{"id":33416,"date":"2012-11-12T12:54:02","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T16:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/?p=33416"},"modified":"2019-06-25T07:44:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T11:44:22","slug":"red-hook-community-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/offmetro.com\/ny\/33416\/red-hook-community-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"After the Storm, A Farm Re-grows in Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe whole farm was under two and a half feet of water,” said Ian Marvey, co-founder and executive director at Added Value Farms, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the sustainable development of Red Hook through projects like Red Hook Community Farm. Due to flooding of the Erie Basin and Gowanus Canal during Sandy, RHCF \u201csuffered significant damage, loss of equipment, all of our crops.\u201d<\/p>\n

In better times, the farm was a thriving center of community action, environmental stewardship, and a source of food and jobs for nearby disadvantaged residents. Offering farm-based learning programs and food-based initiatives, this is not your typical urban farm.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis farm has changed my life,\u201d said Justin, who now lives in Crown Heights with siblings and his single mother. \u201cI get to tell people I work at a farm and they look at me all crazy, like, \u2018a farm in Brooklyn?\u2019 I\u2019ve worked here for two years and get to teach kids about nutrition and it keeps them off the street. I\u2019m a role model for my best friend; today I got to try to be a role model for all these great volunteers here so we can fix the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youth Leaders, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members and volunteers have spent the past two weekends helping to harvest radishes, rhubarb, lettuce, zucchini, brussel sprouts, strawberry patches and turn the sewage-water ruined crops into compost, sorting the vegetables into piles that will be heated up to eliminate any pathogenic bacteria and then mixed with fungi, selected for their ability to absorb heavy metals that may be in the soil.<\/p>\n

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New Yorkers and tourists have shown up to help till the Sandy-sabotaged stretch of land. We met RHCF member Georgia from Harlem, and Anna, a Northeastern University student working on a finance co-op project. We worked alongside a woman from Colorado who ran over to Red Hook in her NYC Marathon clothes. If you are interested in helping, visit Added Value\u2019s website<\/a> or its Facebook page to see how you can bring the farm back to life through volunteering or donating or dining out at one of the local restaurants that sources food from RHCF. Frankies Spuntino<\/a> (457 Court St.), The Good Fork<\/a> (391 Van Brunt St), and iCi<\/a> (246 Dekalb Ave) ensure that the farm\u2019s investment stays within the community.<\/p>\n

How to get there:<\/strong> Take the F or G train to the Carroll Street or the 4th Ave-9th Street stop Take the B61 to the corner of Beard Street and Ostego Street (the Ikea Building). Turn right and walk along Halleck street to the corner of Columbia Street. The farm is on that corner. (Red Hook Community Farm, 370 Brunt St., added-value.org\/the-farms)<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n