Stop by Green in BKLYN today (Saturday, July 9th) from 1-3PM for a taste of Myrtle Eats Fresh Community Chef Roisin Wisneski’s Greek Salad Skewers!

All ingredients will be purchased that morning from the Fort Greene Greenmarket & made fresh for you to sample. Then you can purchase your own ingredients at the Greenmarket and follow the recipe at home.

The Greenmarket, located on Washington Park between DeKalb & Willoughby, is an excellent source of fresh, local food. And you can use EBT/FMNP/WIC/Health Bucks at the market!

My friend Paula’s been working on an awesome project – 596 Acres! She sent me a bunch of info about the project & I’ve copied it below…

Parks rule! Let’s make some more…

NOTE: There is a COMMUNITY MEETING WITH DEP OFFICIALS – Tuesday, Junes 28th – 918 Kent Avenue (Community Room/Basement) 6-8PM

596 Acres is a public education project aimed at making communities aware of the land resources around them. With the goal of a food sovereign New York City in mind, 596 Acres is helping neighbors form connections to the vacant lots in their lives — from the smallest (throwing a seed bomb – which we have at Green in BKLYN!) to the largest (hosting a public meeting with the head of a City Agency that owns a vacant lot that was promised to the community as a park (see myrtlepark.org).

Thanks to the Center for the Study of Brooklyn, we have learned that many of these lots are actually publicly owned and are developing a platform for negotiating interim and long term community uses for this warehoused public space.

596 acres is how much vacant public land existed in Brooklyn alone as of the Department of City Planning’s April 2010 data (MaPLUTO). If even a small portion of that was committed to neighborhood food production, we would have an abundance of fresh seasonal vegetables to eat! And think of all the grassy parks we could have! And composting sites! And whatever else Brooklynites and their neighbors know they need.

The group has produced a beautiful set of map-directories of this vacant public land based on the latest available City data. You can email 596acres@gmail.com for a map and directory of this land. The first set of 596 Acres posters has been distributed and the second edition is ready — 1000 posters on street-ready newsprint funded through IOBY.org. These posters and directories of vacant and warehoused public land are headed into the hands of community activists, to corner bodegas and to be affixed to the lots themselves. Join the distribution team by emailing 596acres@gmail.com.

596Acres will be available to consult with groups and individuals as they reach out to NYC government entities asking for control of space in their neighborhoods. We are working with one agency in particular now and several community arts and agriculture organizations.

New York City has a paucity of green space per person and the constant refrain is that there is not enough space here for all the awesome ideas that people have for how to “green” their neighborhoods and grow food. It turns out, the space is all around us — especially concentrated in neighborhoods that need it most. 596 Acres is working to connect communities to the information they need to gain control of their environments.

Check out a great little film that artist Douglas Paulson made with CUP last year: http://www.vimeo.com/14838218 (The Good, The Bad and the Empty) that really illustrates the effects of vacant lots on NY’s left-behind communities.

Photos posted at 596acres.org and more info at the IOBY page: https://ioby.org/project/596-acres-vacant-public-land.

On Tuesday, June 21st, the longest day of the year, this city will rock. Again.

On that day, as part of Make Music New York, hundreds of public spaces throughout the five boroughs become impromptu stages for over 1,000 free concerts in an amazing day long, live musical celebration!

Green in BKLYN celebrates Make Music New York with Citibank, the rest of Myrtle Avenue and the city of New York on Tuesday, June 21st…

• 12pm: Ed Vasquez – poetic vocals and fhytm
• 2pm: Rajdulari – jazz and funk
• 3pm: Nedelka Felicidad – vocalist

For the rest of Make Music New York’s schedule, check out their website.

It’s (gonna be) the first day of Summer! Let’s rock that long day out!

We got your survival kits here… your Mobile Foodie Survival Kits, that is.

Designed by an awesome couple in Williamsburg, these pocket-size kits are filled with USDA-certified organic spices.  The spice kits (and Herb Seed Kits, which we also have) are assembled upstate by a team of adults with physical and medical handicaps at the Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled.  Lately, the kits have been biked over to Green in BKLYN by the designers from their Williamsburg home.

The containers are BPA-free and fully recyclable and the tubes are made of post-consumer recycled paperboard.

The thirteen awesome organic spices necessary for foodies, college students, campers, new home owners, new spouses and folks in general include organic basil, cayenne, curry, dill, granulated garlic, ginger, nutmeg, oregano, thyme, granulated onion and black pepper, as well as sea salt and wasabi powder.

The Herb Seed Kit includes cards with instructions for planting, caring for and harvesting as well as seeds for all these groovy herbs: basil, dill, chives, catnip, marjoram, oregano, thyme, arugula, curly parsley and flat-leaf parsley.

I don’t know how or where I first came upon Borough Furnace and their A-MAZING skillets made from recycled iron, but it was somewhere around their first or second blog and about a year ago.

Since then, John and Jason, Borough Furnace founders, have been tromping all over the place trying to make stuff and make stuff happen:

The original plan was to design and prototype our cookware in our own studio using our recycled iron method and work with other craftsmen to produce the bulk of the products. We were disheartened to find out, after calling almost every foundry in the US, that no one was interested in either our product or our process. Repeatedly, we were told that iron work of that scale is only done in China and India… Well, that is unacceptable to us.

So, these crafty fellows have decided to do it themselves… They’re starting a remodel in Syracuse to build a micro-foundry and pro-toyping studio so they can get down to business. Which means, we should finally be able to get some awesome Borough Skillets here at Green in BKLYN!

