"Eating Living, Building: Design the Kitchen of the Future" NKBA Symposium 11/18 highligts Culinary Culture

Eating, Living, & Building, Designing the Kitchen of Tomorrow is the National Kitchen & Bath Association - NKBAManhattan

Chapter’s 2015 Symposium. All are welcome to attend the event that is targeted for the kitchen, bathroom and interior design community.


The Eating, Living & Building symposium is an innovative and in-depth discussion of the future of kitchen design and implementation, focused through the lens of kitchens past and present. The subjects of food, sociology, and design will help guide the talks in a series of thought-provoking, one-hour programs followed by a hosted panel discussion with three industry experts. The event is sponsored by Hafele America Co at their NYC showroom just off Gramercy Park.

Eating

Culinary Culture – How Food and Its Production Fuel the Kitchen 

A discussion of the future of food as it relates to kitchen design and the changing world of edible goods from origin to tabletop. Discussing production, transport, preparation and storage, the food-focused presentation will examine how food is a prism through which we perceive our lifestyle and how it touches every facet of society.


Leeann Lavin, -- that's me!! -- author ofThe Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook …, contributing author (three chapters: Farm to Table, Greenmarkets, and Ladies Who Lunch) to Savoring Gotham: the “Food Lover’s Companion to New York City,” Examiner Food & Drink reporter, and garden designer and blogger at Garden Glamour by Duchess Designs, will present the future of food as it relates to kitchen design and our changing world of edible goods from origin to tabletop. I will present a back to the future snapshot of food’s recent history -- from “essential locavore” through Gotham’s food markets, to foods of the future, including plant-based, NbN, and entomophagy -- to the Kitchen as the Dashboard, driving a healthy, sustainable food-centric lifestyle.


Living


Under the (Kitchen) Hood

An overview of the impact of kitchen design and its impact on the health, safety and welfare of the homeowner. Taking into account climate change, energy consumption, systems thinking, lifestyle, material and spatial organization and sociological-based design approach are discussed to get the most beneficial outcome for the design and the environment.

Ray Kinoshita Mann, Associate Professor at The University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Architecture, will depict a portrait of tomorrow’s kitchen from a sociological perspective through her holistic design approach and her understanding of our world’s changing family dynamics.

Building

Virginia Tech – FutureHAUS

The Virginia Tech FutureHAUS is a research concept of the VT Center for Design Research which proposes an innovative new approach to the way we construct buildings. This process promises energy-efficient, sustainable, and smart solutions for medium to high density urban housing. The prefabricated FutureHAUS Kitchen, a signature feature of the prototype which demonstrates the wirelessly “connected” kitchen. The kitchen and living room “cartridge" prototypes were featured in 2015 at KBIS in Las Vegas and AIA National Convention in Atlanta. Joseph Wheeler, AIA, Professor at Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design will explore environmental and sustainable architecture and the implementation of advanced design theory and ideas.

Panel Discussion

Following the the three keynote presentations for Eating, Living & Building: The Kitchen of Tomorrow, there will be a panel discussion, moderated byJohn Morgan

The panel talk will further explore food, food storage and preparation, sociology, wellbeing, health, technology, construction methods and materials, and their impact on the future design of kitchens.

John Morgan, is a well-respected 20-year kitchen and bath industry veteran. A manufacturer’s representative, consultant, trainer, and speaker, he has served on advisory councils of many industry manufacturers and Virginia Tech. In 2013 John Morgan proudly served as the 2013 NKBA National President. Morgan authored the popular “Rep’s View” column in Kitchen & Bath Design News for nearly a decade, and currently represents nationally-known cabinet and technology companies through his Baltimore/ Washington-based agency,Morgan Pinnacle.

Schedule:

Noon ~ 1:00 PM Sign In &Lunch

1:00 PM ~ 6:00 PM Symposium 

(15 minute breaks between sessions)

.4 CEU/ 2 HSW & 2 LU

NKBA NARI AIA

ASID self reporting

Fees

NKBA Members prior to 11/11   $75.00

NKBA Members after 11/11       $100.00

All Other Professionals              $100.00

Pre-registration is required

Garden to Table Events Mark November: Sourdough Cookbook, The Inspired Landscape, Urban Farming, Culinary Culture & the Kitchen of Tomorrow

There are a number of outstanding events scheduled in the next few weeks that you simply cannot miss.  Adding the cherry on top, I’m delighted to share that all of them feature some of my favorite people. (Including moi!)

