Who doesn't like a delicious dinner done for a dime? Eating on a budget at your local Greenmarket doesn't have to break the bank. At GrowNYC, we pride ourselves on serving the community of New York City by offering fresh, healthy and local fruits, veggies, dairy, baked goods, meats and more. This holiday season we're making it easy for shoppers to make tasty and affordable dishes for two or twenty! 
 
Every Monday starting at noon at our Union Square Greenmarket we’re highlighting special cooking demonstrations we’re calling Affordable Eats. It's a Greenmarket series that addresses the concerns of shoppers that are working to feed their families healthy meals on a fixed budget. After visiting the market for an Affordable Eats demo, shoppers will come away with a host of ideas for simple, market-fresh and affordable meals that average around $2.50 per serving. With the holiday season fast approaching, we understand many shoppers are conscious of where every dollar of their budget goes. Let us make cooking dinner easy for you by picking the ingredients, highlighting the low cost and offering instructions on how to prepare it. We can help you elevate your plate without emptying your wallet!
 
Stop by on Mondays to catch an Affordable Eats cooking demonstration and see for yourself how tasty and affordable shopping at a Greenmarket can be.

Every year New Yorkers throw away over 10 billion single-use plastic bags. Plastic bags are not easily recyclable and they don’t decompose. They end up in landfills and pollute rivers and oceans where they do irreparable damage to wildlife.

We need to make a change. That’s why GrowNYC commissioned a full line of reusable bags to sell at our Greenmarkets. Many of our producers are selling these new tote bags, bread bags and produce bags at their farm stands.  

Come support the vendors listed below who are doing their part to help make NYC greener - and see how easy it is to do your part, too.

Bags available include: Greenmarket Tote, Small Produce Bag, Large Produce Bag, Bread Bag

Bread Alone Bakery
Fishkill Farm
Glebocki Farm
Hot Bread Kitchen
John D Madura Farm
Lani's Farm 
Locust Grove Fruit Farm
Migliorelli Farm
Morgiewicz Farm
Oak Grove Plantation
Phillips Farms
Prospect Hill Orchards
Red Jacket Orchards 
Rexcroft Farm
Ronnybrook Farm
Samascott Orchards
Two Guys From Woodbridge
Wilkow Orchards 
Windfall Farms

In light of recent forecasts, which include the possibility of Hurricane Joaquin making landfall over the Eastern United States next week, GrowNYC is advising gardeners to consult our 2014 publication Resilient NYC Community Garden Guide. 

The guide, published in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, is a practical manual on making your garden more resilient, including step-by-step guidelines to minimizing storm damage.

From preventive pruning techniques to ways to secure garden features, we hope this guide will serve as a practical resource for you and your green space.

Get the Guide!

Beginning in Fall 2015, GrowNYC will partner with Green Beetz to deliver the organization’s holistic food-based curriculum to over 300 elementary school students city-wide. GrowNYC will distribute and support teachers in implementing Green Beetz’s health-based curriculum to 10 elementary schools over the course of a one-year pilot in collaboration with Grow to Learn. Read the full press release.

Green Beetz’ mission is to empower middle schoolers to navigate the complex issues surrounding food in the 21st century. Green Beetz' innovative, holistic curriculum incorporates media and inquiry-based activities, inviting students to consider how food impacts the environment, their bodies and the world around them. The Green Beetz curriculum was developed in collaboration with The New York Academy of Sciences to ensure its alignment with age-appropriate STEM topics and Common Core State Standards. Since the non-profit’s founding in 2013 by Dr. Anna Chapman, Andrew Chapman and Tracey Kemble, the organization has worked in East and Central Harlem to test its holistic model.

Included in today’s announcement is the release of “Captain Trash Bag,” a Green Beetz original video promoting the curriculum. 

Thanks to funding from Empire State Development, GrowNYC is hosting a rotating cast of New York State brewers and distillers paired with a local restaurant at our Union Square and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarkets every Saturday until November 21. Each week shoppers will have the opportunity to sample and purchase beer and spirits made of local ingredients, taste market-fresh dishes that complement the craft beverages on offer and purchase regionally grown flours, wheat berries, pastas, and dried beans from our Greenmarket Regional Grains Project.

Over the past five years, the Northeast has seen a resurgence of interest in small grain production coinciding with innovative grain based product development in the food and beverage sectors. Consumer demand for local foods along with policy initiatives such as Governor Cuomo’s Farm Brewery and Farm Distillery legislation, and the work of Greenmarket’s Regional Grains Project have helped fuel the grain renaissance in New York State. 

GrowNYC is thrilled to provide a marketplace for these innovative craft brewers and distillers to introduce their New York State products to Greenmarket shoppers. Check the Beer & Spirits of New York Pop-up webpage for updates on each week's participants.    

