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Wondering what's in your share? Check the Share Records page.

Looking for recipes, storage tips, and cleaning info for the veggies you received in the share? Visit the Vegetable Facts and Recipes section of this website. If you can't find a vegetable listed on the main page, just click the arrow on the menu bar (to your left) to read the names of the pages in that section and see if the veggie is listed there. Most, if not all, the vegetables we receive should have a page.


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July 19th Newsletter: Do you want a fruit share?
CSA Week 6: Cycle B pick-up.

DEADLINE FOR FRUIT SHARE IS TODAY (JULY 19). If you are interested in purchasing a fruit share, please bring a payment (personal check, money order, or cash) to the Bed-Stuy CSA pick-up site no later than Saturday, July 19th. (More details.)

New on the website: Sprouts! Facts & Recipes

Upcoming CSA and Neighborhood Events

Free Dance performances in Herbert Von King Park this weekend! Saturday, 3-6pm: ASE Dance Collective and Purelements. Sunday 3-6: Dance TheatreX and Vissi Dance Theater. (More info.)

Tamar-Kali performs at Weeksville Heritage Center on Saturday, 7-8pm. Free. “The instrumental depth behind Tamar-kali’s voice is astonishing; a cohesive soundclash that takes place within each song”. - Anicee Gaddis in Trace Magazine. (More info.)

For more events, including a trip to the farm, film screening, and a food preservation demo, visit the Upcoming Events page.
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Wondering what's in your share? Check the Share Records page.

Looking for recipes, storage tips, and cleaning info for the veggies you received in the share? Visit the Vegetable Facts and Recipes section of this website. If you can't find a vegetable listed on the main page, just click the arrow on the menu bar (to your left) to read the names of the pages in that section and see if the veggie is listed there. Most, if not all, the vegetables we receive should have a page.

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July 12th Newsletter: Picnic time!
CSA Week 5: Cycle A pick-up.



If all the long nights spent at outdoor movies and concerts leave you hungry (or malnourished on hot dogs, pretzels, and popsicles) and worrying about the CSA veggies that are sitting in your fridge, fret no longer-- The New York Times recently featured 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics. The simple recipes were created by Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything.
Click here for a printable list of the ideas.

Looking for biodegradable picnicware? Click here.



Fruit Shares Now Available to CSA Members!
Thanks to a few star CSA members, you will now be able to purchase an optional fruit share from Wilkow Orchard in Highland, NY, a family farm in business for 6 generations right down the street from Conuco Farm. Visit the Fruit, Egg, and Meat Share page here on our website for more info.

Upcoming CSA and Neighborhood Events

Weeksville Heritage Center's Rebel Soul Salon Series 2008 continues this Saturday with a performance by Sparlha Swa. Sparlha Swa is a velvetine clash of impeccable vocals and haunting modal chords. You will find her performing mostly solo on guitar, though sometimes she is accompanied by Shree Shyam Das, master of both bass and percussion. (12, 7-8pm. Free.)

Afro-Punk festival continues with huge concert in Fort Greene Park featuring The Dirtbombs, Tamar Kali, Little Jackie, Sophia Ramos, Bermuda featuring Antibalas Horn Section (Saturday at 1-8pm) and a Block Party/ DIY Market (Sunday, 12-8pm, Clinton Avenue between Myrtle and Willoughby).

The Bushwick CSA invites us to a film screening of Our Daily Bread on the Friday, July 25th, from 7p-9.30p at Make the Road NY (301 Grove St. Brooklyn, 11237). The film is a beautifully composed, wrenching depiction of industrial agriculture and factory farming. It's not yet available through services like Netflix, and you won't find it at the local video store, so it's a great chance to see it for the first time, perhaps! More info:
http://www.frif.com/new2006/odb.html

Caring for Your CSA Share - Don't Let Those Veggies Rot!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Von King Recreation Center Auditorium
Lafayette Avenue between Marcy & Tompkins Avenues (across the street from the Bed-Stuy CSA pick-up site)
Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by your CSA share? Tired of seeing half your share go to the compost pile? Not sure what to do when you're approaching your third week of kale or beets? Just Food Community Chef and Columbus Circle CSA Member Martha Ma will offer tips and strategies on how to best enjoy your CSA bounty. You will learn which vegetables are best eaten immediately, vegetable storage techniques, and food preservation strategies (including freezing, pickling, fermentation and canning).

SAVE THE DATE! Bed-Stuy CSA Farm Trip on Sunday, August 24, 2008 (more details here)

Wondering what's in your share? Check the Share Records page.

Looking for recipes, storage tips, and cleaning info for the veggies you received in the share? Visit the Vegetable Facts and Recipes section of this website. If you can't find a vegetable listed on the main page, just click the arrow on the menu bar (to your left) to read the names of the pages in that section and see if the veggie is listed there. Most, if not all, the vegetables we receive should have a page.


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July 6th Newsletter: Kohlrabi me confused.
CSA Week 4: Cycle B pick-up.

I haven't much news to report. This is sort of a mini-newsletter.

I added a new page to the website. Check out all the exciting info about Kohlrabi, that spacey-looking veggie we got this week!

Read the complete list of what we received in our shares this week on the Share Records page of the website.

Now, I'm off to day 3 of the Afro-Punk festival! Maybe I'll see some of you there. Maybe you'll be at the International African Arts Festival. I went on July 4th--it was so much fun!

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June 28th, 2008 Newsletter: Welcome to the 2008 Season!
CSA Week 3. Cycle A pick-up.