First Up: The Horticultural Society of New York celebrates the release of Sarah Owens’ first book Sourdough: Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets and More. HSNY (yeah George Pisegna!) invite reads:  “Sarah will offer a slide presentation of the botanical contributions included in this beautifully photographed cookbook. Join in an afternoon of food and wine (my aside: I’ve seen the homegrown food Sarah is cooking up - it looks delicious!) as the former Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) Curator of the Cranford Rose Garden reveals her inspiration working as a rosarian and how it has contributed to her evolution as a seasonally-inspired baker for her micro business BK17  based in Brooklyn, NY and Louisville, KY. Copies will be available for purchase.”  

Sarah and Ngoc's book is hands-down glamorous elegance in its purity and scope.

I met up with Sarah on Tuesday -- she’s in Gotham for the first leg of Sourdough’s promotional efforts. I’ve worked with Sarah at BBG and she worked with me for my Garden State Duchess Designs clients. I’ve long admired her botanical acumen and her inimitable style. I love Sarah! And you'll fall in love too, reading her book and learning how she bakes with the best ingredients, including those botanicals, - along with love…

She told me during our interview sitting in Union Square park basking in the Indian Summer weather, how she first met up with her incredible photographer, Ngoc Minh Ngo in the Cranford Rose Garden -- and well, the professional connection, "blossomed!" -- to Sarah’s baking and ultimately, to the collaboration on Sourdough. I’ll be writing a full review and feature on Sourdough shortly here for Garden Glamour by Duchess Designs and for my Examiner Leeann Lavin Food & Drink column.

In the meantime, do not miss this rare opportunity to see and hear Sarah talk about her transformative baking, use of healthy, local grains, and the magic of sourdough!

The book talk and tasting takes place from 3:00 pm to 6:00pm at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art, 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 Email: scourtade@thehort.org

Sourdough author, Sarah Owens, photo: Ngoc Minh  Ngo

Second on the events calendar: Monday, November 16, 6:30 pm is one of the events I'm involved in. I'm so proud and honored to be a part of this one. It's been more than a year in the making.

The Culinary Historians of New York (CHNY) and the NYU Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health present “Savoring Gotham: Celebrating the Making of the Definitive Companion to New York City’s Food.”

The program takes place at NYU, 411 Lafayette Street, Fifth Floor.t

A reception featuring iconic and ethnic New York foods will precede the talk, and copies of Savoring Gotham will be available for purchase.

Admission is $25 for CHNY members; $40 non-members and guests; $10 for full-time students with ID and free for NYU faculty and students with ID.

To purchase tickets in advance, visit

Savoring Gotham: Celebrating the Making of the Definitive …. 

The eagerly awaited Savoring Gotham was published by Oxford University Press. Editor Andrew F. Smith said it is easily the most comprehensive reference work on the history of the city’s food and drink.

Among the CHNY members who contributed the book are: Ari Ariel (area editor), Scott Alves Barton, Tove K. Danovich, Cara De Silva, Doug Duda, Megan Elias, Meryle Evans, Polly Franchini, Cathy K. Kaufman (senior editor), Michael Krondl (area editor) Leeann Lavin, Walter Levy, Renee Marton, Anne Mendelson, Marion Nestle, Jacqueline Newman, Alexandra Olsen, Linda Pelaccio, Carl Raymond, Peter G. Rose, Meryl Rosofsky, Stephen Schmidt, Andrew F. Smith, Alexandra J.M. Sullivan, Judith Weinraub (area editor).

I researched and wrote three chapters: Farm to Table, The History of Greenmarkets, and Ladies Who Lunch.

Savoring Gotham covers New York’s culinary history, but also some of the most recognizable restaurants, eateries and culinary personalities today. And it delves into more esoteric culinary realities, such as urban farming, beekeeping, the Three Martini Lunch and the Power Lunch, and novels, movies, and paintings that memorably depict Gotham’s foodscapes. From hot dog stands to haute cuisine, each borough is represented.

