movement.

Before starting the discussion, I was happy to notice that Beaven removed three of the Poland Spring water bottles from the table (the panelists had their own reusable water containers, Ted Hamm did not). It always frustrates me that these water bottles are supplied at so-called "green" events, sometimes even the same events at which stopping the use of said water bottles is discussed.

Anyway, the overall theme of the discussion was how corporations and consumers have misapplied the label of sustainability. As a case in point, Lappé, who has been working to change the country’s food system, spoke about how McDonald’s claims to be a sustainable company — a "community-building sustainability organization," in fact — in part because its Happy Meals have come with stuffed animal versions of endangered species.

"We cannot just let food be at the mercy of our market sources," she continued. "We have to change the food system from the ground up."

Rogers pointed out that "getting to environmental sustainability isn’t a product we’re going to buy. It's a process." She travels around the world looking at how other cultures tackle environmental solutions. "I don't know if we can solve the problems of mass consumption through more consumption," she said, mentioning an example of an organic sugar company that grew its sugar cane in the place of a forest that it had destroyed.

"Shopping isn't voting, it's shopping," she noted. "There are so many technologies we already have. And yet in the United States we're constantly focused on the technology that's just around the corner."

Beaven spent a year of his life living in New York City producing no environmental impact. That year produced a blog, a book and a documentary film shown at the Sundance Film Festival. He explained that if people start by making lifestyle changes, they can then get involved in the political process.

"We don't need to know much more that we already do. The question is whether we believe we can do anything about it," he said, "Our capacity to do more good is infinite. The question is: What do we use our resources for?"

Wylie Dufresne at the Farm City Fair in Cobble Hill

Pictured here, celebrity chef Wylie Dufresne — executive chef of Manhattan eatery wd~50 — prepares a poached egg during the Farm City Fair inside the Invisible Dog Art Center in Cobble Hill. Though I'm not a fan of eggs that aren't cooked through (yes, I know, I should have sucked it up and ate an egg that Wylie Dufresne made), I was told it "tasted like runny yolk but it wasn't runny," and was delicious.

A take on the traditional county fair, Farm City took place yesterday inside the center and along part of Bergen Street. Brooklynites sampled produce from bk farmyards, Added Value, and several small-batch artisanal food purveyors. Children watched a clown make balloon animals and danced to music from Asphalt Orchestra.

Various workshops throughout the day included one on foraging with Leda Meredith and one on rooftop farming with sub-irrigated planter systems. There was also a Brooklyn Food Experiments cook-off on the third floor of the Invisible Dog.

Farm City Fair was part of Crossing the Line, the fall festival of the French Institute Alliance Française, and kicked off a three-weekend celebration of urban agriculture called Where Are You Growing?