In particular, the craft beverage industry has seen dramatic and unprecedented growth. Since 2011, the number of farm distilleries in New York State has increased 450 percent, from 10 in 2011 to 55 today. The number of craft breweries alone has more than doubled from 2012 to 2015, from 95 breweries in 2012 to 207 in January, 2015. GrowNYC was at the forefront of this surge when we partnered with Brooklyn Brewery to help source the ingredients to create a truly local beer. In 2013, Greenmarket Wheat was born and today it is one of Brooklyn Brewery's perrenial brews and is made with 70% local ingredients including NY State wheat, hops, barley and honey. 

The Beer and Spirits of New York Pop-up stand received funding through Empire State Development’s Craft Beverage Marketing and Promotion Grant Program, in coordination with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. The program was created to increase the profile, awareness and sales of New York State produced wine, beer, spirits, and hard cider, and provides matching funds for the marketing and promotion of craft beverages. The Craft Beverage Marketing and Promotion Grant Program is administered in alignment with the Governor’s Taste NY initiative, and Taste NY branding will be used throughout the pop-up stand.

 

This Spring and summer GrowNYC completed several new rainwater harvesting projects and updated several existing ones.

At Governors Island Teaching Garden, we installed 3 systems from a child sized shade structure that collects into 2 - 5 gallon containers and allows children to open and close valves which divert the flow of water either to the containers, a see through hose or a drain to the adjacent rain garden. 

To collect rainfall from the adjacent former Coast Guard housing, a 500 gallon tank was installed to collect from a large area of roof and two 50 gallon barrels collect from a smaller roof area. A flow meter was installed on the 500 gallon tank to monitor water usage. These installations were completed using funding provided by the NYS Pollution Prevention Institute through a grant from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. 6,000 visitors have interacted with the Green Infrastructure projects on Governors Island this season.

At  the Brook Park Community Garden in the Bronx, GrowNYC worked on a week long effort with  community gardeners and volunteers from In Good Company to install 3  new rainwater systems. A 1000 gallon cistern captures rainfall from the downspout of an adjacent home, a 250 gallon tank collects from an existing shed and 2 - 50 gallon barrels store water captured from a chicken coop.

GrowNYC staff worked with 10 youth aged 14 to 18 from Brotherhood Sister Soul in West Harlem to repair an existing rainwater system and install a new system in the Frank White Garden. Each system has 100 gallon storage and collects from existing shade structures in the garden. The youth learned about the New York City combined sewer system as well as getting hands on building experience  developing pollution prevention solutions.

GrowNYC staff completed a shade structure in the Morning Glory Garden in the Bronx which collects rainwater into a 300 gallon tank.

A new 300 gallon tank was installed at the Greenspace on Fourth Garden in Brooklyn. This new garden on land atop a water tunnel access site is a native plant garden where the gardeners installed a rain garden in collaboration with Brooklyn GreenBridge . The overflow from the rainwater system is diverted to the rain garden.

A 1000 gallon rainwater system at the St. John Cantius Garden in East New York, Brooklyn was reconnected to the adjacent building after it had been disconnected due to a change of ownership of the building.

These new and reconnected systems now bring the total number of rainwater harvesting systems in New York City Community Gardens to over 140 systems with the capacity to collect more than 1.5 million gallons of rainfall per year. An interactive map of these gardens and all rainwater harvesting sites can be found here.

GrowNYC is proud to announce the publication of Green Design for Students, a manual of all of the major environmental and infrastructure issues that impact our daily lives, such as energy consumption, water treatment, agriculture, waste management, and sustainable construction, written specifically for Grades 7-12.

Green Design for Students was created and overseen by GrowNYC's Director of Environmental Education, Mike Zamm, who has over 45 years of experience in NYC schools designing and teaching topics related to the environment and sustainability. . The manual is designed to augment the common core curriculum and provide exposure to critical real-world issues that are frequently overlooked in a standard lesson plan.

We encourage teachers to use and share the Green Design manual and help educate future generations about these pressing issues.

Please view the embedded manual below or save the PDF for future use.

Spring, winter, summer or fall, New Yorkers are increasingly dedicated to building a collective compost pile, facilitated by Greenmarkets and community composters throughout the city.  In partnership with the NYC Department of Sanitation, GrowNYC has diverted more than 5 million pounds of residential food scraps from disposal.  Material dropped off at Greenmarkets is distributed to a network of local compost sites, such as Earth Matter on Governor’s Island, where chickens get the first “peck” of the scraps, and Red Hook Farm, where unwanted scraps are transformed to nurture a new crop of Brooklyn-grown vegetables.   Whether your haul is large or small, we thank YOU for your contributions to this effort!  Learn more about food scrap collections at Greenmarket.    