A foreword by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster and James Beard JBF Awards winner, Garrett Oliver and an extensive new bibliography, round out this sweeping new collection.

Third, is Tuesday, November 17th and it brings the talented and inspiringSusan Cohen Landscape Architect to speak at The New York Botanical Garden to talk about her first book: The Inspired Landscape: Twenty-One Leading Landscape :Twenty-one Architects explore the creative process.”

The forward is by Peter Walker, an influential landscape architect and co-designer of the hauntingly beautiful September 11 Memorial gardens. (Peter spoke at the recent Landscape Design Portfolio series. I’ll cover his talk in an upcoming Garden Glamour post)

I

It’s only natural that Susan’s first book would document the era’s most creative landscape architects. After all, Susan has coordinated the award-winning Landscape Design Portfolio series at NYBG since its launch 17 years ago. Every autumn, she has singlehandedly, brought the best of the industry’s designers to speak about their work -- commercial and residential -- inspiring all of us who listen and learn…
Susan is also the Program Coordinator for the Garden’s Landscape Design Certificate Program; she also teaches courses in the program. Susan is a garden guru treasure - and I love her!

After earning a Certificate at the Botanical Garden herself, she received her BS in Landscape Architecture from City College of New York. She is principal of Susan Cohen Landscape Architect in Greenwich, Connecticut and an award-winning designer, who also lectures and writes about garden history and landscape design.

Susan and Sheila Brady will speak at the Landscape Design Alumni Series: Finding Your Muse at 1:00 pm at the Garden, Watson Room 302. Fee is $29 for Members and $35 for non-Members.

I’m so sorry I will miss this talk - as it’s sandwiched in between two talks/events I am doing. However, I promise to catch up with Susan, have her sign a book, and get a feature story for you Garden Glamour readers.

Photo courtesy NYBG, photo: Alfredo Gaskin

Yet another big green event is the New York Botanical Garden’s (NYBG) Bronx Green-Up Program Presents a Symposium: “Growing the Urban Farm”

What: Symposium: “Growing the Urban Farm”

Who: Featured Speakers:

· Mchezaji “Che’ Axum, Director of the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education in the College of Agriculture Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia. 

· Nevin Cohen, Associate Professor, CUNY School of Public Health

· Annie Novak, Manager of the Edible Academy, The New York Botanical Garden, and co-founder, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm. 

· Karen Washington, Community Activist, Gardener, and Farmer. A Bronx resident, founding member of Bronx Green-Up, and a passionate advocate for urban agriculture.

After the presentations, Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at the New York Botanical Garden, will moderate a discussion about the future of urban agriculture in New York and beyond.

NYBG Urban agriculture is growing rapidly in cities across America. Vacant lots, abandoned green spaces, and even rooftops are being transformed into productive farms that provide fresh produce and opportunities for healthy activity, income, and many other benefits for urban families. Can the unprecedented growth of urban agriculture continue? Can urban farms produce enough food to feed large numbers of city residents? What new policies must be adopted to improve and promote urban agriculture? Will rooftop and vertical gardening systems increase the productivity of urban farms? What benefits beyond food production does urban agriculture provide to the community?

When: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 6–8 p.m.

Where: The New York Botanical Garden, Ross Hall 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx New York 10458

Admission: Non-Member $20; Member $10

To purchase tickets, visit nybg.org/AdultEd or call 800.322.NYBG (6924)


And then there's my big talk -- drumroll please -- on the Future of Food: Culinary Culture – How Food and Its Production Fuel the Kitchen: Eating, Living, & Building ~ Designing the Kitchen of Tomorrow for the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). I’m one of three keynoters at the event to be held at Hafele New York Showroom from noon to 5:45 lunch included.

It’s going to be epic.

More on this event, too.

It’s quite a busy month -- and we’re only at the halfway mark!

It's quite a garden-to-table kind of November. Which is a fitting seasonal salute as we cruise into Thanksgiving and count our harvest blessings.

Such garden glamour.

The Best Father's Day Gift: "Alive & Cooking" Cookbook - Healthy & Delicious Homegrown Recipes made with Local Ingredients & Love

“It was with love for my father that I became obsessed with cooking and recipes,” wrote Alive & Cooking cookbook co-author Maryann De Leo.

