The Rooftop Farm at Brooklyn Navy Yards

Monday was a holiday and a friend invited me to join him on a visit to Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farms at the Navy Yards. To be honest, I expected this to be a boring 'thing', but I got very surprised of what I found there...

Not only was the view that blew me away (and the rooftop is only 11th floors up), but also their operations and the purpose behind what they do, their drive so to speak.

Here's how they define themselves:

"Brooklyn Grange is the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the US. We operate the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, located on two roofs in New York City, and grow over 50,000 lbs of organically-cultivated produce per year.

In addition to growing and distributing fresh local vegetables and herbs, Brooklyn Grange also hosts events and educational programming, provides urban farming and green roof consulting and installation services to clients worldwide, and partners with numerous non-profit organizations throughout New York to promote healthy and strong local communities."

I'd say this is pretty impressive.

The word 'consultation' doesn't say much to me. It's a very loose, non-significant and non-descriptive word; but looking at the 'installation projects' page, I see Grange assisted entities like The United Nations, Vice Media, and Wild Wall (to name a few) in building their own rooftop farms. And that's inspiring!

As per our visit, Monday was a splendid clear day; the temperature outside was not too comfortable though; and the temperature discomfort was intensified by the wind. But we forgot about all that as the rooftop provides a 360 degree view: you see Manhattan, you see Queens, the rest of Brooklyn, and you also see toward Staten Island. Here are some shots I took:

Chickens make the farming-cycle complete!

Plus, since beehives have recently (a few years back) been approved, Brooklyn Grange has a few of them at this location and a few dozen more at other locations in NYC. I didn't picture them though...

Here's a view toward Upper Manhattan:

If you want to see a few short video presentations of Brooklyn Grange, please look here, here, here and here.

Brooklyn Grange also published their first book a few months ago. Here's what they have to say about it:

"We spent many an early morning and late afternoon reminiscing about how we launched our business and what lead us to do so, and Anastasia has woven our stories together into a narrative that’s funny, educational, and above all, unflinchingly honest. We’re so proud of this book, and we think you’ll enjoy it too."

You can get the book at amazon.

And if you're in NYC and you want to give them a visit, see the events page here.

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#sustainability #farming #rooftop

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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author