Warmest welcome to all the new members to the Bed-Stuy CSA! Welcome back to all the returning families and individuals as well! Thank you for your commitment to supporting a local farmer of color, as well as committing to choose foods that are healthy for our personal health, our community, and our planet.

What's the point of this newsletter?
For those of you who are new to the Bed-Stuy CSA, this is the first newsletter you have received from me. The purpose of this newsletter is to distribute the latest news on our CSA and the Conuco Farm. Another purpose of this newsletter is to provide information on how you can get the most out of the veggies in your CSA share. Finally, this newsletter attempts to inform CSA members of other community, sustainable agriculture, and healthy eating news of interest.

What's new about the newsletter this season? What happened to the blog?
This season, the venue of the newsletter has undergone some changes. 2007 Season CSA Members may remember reading the newsletter via Blogger and/or via a message sent out on the Bed-Stuy CSA Google Group. This season, in an attempt to centralize information, the newsletter will simply be posted on the "Bed-Stuy CSA News" page of our website. A message will then be sent out via the Google Group to inform members that a new newsletter has been added to the page.

The content of the newsletter is also different. This season, the newsletter will simply refer readers to the CSA website's new and improved veggie pages for info on nutrition, storage, preparation, and recipes of the produce received in their weekly share. CSA members are strongly encouraged to continue the discussion and help develop the website by "starting a thread" on the individual veggie pages. (See foot of each page.) Share your favorite recipe or most clever tip! Ask a question! Answer a question! Post photos of the dishes you've created with CSA veggies!

Recently added to the Bed-Stuy CSA Website: COMPOSTING RESOURCES
Sadly, not all of the vegetables grown by Hector ends up in our bellies. Carrot tops, potato skins, green stems, and other veggie scraps that are indigestible or unpleasing to our palates, as well as the occasionally ill-stored veggie-gone-bad often end up in the trash. According to the NYC Department of Sanitation, the average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste each day—adding up to more than one million tons of organic material a year. When we discard this "waste," we crowd landfills with a potential resource that can help beautify our parks, gardens, and blocks…even our windowboxes and houseplants.

For more info on visit: http://bedstuycsa.wetpaint.com/page/Composting

What have we been eating?
Visit the Share Records page of the website to read a record of the vegetables we've received this season.

Upcoming Events

• NYC Gay Pride Week continues this weekend. Events include not only the famous parade on Sunday but also the Dyke March (today).
• Greene Acres Garden hosts "Summer in the Garden: Free Hair & Fashion Show." Today (Sat. 6/28), 2-6pm at corner of Franklin Ave and Greene Ave. Fashion Show, lemonade, treats, games, music. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
• The Annual Fulton Art Fair continues to showcase the work of renowned and emerging African-American artists in Brooklyn. (Through July 6th.)
  
• FIGMENT is a FREE celebration of creative culture held on Governors Island in New York Harbor from June 27-29, 2008. Expect a dizzying array of fabulous art and activities, spanning a range of imaginative possibilities from ambitious sculptures to exquisite performance to wild costuming to edgy arts and crafts and beyond. Fun for the whole family!
• International African Arts Festival (July 3rd-6th). Celebrate African arts and heritage by sampling music, dance, food, crafts, and fun. Free.
• This summer Afro-Punk, BAMCinematek, and Toyota will present the 4th Afro-Punk Festival, taking place July 4th-July 13th in the heart of Brooklyn. Connect with thousands punks from the African Diaspora. 40 bands will perform. 15 films will be screen. Serious skateboarding will take place on the ramp and half pipe in the BAM GGMC parking lot.
• Celebrate the 5th of July (anniversary of day after Africans enslaved in NY state were emancipated in 1827) with Weeksville Heritage Center. Includes a lecture at 5pm and a performance by Brooklyn hardcore/metal/rap band Game Rebellion at 6pm.
  
• Enjoy free outdoor concerts, literature readings, plays, and movie screenings in the city all summer! Prospect Park hosts Celebrate Brooklyn. The McCarren Park Pool Party concerts return. 2008 BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival at MetroTech Jump Starts a Summer of Soul with a great line-up of afternoon performances--do not miss Leela James on July 10th! Brooklyn Bridge Park hosts film screenings, fitness sessions, craft lessons, and more. Central Park holds it down with SummerStage. Visit Lower Manhattan to experience the River to River Festival. City Parks Foundation curates performances in parks throughout the city and encourages you to bring your old cellphone for recycling! Read About.com for a comprehensive list of even more NYC summer concerts and a list of NYC summer movie screenings.
  
• Stay on top of Bed-Stuy events! Visit (or, better yet, subscribe to) BedStuyBlog.com for the latest local news, including concert line ups at Solomons Porch, Goodbye Blue Monday, Bushbaby, and Le Toukouleur Restaurant.
  

Announcements

• The Macon Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library re-opened on Thursday, June 19th. The branch, located on Lewis Avenue at Macon Street,has a circulating collection of information about Bed-Stuy.It also now features the African American Heritage Center (AAHC).
• In other Brooklyn Public Library news, CSA Member Olivia Lane will be volunteering as a facilitator for a new English Language Conversation Group in the Bedford Branch. The group starts Tuesday, July 1st from 10am-12pm and will continue to meet weekly. Anyone who is interesting in improving his or her English language skills is encouraged to attend the free meetings. Spread the word! Visit the Brooklyn Public Library website to learn about volunteer positions that might interest you.
  
• Announcing SoulVegFolk.com: The social network for Black folks who are vegans, vegetarians, fruitarians, raw foodists, etc. to share the joys, pains and crazy of their diet/lifestyle. From "newbies" to "veterans"..Get Connected!