It’s an era of unlimited gift possibilities For Dad, (close to 80 million hits via a Google Search for Father’s Day Gift Guides and what to buy for Dad)

There’s tech toys, manly BBQ equipment, and surfer dude shorts…

Tie jokes are a perennial Father’s Day gift cliché.

Why it’s portrayed as anything of a challenge to choose a gift to celebrate a Father – every child’s hero  - is a complete mystery.

In fact, knowing that Dads will buy something on their own if they really want it – the best Father’s Day gift is an obvious one: your time and love.

And what better way to share some quality time than cooking for Dad?

Shared shopping, meal prep, cooking, enjoying some great local wine or craft beer all through to the dining and sit down meal, is a surefire way to bring together food, drink, and fun. 

And kindle homegrown memories for a lifetime and generations to come.

Don’t know what to cook?

The answer lies in a cookbook.

Alive & Cooking: An Easy Guide to Health for You and Your Parents

This book is the perfect Father’s Day gift to be used as a lifestyle guide to good, healthy living AND as a cookbook brimming with family heritage recipes. 

Pick any of the hundreds of food and drink recipes to make together on Father’s Day.
And every day. 

Curated recipes from the authors’ family are so named for the mother, aunt, uncle, son or daughter who passed down or created the recipes.

These monogrammed recipes are charming and delicious: e.g. Helen’s Grilled Salmon, Junia’s Beef Stroganoff.

Who wouldn’t love Grandma Violet Terranova’s Fried Chicken? 

Violet claims she invented “Shake and Bake!” 

Then there’s Amanda’s Mexican Salad recipe and Gibbons’ Guajillo Chili, co-author Addison’s son  - who developed this recipe while in law school.

All the recipes make the Alive & Cooking cookbook feel like a sophisticated and informed version of a traditional church or community cookbook.

Written with deep-felt love as an homage to the authors’ fathers and family, the book fairly percolates not only with valuable, expert nutrition information (why cinnamon is key, or how detox cleaning is good, and did you know plums support the liver because they are rich in Vitamin A, iron, copper, zinc and fiber and can lower cholesterol, and plants "are masters at cleaning certain toxins from the air" and boost happier, more positive attitude) but also offers delicious, good-for-you recipes and practical, hands on tips.

One can’t help feeling you’re listening to a grandmother or friend describing the recipes -- as in, “Do not frost until cake is cold”), as well as the family food stories that will inspire and reward the reader for a lifetime.

I challenge anyone to not get a tad weepy -- and cooking motivated - reading the chapter “The Manicotti Lesson” that, not surprisingly, reads like a screenplay - and is all about making artful, family food connections. 

The Manicotti chapter boasts opera, the Beatles, Mother Dorothea singing, and her family’s culinary stories and cooking lessons on making manicotti with three cheeses inside shells.

How pretty that pasta comes in so many nature-inspired shapes, no?!

If for no other reason, buy Alive & Cooking for Dotty’s Manicotti.

It is a classic example of what makes this cookbook extraordinary. 

The recipe is a detailed, tour de force family heritage recipe the Food Network would promote like crazy.  
The food memoir head notes alone are fascinating short story. 

But wait, there’s Dotty’s Potatoes and Green Beans.

And Dotty’s Stuffed Artichokes. 

And more.

Clearly, there needs to be a Dotty Cookbook, I think you will agree.

For anyone who fails to see how the rather prickly, pointed artichoke could possibly be anything more than still art, (not to put too fine a point on it but art IS part of this edible beauty’s moniker.) there is Dotty’s easy to make, delicious artichoke recipe.

Dotty’s Stuffed Artichoke recipe will change your palate.

Ingredients:

4 large artichokes

2 c. Italian bread crumbs

1/3 c. tablespoons Locatelli cheese, grated

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ c. fresh parsley, washed well, dried, and chopped

1 8-oz. can plum tomatoes

Directions:

1.     Cut off any brown parts from artichokes

2.     Wash artichokes and dry well

3.     Trim artichokes so that they sit flat in pot

4.     Mix breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic, parsley, and enough tomato to moisten the stuffing so that holds together.

5.     Gently separate and pull apart artichoke.  (Don’t break off the leaves. The artichoke will be whole when it’s cooking.)

