LHaus
Jul 9 2010

Your salad may have been grown in Long Island City.

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Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, Long Island City -photo:Jesse Winter

Standard Motors has a farm, EE-I-EE-I-O… Long Island City celebrated the success of its first rooftop farm this week, with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by local press & politicians. The farmers, Brooklyn Grange, jumped through many hoops to sow their rooftop farm and are starting to see the fruits of their labor. Luckily, so are we.

The one-acre farm on the roof of the Standard Motors building on Northern Blvd is impressive to say the least. Growing speciality vegetables, the farm is already selling to prominent restaurants in the city, as well as their own market in the SM lobby, and can barely keep up with their abundant bounty. So far they’re growing: kale, spinach, rainbow swiss chard, basil, thai basil, mint, cilantro, mustard mix, green salad mix, mizuna, merlot lettuce heads, crispino lettuce heads, bok choy, komatsuna, Italian dandelion and coming soon, cucumbers and puntarelle.

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Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, Long Island City –photo:Jesse Winter

By popular demand, Brooklyn Grange is launching a CSA. CSA stands for “Community-Supported Agriculture” and it refers to a system where individuals buy season-long farms shares and get a weekly bag of seasonal produce. BG’s CSA will begin next week, so write to them and sign up soon! The deets:

  • One CSA share costs $350 for 18 weeks of fresh veggies (less than $20 a week)

  • Your share will get you a “mixed bag” of 7-10lbs of vegetables per week, including a sampling of whatever vegetables we have in season

  • You can pick up your share during their market hours from 3-7pm on Tuesdays &Thursdays in the lobby of the Standard Motors Building, 37-18 Northern Blvd, LIC (36th St station, R & M train).

  • Email brooklyngrangefarm@gmail.com to sign up for their CSA.

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Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, Long Island City –photo:Brooklyn Grange

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10 Comments

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Hopefully more buildings in LIC will do this. It’s also good for energy savings. Talk about a green roof!! How come they don’t sell their stuff at the LIC greenmarket?

#1 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

Are the vegetables organic?

#2 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

Can you imagine going through all that trouble and then NOT be organic?

#3 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

who cares, its still a lot fresher and im sure even cleaner then the products coming from south america

#4 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

Do you mean cleaner than the genetically modified foods grown in the states? And are you referring to the pesticides that are MADE in America and then sold for consumption in SA?

#5 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

For me, it would defeat the whole purpose of buying their stuff if it hasn’t been grown organically. That’s the deal breaker. Does everything have to turn into an argument on this blog?

#6 Anonymous / 1 year, 7 months ago

why is everyone a dick on this blog…chill out bro.

#7 Anonymous / 1 year, 6 months ago

They’re just debating. no need to get so flabbergasted. I ate some veggies from there and they were fresh and tasty. Like if you grew it in your garden, picked it and then ate it for lunch. It’s probably organic in the sense that there are no pesticides/fungicides being used. And also no trucking involved, and I’m sure they are using compost. It’s so close to us you can go to the farm and see how the food is being grown. Where else can you do that?

#8 Anonymous / 1 year, 6 months ago

Nice answer #8.

#9 Anonymous / 1 year, 6 months ago

I apologize if I sounded overly-defensive, but being from South America, I can’t help but have a reaction to someone saying our products are not clean. I mean, where do you think you live? The US has nothing to boast about when it comes to industrialized farming practices.

Anyways, organic/local rooftop farming sounds like a great alternative!

#10 #5 / 1 year, 6 months ago

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