Farm-In-the-Sky

With the support of United Way of New York City, EcoStation has proudly relaunched our Farm-In-The-Sky project, building a new farm (our second) atop an all-new building - dubbed Mayday - where EcoStation's new office will located.

Mayday is located at 214 Starr Street (just steps away from Maria Hernandez Park, site of our flagship Saturday Bushwick Farmers' Market). Our tenancy there will enable us to hold regular workshosp and a variety of other community events. Our partners Make the Road New York will be joining us as tenants at Mayday, already a nexus for community organizers and forward thinkers.


Rough drafts: The final plan is a flexible design. Work begins soon!

The new Farm-in-the-Sky's first project is supplying herbs and vegetables to a food program for the elderly operated by Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizen Council.

"FITS2" operations are being managed by a team of EcoStation Apprenti Ana Moran, Sari Gonzalez, and D.Rooney, with with help from recent Bushwick Campus Farm alumni Iyeshima Harris and Benia Darius.

Our first Farm-in-the-Sky atop Brooklyn Fire Proof East

History
The first Farm-in-the-Sky began with a trial run late in the 2011 growing season, which was quickly interrupted by an emergency, full evacuation of the rooftop in advance of Hurricane Irene. After the storm passed, we rebuilt. A rough start! Luckily the farm was designed to be modular and adaptable.

Farm-in-the-Sky tripled in size and production in 2012, using traditional and experimental DIY ("Do-It-Yourself") techniques and "upcycled" containers to grow a wide variety of crops.

Under the direction of EcoStation's Director of Farms & Education, Maggie Cheney, Community Apprentice Matthen Lebon oversaw production of over thirty different kinds of vegetables, herbs, greens, and microgreens, which then made their way to our Bushwick Farmers' Market locations, and to our "RSA" (Restaurant-Supported Agriculture) partners, which included five fine neighborhood businesses eager to support local agriculture (list at right).

We also had the exciting addition of bee hives in 2012, thanks to some local volunteer beekeepers.

Farm-in-the-Sky became a center for learning for area rooftop farmers, gardeners, and beekeepers, hosting a series of workshops as part of EcoStation's "Raise the Roof" event series at Brooklyn Fire Proof East Café, (located on the ground floor of the same massive building) celebrating local food, art, and culture with art shows and live performances.

Our "Raise the Roof!" event series brought together local artists and urban farmers.

Unfortunately the aged roof there proved to be less than ideal, so in 2013 we regrouped and kept our ears open for a modern roof rooftop better suited for rooftop farming.

We owe a great deal of thanks to Brooklyn Fire Proof and Thomas Burr Dodd for their generosity and support during the first 2+ years of Farm-in-the-Sky's first incarnation.