6.     Stuff each artichoke leaf with approximately 1 T. stuffing

7.     Site artichokes in the pot with a little water and a little tomato to steam

8.     Steam approximately 45 minutes

Variations: Use any grated cheese, Maryann’s family likes Locatelli.  She writes: (My parents had an ongoing debate about whether Locatelli was a region, a brand name, or a type of cheese. I don't remember if there was a winner.

Note: The tomatoes make the stuffing moist and hold it together. 

Serving size: 4 servings.

This cookbook is a food “hat trick”  (sorry, Ranger fans) that combines food stories and health and nutrition recommendations, along with recipes and tips.

For example, the Recipe chapter launches with this wise admonishment: “One of the most important instructions for preparing food is to taste it as you are cooking.  Adjust salt, pepper, spices, herbs, liquids, and ingredients as needed.”

Cooks and bakers note: Be fearless. Be bold.  

And break some rules. Recipes and menus are not tied to the clock.

De Leo writes: “Lunch can be the main meal of the day.  Often at mid-day my father had the best appetite and he could eat a big meal.”

In an excerpt from the Alive & Cooking cookbook. De Leo offers a love note / head note for this sweet recipe that clearly delighted her father who was then battling emphysema.

Recipe for Brie And Chocolate Sandwich

To make this easier for my (Maryann’s) Dad to eat, I cut it with scissors into small pieces. When I went to see if he liked it, there were hints of chocolate at the corners of his mouth and the plate was empty

Ingredients:

2 slices bread, whole grain, baguette or sourdough

Sliced Brie cheese (enough to cover a piece of bread

2 T. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.     Toast bread lightly in a pan (No butter is necessary)

2.     Place slices of Brie on one side of the bread.

3.     Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

4.     Place the other bread slice on top, and place the sandwich in a pan.

5.     Grill, pressing down and cooking until brown on both sides.

Serving size: 1

What makes this a special Father’s Day gift is the spirit of fatherly adoration and love that fills the book. 

In the Acknowledgements, De Leo sets the table for the reader: "Inspiration has come from my father many times… This cookbook, too, was inspired by my father. I wrote it for him and to him and I know he’d be happy to have me share what I learned with many others.”

Cooking is empowering.

With subtle authority, the book seamlessly and joyfully makes the connections to cooking, nutrition, health, food and family, especially to our revered elders: parents and caregivers.

The two authors are passionate about those connections and the forces that circle out to family, community, and beyond. 

Maryann is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker for The Chernobyl Heart.

Her latest film was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlinale in Berlin, Germany. She is a teacher at the School of Visual Arts, a UN representative for the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, and a home cook.

Nancy Gibbons Addison is the author of How to Be a Healthy Vegetarian

A Board–Certified health practitioner with the American Association of Drugless Practitioner, certified by eCornell University in plant-based nutrition and is certified for Basic Intensive n Health-Supportive Cooking at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health in NYC, among many other accreditations.

  

The authors’ personal stories and narratives are love stories – for their fathers – for their family, and their love of food

“It was the love for my father that I became obsessed with cooking and recipes,” wrote Maryann.

She describes how she and her family changed his recipes and the quality of food and her father’s health problems disappeared.  He was able to regain ten pounds; his doctor calling him “miracle man.”

The book describes how the authors came by their passion for delicious, healthy food, fueled by homegrown ingredients. 

Not surprisingly, Maryann’s father, Dominic tended a garden.  Her mother, Dorothea, tended the heart of the home – the kitchen.  

Who needs anything else to build a happy, healthy home?

“Highest quality food is the best”, notes Addison.

Grandmother De Leo passed this on to future generations long before it became trendy with today’s locavore chefs:  “Cook with the best quality ingredients you can find; that is what makes the best dish.”

So, take Dad to shop ingredients at a local farmers market. 

Karen Seiger’s Markets Of New York Father's Day Picks recommends fabulous, curated markets and maker finds.

I was so very honored to have been asked by my talented cousin Maryann to write the Foreword for Alive & Cooking: An Easy Guide to Health for You and Your Parents. 

Here is the tribute to the book’s mission to feed our bodies, our souls, and our families.
Rereading the Foreward for this Father's Day tribute, I am happy that it captures the essence of this important book.

