Host Your Own Community Swap!

January 2, 2019

Hosting a Swap is as Easy as D-I-Y with GrowNYC’s Guide to Community Reuse Events

We are pleased to announce the release of our new DIY Swap Guide!

Since 2007, GrowNYC has hosted 270 Stop ‘N’ Swap® community reuse events across all five boroughs. Our goal is to provide each of NYC’s 59 community districts an annual opportunity to find new homes for unwanted items that might otherwise end up in a landfill.  Still, the demand for reuse and desire to host and participate in community swaps extends beyond our program’s capacity. We created this guide to assist schools, community organizations, and passionate individuals interested in hosting their own swap events!

Whether you are looking to host a curated event for items such as clothes, books, or toys, or a big event where anything goes, the guide will help you identify an event location, map out your swap footprint, gather event materials, outline a training for your volunteers, and more.  We hope this guide will be a launching pad for more free reuse events across NYC.  

If you use our guide to host a swap, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to send us a note at recycle@grownyc.org or tag us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (@GrowNYC). 

Need further incentive to try out some creative reuse ideas in your neighborhood? Citizens Committee is currently accepting applications for micro-grants of up to $3,000 to resident-led groups working on community projects in the NYC, including those related to waste diversion. For more information, visit their website here.

Happy swapping! 

Deck the Halls - Christmas Trees + Holiday Wreaths at Greenmarkets

November 30, 2018
Posted in Greenmarket

Your locally grown Christmas trees, wreaths, and boughs will stay fresher longer and smell amazing. A list of markets where you can stock up on holiday greens follows:

Berried Treasures: Wreaths (79th Street Sunday and Union Square Wednesday/Friday/Saturday)
Durr Wholesale: Wreaths (Union Square Saturday) 
Hurds Family Farm: New York Grown & Certified Trees (Grand Army Plaza Saturday)
Keith's Farm: Organic trees and wreaths (Union Square Wednesday and Saturday)
Lebak Farms: Wreaths and boughs (Grand Army Plaza Saturday)
Luna Family Farm: Wreaths and bouquets (Brooklyn Borough Hall Thursday; Stuy Town Sunday; Union Square Wednesday)
Mountain Sweet Berry FarmWreaths, garland, and princess pines (Union Square Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday)
Rexcroft Farm: New York Grown & Certified Trees (Fort Greene Saturday); Wreaths (Dag Hammarskjold Wednesday; Fort Greene Saturday) 
River Garden: Dried flower wreaths (Union Square Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday)
Stokes Farm: Herb wreaths (Tucker Square Thursday and Saturday; Union Square Saturday)
Van Houten Farms: Trees and wreaths (Union Square Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday)

How to Save a Farm in the Hudson Valley

November 7, 2018
Posted in Greenmarket

Part of Greenmarket’s two-fold mission is to promote regional farmers and keep them on their land...farming.

Ask anyone in GrowNYC’s FARMroots program, and they’ll tell you that it’s not easy, particularly with increasing pressure on farm families to sell their lands for development. But they will also tell you that it is always worth it.

A recent article in the New Food Economy tells the story of how long-established Greenmarket farmer Morse Pitts, working with FARMroots, Equity Trust, Scenic Hudson, and the Orange County Land Trust, preserved a 72-acre farm from being paved over, blocking a proposed industrial development and placing the land under perpetual conservation easement.

A must-read – check it out!

GrowNYC Assistant Director Mike Rezny to Speak at Urban Soils Conference on 12/6/2018

November 3, 2018

Mike Rezny, GrowNYC’s Assistant Director of Open Space Greening, will give a presentation entitled “Delivering Urban Agriculture” at this year’s Urban Soils Symposium, hosted by the NYC Urban Soils Institute

Mike’s presentation will cover local commercial soil compositions, an overhead view of the material needed to build urban agriculture in New York Coty, and more. Mike will also moderate an afternoon panel entitled “Urban Soils of the City: inherent, altered, imported, exported, resilient.”