Now, if you want to move the process along, the fellas have launched a Kickstarter.com campaign to try and get funding for their new foundry. That will allow them to start producing their cast iron cookware within the year, which would be awesome! For them,for us (you, me) and Green in BKLYN!

They’re so hot, they’re cool!

With Summer cropping up in Spring (including 80-100 degree days in June), it’s time to address the heat!

So, without further ado. Or hot air. Green in BKLYN presents…

TEN WAYS TO STAY COOL (while being kind to Mother Earth):

1. Plant some green: Houseplants absorb warm carbon dioxide and replace it with cool oxygen. Plus they’re nice to talk to.
2. Open up: Even if the wind is only blowing 1 mile per hour, cracking the window at night can cool your home 3 to 4 degrees.
3. Lighten up: Fluorescent  bulbs (CFLs and LEDs) use up to 75% less energy and put out much less heat than incandescent bulbs.
4. Join the fan club: Installing a ceiling fan costs only a fraction of what it takes to install and run an AC. Plus, using fans instead of an AC can lower home cooling costs by as much as 30%.
5. Wet yourself: Place a cool, damp cloth around your neck or wrists or hold a cloth-wrapped ice cube against your pulse points. You’ll experience an immediate cool-down effect of as much as three degrees.
6. Give it a rest: Don’t use your dishwasher, clothes washer, dryer or oven during the heat of the day. Use a clothesline to skip the dryer altogether and the microwave to bypass the oven.
7. Sleep it off: Try breathable bamboo sheets that wick away moisture and are cool to the touch and wet your sheets (with water) for a cool rest.
8. Take it off: Show some skin when you get home. Peel off the layers. Go au natural, if you dare. Less (clothes) is more (chance for the air to cool you off).
9. Get wet: Drink, shower and spray H2O all in and over your self. Cool water in your belly, on your body and coming out of a spray bottle will hydrate and cool you. Icy loveliness!
10. Slow it down: No need to rush. Give yourself a little more time to get where you’re going, do what you’re doing and be who you’re being. Slower moving means less energy expenditure. Less stress. Less heat!

Seasons and the inevitable changing of them are an awesome natural occurrence. Adjusting accordingly makes our interaction with those changes an awesome natural occurrence as well. Here’s to change!

There’s a new kid in town…

The newly opened Trilok Fusion Center for Arts and Education houses a number of arts and education organizations as well as a venue for community events right here in our Clinton Hill neighborhood (actually, just across the street from Green in BKLYN!).

This Sunday, May 22, the Center hosts the Spring Swing Event to raise funds to help build their library. The event will include live music, food, drinks, activities for kids and a raffle (including a donation from Green in BKLYN).

• What: Trilok’s Spring Swing Event
• Where: Trilok Fusion Center for Arts and Education Rooftop
• Address: 143 Waverly Avenue (just off Myrtle Avenue) in Brooklyn
• When: Sunday, May 22 4-7pm
• For more info call: 718-797-1700
• Or to buy tickets, click HERE.

Occupying 22,000 square feet of space, Trilok Fusion Arts offers space for hosting workshops, rehearsals, performances, meetings, social gatherings and film screenings. To book space or for a free tour, call 718-797-1700.

This weekend is the 12th Annual SONYA Studio Stroll – an awesome (FREE) opportunity to visit with local Brooklyn artists.

The Stroll is a self-guided tour of SONYArtist members’ studios and galleries in Clinton Hill, Ft. Greene, Wallabout and Bedford Stuyvesant and takes place Saturday, May 14th & Sunday, May 15th from 12-6PM both days, rain or shine.

With hundreds of great works of art on display, you can start or add to your own art collection and you can preview the artwork in the SONYArtist Registry, follow the links on each artist’s page for more information about them or contact them directly.

For more information or to download a map of the Stroll, check out SONYA’s website. A couple of days of free art, you can’t beat that!

Myrtle Avenue has partnered with High Point Farms to offer a meat CSA right here in Brooklyn.

What is a CSA? It’s a partnership between a farm and the consumer. Members pay in advance for high quality, farm fresh products that the farmer delivers directly to the community. Small to mid-sized farms benefit by being paid in advance, ensuring a consistent market at a fair price and consumers benefit by receiving a safe, fresh product and the opportunity to know the farmer who produced their food!

High Point Farms will be delivering to Myrtle Avenue this summer. To sign up, do so before the newly extended deadline – TUESDAY, MAY 31st.

For $350, which includes delivery costs, you’ll receive a total of 26-30 lbs. of meat.  Pick up is twice a month on Mondays (June 13, 27, July 11, 25, August 8, 22) from 4:30-6:30PM at Five Spot Soul Food (459 Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn 11205).

For more information or to pay with an EBT card, contact Kassy Nystrom at 718.230.1689 or kassy@myrtleavenue.org or check out Myrtle Avenue’s post.

Cheers to local, healthy meat!

On Saturday, April 30th from 2-4pm, the lovely, talented & super eco-friendly Tiffany Threadgould will be at Green in BKLYN signing ReMake It! – her brand new crafty book – as well as sharing a free bonus crafty project to make & take with you.

Tiffany’s groovy book is jam-packed with 95 do-it-yourself “Recycling Projects from the Stuff You Usually Scrap”.  So you can transform outdated CDs into a lampshade, empty cereal boxes into a magazine holder, bottle caps into a game of checkers & a whole lot more!

Join us joining Tiffany & make something awesome with something scrappy.  Bonus crafty project included!