Food is love.

Embraced by the earth, caressed by the sun, and kissed by the rain, nature respectfully shares her passions with us. 

Food is art  

The art of food fuels our imagination and creativity.  We create homes, traditions, culinary triumphs and comfort through our interpretation of food’s ingredients, preparation and presentation.  There is the saying, “The eyes eat first” with the food beguiling our sense of sight – flirting with us before seducing our other senses of smell, touch and ultimately, taste. What other art form takes hold of us so? Food is powerful. But it is also markedly tender, nurturing and sincere.

Food is a metaphor.

It is a tool, a weapon, a constant garden where love is growing, waiting to be shared. To be served, given away with abandon.

Food is a journey. 

It takes us to distant countries and far-away places. It takes us across time and generations.  Food penetrates our hearts. And our memories.  It is a passport to other cultures; a portal to our own unique past.

This book is transporting. 

It reveals -- or rips back the cover on the extraordinary connection to our families; our selves. 

You could say the food stories and nutritious recipes are lessons. 

Reading them, it’s almost as if our lives depended on it. 

It does.

The food chronicles here reveal an intimacy that can only be found in family heritage cuisines that are deeply and genuinely experienced: over generations, over the dinner table, over a lifetime of cheers’, salutes’, and amen’s. Our happiest, fondest memories are over celebrations of food and family. Big holidays and achievements. Romantic interludes. And quiet, tender, heartbreaking, private tributes.

My series’ of Homegrown books and writings explores the connection of master chefs to their inspired growers: the vegetable, duck and honey farmers, oyster growers and fishermen.  My talented, sensitive artist cousin, Maryann – and her co-author Nancy -  have taken this concept of eating inspired local food to the next level. Naturally.   While the concept of the book was sparked out of heartbreak and loss, let there be no doubt the book is one of enduring hope and love.

What could be more intimate and inspired than preparing nutritious, delicious food for family?  Time spent talking and working in the kitchen. Meals shared. Traditions and heritage passed on in the glow of serving home cooked meals with full plates and brimming glasses.

The recipes here are natural, healthy, organic and prepared with sustainable ingredients. of course. 

You will be inspired to cook them because each of the family recipes – our family – have been tested by time – and love.  And in the end, they are truly the best ingredients.  

Enjoy.  Cheers to family – and food!

Urban Agriculture Conference at The New York Horticultural Society

Love and urban agriculture have so much in common.

Think about it.

Just like the early stages of love – meaning there is the flirtatious gamble on exciting, new confrontations, the early passion, and the-where-have-you-been-all-my-life affirming commitment – so it is not off the mark to read the opening sentence on the flyer for The Horticultural Society of New York’s (HSNY) www.thehort.org

recent conference on Urban Agriculture where it posits the question, “Is Urban Farming here for the long haul, or just the latest iteration of a ‘back to the land’ reflex that occurs whenever the nation or economy is threatened?” to see the parallelisms of love and urban farming and long-term relationships.

This manifesto of sorts could be the opening salvo of an online dating strategy.   (Substitute You for Urban Farming and back to the land for the steady lover and you catch the drift!)

But when it comes to Urban Ag, HSNY is all business.  They are no one-night stand!  The organization rightfully claims they have been cultivating urban gardeners since 1902 – so they are the Oprah-like poster child of long-term commitment and can claim a home field advantage on this subject.

 

Urban Agriculture Conference

It was an energized, cosmopolitan-peppy, sold-out audience that filled the Hort’s midtown headquarters for the all-day educational and entertaining event. 

Anticipation fairly crackled as attendees greeted one another -- eagerly embracing the too-early (i.e. hot) spring – and each other -- while serving up the healthy breakfast provided by The Hort. 

Overheard clutches of conversation were riffs on the themes: “Can you believe the herbs are up already?” to “There’ll be hell to pay with the ‘bugs’ this summer” to “My clients think we should start planting annuals now!” and “Does anyone need more proof of climate change??”       

All rather natty horticulture exchanges, don’t you think?

The Urban Ag Conference Line Up

The day’s agenda was a “Who’s Who” of urban farming and gardening. 

As an aside, does one read a difference in those terms or is the urban environment where the two acts: gardening and farming are rendered two sides of the same coin?