GrowNYC's Greenmarkets have partnered with Our Name Is Farm to bring you short video profiles of our farmers and producers, along with their products and processes. Our Name Is Farm offers a variety of services in digital media and event production in support of small farmers, artisanal producers, and businesses dedicated to the success of the sustainable food movement. Their mission is to create content and curate experiences that allow consumers to feel empowered by brand knowledge, and therefore, mindful of their choices. Greenmarket hopes that through this partnership we can share the unique stories behind Greenmarket producers and their products and help motivate a new generation of young producers dedicated to the continued success and growth of the sustainable food movement.

We are excited to present you the first video of the series on Sugar Snap Peas with Ron Lamborn featuring Greenmarket farmer, Rick Bishop, of Mountain Sweet Berry Farm. Check back for more videos throughout the season. 

Episode 2 - A Stark Summer: Tomatoes are Coming

Episode 3 - Stone Fruit Summer: Ripe for Peaches

Episode 4 - Whey to Go

Eleven Recycling Champions schools participated in this year’s Big Lift: Zero Waste contest. The schools blew us away with their uncontaminated collections that definitively showed what studies have told us: 90% of school waste can be diverted from landfills!

The Big Lift challenged schools to reduce waste and recycle as much as possible during one school day, aiming for zero waste to landfills from classrooms, offices, and the cafeteria. The first place organics collection school, PS 130M, achieved an astounding 93.60% diversion rate and the first place non-organics school, PS 221Q, achieved a 57.78% diversion rate. The average diversion of all participating schools in this year’s contest was 58.88%, exceeding the 50% diversion rate for schools targeted in the Mayor’s Zero Waste Schools program.

In preparation for the Big Lift, participating schools planned publicity campaigns that included announcements, classroom visits, pledge walls, posters, and even video “commercials” shown in every class. These impressive efforts increased student and teacher awareness about recycling, reinforcing classroom and cafeteria recycling practices put in place over the course of the school year.

Meet the winners and their tips for school recycling success:

PS 130 Manhattan, 1^st place organics school—93.60% waste diversion
Best Practice: Principal involvement and classroom paper monitoring charts

Mr. Fong is a first year principal at PS 130 Hernando DeSoto in Manhattan. With all of the other demands of his role, he made recycling a priority. Mr. Fong’s hands-on involvement in the cafeteria as students mastered the new organics sorting routine, demonstrated to all in the school the high importance he places on school wide recycling.

Sustainability Coordinator, Wenmin Nicklas, worked with the Green Team to create a system to monitor and display the results of classroom paper recycling. Once a week, each class received a rating based on how well they are separating paper in their classroom. The weekly rating chart is displayed in the hallway by the main office for all to see, prompting students to look at their class’s rating and strive to achieve “smiley stickers” on each Green Team check in. 

PS 90 Queens, 2^nd place organics school—87.60% waste diversion
Best Practices: School wide involvement and recycling monitors

At PS 90 Horace Mann recycling education extended beyond the students and staff to include a letter sent home to parents. Custodial staff were key in implementing successful cafeteria recycling, volunteering to monitor the stations until student monitors were assigned. Currently, PS 90 has a monitor system where students from their grades volunteer during lunch hour.

PS 221 Queens, 1^st place non-organics school—57.78% waste diversion
Best Practice: Presorting at tables

For NYC's youngest students, sorting recyclables can be a balancing act - many are barely tall enough to see into the recycling bins! Sustainability Coordinators Danielle Rothenberg and Laura Arnold at P.S. 221 noticed that students understood which items were recyclable but had trouble placing them in the bin, so they created a system where students presort all plastic items. Each table has a blue, plastic basket and is assigned a student who transfers the plastic items in the basket to the recycling bins. Presorting has transformed the cafeteria by allowing students to focus just on emptying liquids from their drink cartons, recycling them, and throwing out the tray.

PS 197 Brooklyn, 2^nd place non organics school—42.59% waste diversion
Best Practices: Tackling changes one at a time and showing appreciation

Sustainability Coordinator, Phil Richford, has two strategies for success: implement big changes one at a time and continually thanking everyone involved in making recycling a success. Phil implemented tray stacking in the cafeteria as a first step to reducing waste and increasing sorting. Once students were in the habit of tray stacking, the Green Team focused on making sure students separated recyclables from their landfill waste. It only took a few weeks before each habit was a part of the everyday routine. Now that the habits have been formed, students easily adapt to slight changes in the routine such as stacking the new, round, compostable plates introduced at the end of the school year.

Knowing that none of the school’s recycling success would be possible without the custodial staff, Phil always expresses his gratitude and encourages others to do so. Students made thank you posters for the custodians which are proudly displayed next to school’s Big Lift winner announcement.  In turn, seeing the importance of recycling to the school community, the custodians work patiently with Phil to problem solve any issues that arise.

We are proud of what these schools accomplished on the day of the Big Lift: Zero Waste contest. RCP worked with 90 schools in the 2014-2015 school year, helping them to implement lasting recycling programs. Thank you to all of our schools for your efforts to recycle, for making NYC a greener place for all, and for a great year of partnership!