The 2018 Urban Soils Symposium takes place on December 6-7 at the New York Institute of Technology on the Upper West Side. More information about the conference is available here

Concord Crush Happy Hour 10/26 at Project Farmhouse

October 26, 2018
Posted in Greenmarket

Join us for our Concord Crush Happy Hour on October 26th at Project Farmhouse!

For everyone out there who loved drinking grape juice as a kid, this one's for you. GrowNYC, along with NYC chefs and mixologists, gather to celebrate one of the most iconic and delicious Autumn ingredients—Concord grapes. Join us for entertainment and Concord-themed tastes and libations. 

Concord Crush Happy Hour
Friday, October 26th, 6pm-8pm 
GrowNYC's Project Farmhouse, 76 East 13th Street, NY, NY 
Tickets here, $25

GrowNYC Greenmarket & Youthmarket Photo Contest

October 20, 2018
Posted in Greenmarket

Greenmarket 2018 Photo Contest

Farmers Markets are very photogenic.

To properly celebrate National Farmers Market Week this year, we invited photographers (professional, amateur, or student) to visit markets, snap some photos, and send us the images that best celebrate GrowNYC Greenmarkets and Youthmarkets. 

Our team of judges chose the top 25 entries for a roving photography show at various markets throughout the city during the month of October, and one grand prize-winning photograph won dinner for two at Loring Place

Rye Day 10/19 at the Union Square Greenmarket

October 19, 2018
Posted in Greenmarket

GrowNYC is proud to participate in the second annual Rye Week, a celebration of rye as an agricultural product in New York State, which will take place from October 15 – 21.

October 19th will be Rye Day at the Union Square Greenmarket. Johanna Kindvall, author of Smorgasbord: The Art of Swedish Breads and Savory Treats, will be at market signing books and demonstrating how to prepare flat breads with rye flour. Also in attendance will be Strong Rope Brewery, Breuckelen Distilling, Hillrock Estate Distillery, and the GrowNYC Grainstand

The Union Square Greenmarket will also host a number of Empire Rye producers on October 17 and October 20. Three years ago, six prominent New York State distilleries came up with the concept for Empire Rye, a whiskey style for the Empire State. Similar to the way Kentucky has a style of bourbon with strict standards, each Empire Rye distiller must adhere to the same specifications in producing their rye. 

“Not only does New York State’s craft beverage program create jobs, boost local economies, and financially benefit local grain farmers,” says GrowNYC President and CEO Marcel Van Ooyen, “it’s also great for the environment. Small grains are good for the soil when used in rotation with other crops. As the demand for grains like rye increases, so does the health of the soil on New York farms.”

Celebrating Our 250th Stop ‘N’ Swap®

September 21, 2018
Posted in Recycling | Tagged swap, Stop 'N' Swap, reduce, reuse, recycle

Stop 'N' Swap 250

At GrowNYC, there’s no stopping when it comes to swapping!  In an effort to reduce NYC’s waste and help more New Yorkers reuse perfectly good items, our zero waste programs funded by DSNY set out to provide an annual swap event for every community district in the five boroughs. 

This year we celebrate our 250th Stop ‘N’ Swap in NYC – all thanks to dedicated staff, our passionate volunteers, and diverse community partners, who make more than 50 swaps a year possible!

At Stop ‘N’ Swap, the public is invited to bring clean, portable, reusable items to share with those who can use them. No one is required to bring something to take something — you can simply show up with a bag and see what’s free for the taking. Clothing, books, housewares, electronics, and toys are just some of the offerings.  Recent memorable treasures include peanut butter and jelly pillowcases, pocket mouse, grass jelly, an amateur radio calendar, and plants potted just for fellow swappers (view photos).

Since 2008, more than 62,000 New Yorkers have attended a Stop ‘N’ Swap co-hosted by more than 135 different community partners and supported by over 1,200 volunteers.  In just 5 years, participants have kept more than half a million pounds of reusable items out of landfills. 

80% of products in the US are used once, then thrown away — find a Stop 'N' Swap near you and start reusing today!

On the Road With Our Grains Team!

August 28, 2018

This July, GrowNYC's Grains team set out on the open road to explore the innovative ways farmers, brewers, and bakers are incorporating the burgeoning bounty of northeastern grains into their breads, beers, and fields. For this trip, we focused on the Hudson Valley, diving deep into the grains scene of Columbia and Greene counties. 

Our first stop was at Migliorelli Farm, which was one of the last farms to operate in New York City. As a child, Ken Migliorelli first learned farming in the Bronx, where Co-op city now stands. In the late 1950's, his father moved the family to Tivoli, NY in Columbia County where Ken still manages the original farm (plus an additional 900 acres). Migliorelli farm stands dot the mid-Hudson Valley, and Ken sells his acclaimed fruits and vegetables at 12 GrowNYC Greenmarkets. As he walked us through his barley and rye fields, Ken explained how he originally tried growing grain when Greenmarket first required bakers to use 15% local grain, but he struggled with fusarium head blight. Over the years, he has found a stable market for barley and rye with distillers and brewers like Coppersea, who use Migliorelli rye for their Empire Rye. Ken also established his own on-farm brewery, From the Ground, with brew master Jake Cirell, and he sells grains for animal feed to Quattro's Game Farm, a Greenmarket poultry producer. 

Dirt hounds take note: since adding small grains to his rotations, Ken's soil organic matter has increased by a whopping 1.5-3%. Excellent! Proof that partaking in a NYS beer or cocktail helps establish a more sustainable local food system. Cheers!

Next, we crossed the Hudson River to Sfoglini's new facility in West Coxsackie, NY. Two tiny pasta machines (the ones they began with in Brooklyn’s Pfizer Building back in 2013) were tucked into a corner of the vast, re-purposed aerospace facility. Colorful pastas--flavored with beets, mint, and sriracha--draped on industrial pasta dryers lined the walls. Sfoglini co-founder Steve Gonzalez told us about their recent expansion, including a $2.5 million round of investment and nationwide distribution through Whole Foods. Sfolglini remains committed to local growers; in fact, this commitment was something that attracted investors. In the last year, over 60,000 pounds of local flour (mostly from Farmer Ground Flour) went into their pastas. The company is now poised to grow with the Northeast grainshed. 

The next day began with a much anticipated tour of Stone House Farm, a network of projects developed and supported by Peggy McGrath Rockefeller and her children. We stopped by Sparrowbush Bakery just as owner Antoine Guerlaine and his family were unpacking loads of new proofing baskets in preparation for their first full scale bake. Antoine, who baked previously for Camphill Village, is setting up shop as an extension of his partner Ashley’s operation, Sparrowbush Farm. We can't wait to try Sparrowbush Breads! 

On the other side of the property, David Goldstein runs the onsite Hudson Valley Carbon Lab. David explained the six year rotation program they use to build soil and measure carbon capture. Stone House has a major research component with a mission to gather hard data on the impact of cover crops. David also showed us “Hudson Hemp,” a state sponsored pilot program to grow fiber and CBD hemp at the farm.  

Ben Dobson, the Farm Manager of Stone House Farm, then gave us a whirlwind tour of the farm's grain operation, that included fields of barley, rye, AC Morley, and Glenn wheat, with a pair of towering combines that is the base of the operation. Stone house has become both a source for farmers looking for organic feed, as well as an important resource for learning and research. Dobsen now growing grains for brewers and distillers, and he’s preparing to grow food and baking grade grains in the future.  


Our last stop was at Hudson Valley Malt. In 2014, Dennis and Jeanette Nesel launched the malt house, one of the few floor malting facilities operating in the country. Dennis believes this technique makes for superior malt flavor. Standing amid a rolling landscape of sprouted barley, Dennis walked us through the intricacies of the malting process, from soaking the grain, to letting it dry and cool, and then roasting it to bring out unique and delicate flavors. Dennis, who still works in finance (though it’s hard to tell which is the side gig), loves being the middle-man. He explained to us how growing malting barley gives barley farmers an additional revenue stream. The Nesels' have contracts with 24 breweries and four distilleries, including Migliorelli’s “From The Ground Brewery.” Dennis has one goal for all of them: “I want to be their secret weapon!” 

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