George Pisegna, Director of Hort, Introduces Conference at The Hort

George Pisegna, Director of Horticulture and the genius who toils to put these fascinating programs together opened up the Conference.  

Thomas Fox, Keynoter and author of “Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World,” (available at Amazon http://tiny.cc/fvmkcw and on the Kindle. I got that version) was the ideal candidate to address the audience with his talk:

“Urban Farming in 2012:  Anything New Under the Sun?”

Following a delicious and equally healthy lunch was the Panel Discussion, moderated by Camilla Hammer, Farm Manager, Battery Urban Farm The Battery Conservancy

Panelists: Erika Brenner, Farm Educator Dekalb Farm

Annie Novak, Founder and Director, Growing Chefs

Phyllis Odessey, Director of Horticulture, Randall’s Island Park

Eun Young Sebazco, Horticulture Manager, Randall’s Island Park

Britta Riley, CEO and Founder, Windowfarms

Zach Pickens, Farm Manager, Riverpark Farm at Alexandria Center 

Keynote

Tom started the book in 2001; finished it in 2010. 

His talk was as much about the making of the book as it parallels the evolution of the world of urban farms as it was about the state of urban farming.

The moniker “urban farming” didn’t even exist when he started his research and writing, he said.

There was a Brooklyn rooftop farm, and the first urban CSA and pretty much nothing else.  His research took him from no material to everyone’s doing it, with urban farming-as-phenomena.

His book opens with the Google search results that go from three to thousands…

So what is creating this new status of urban framing?

Tom outlined what’s driving Urban Ag, with the starting gate of 2011:

1. The attacks on the World Trade Center caused many New Yorkers to move away. He cited a friend who relocated to Atlanta and subsequently felt drawn “back to the land.”  But then she also realized “food as crop” and was dissatisfied, nay disgusted with the choice of perishable food being offered for sale.   

She asked, “Is this the legacy we want to leave to our children?”  She came to farm her food.

2. Wars and economic problems  - there is precedence of this crisis that leads to gardening. Think Victory Gardens. The recent recession jumpstarted the practice of urban gardening.  In any economic crisis there is a want (need?) to grow our own food to save money.

3. China and the World Trade Organization –First we lost a lot of jobs when we stopped being the people who made things with our hands, leaving that to China and things like food here became cheap.

4.  Climate Change – It rains less frequently but more intensely and this is bad for agriculture.  Climate change will continue and will only get worse.  Tom said we can see the affects climate change has created and called out proof of its consequences in an article he found in an insurance industry press story on this – noting it was not covered in the popular press.

This discovery caused quite a stir in that business is already baking the climate change element into their spreadsheets and yet the mass population is not even accepting the fact that climate change exists! 

Moreover, there is a land grab presently going on in Africa, according to Tom.

Rain-fed cropland is already being farmed. Now, so many resource-poor countries are buying up millions of acres to lock in their land insurance for growing food. 

The land grab effort underscores a country’s insecurity.

Tom continued: The Slow Food movement started in Europe and like past immigrants, soon made its way to the US.

The organization is a grass roots effort to promote local food traditions and to combat industrial and unsafe food practices. www.slowfood.com

In 2003 Europe reacted to its Mad Cow disease but scientists still can’t figure out where the cow came from due to the complicated fabric of cross-networked food sources.

Now the Slow Food movement is making its way to China in reaction to its health scares and as a partial solution to that country’s food scandals, including salmonella outbreaks in eggs there – that are shipped elsewhere…

“It’s all very disturbing,” lamented Tom.  “All these examples point up the precariousness of our food supply.”

Part of the allure of urban farming is to reclaim the food supply.

Food Mantra

Food is radical. Food is power.

“This is a mantra that can be applied to most every urban farming experience,” claims Tom. “If you don’t control the food, you don’t control life.”

Most of this country’s “life” or food – comes from California’s Central Valley, and Latin and South America.

But, Tom suggests, fruits and vegetable can be grown locally. 

At this point, he noted the rice that was grown at Randall’s Island.

We’d learn more about this successful, revolutionary urban farming experience later from Eun Young and Phyllis – the Randall’s Island food farming heroines and geniuses behind this brave and creative experiment.

From a perspective of cultural anthropology, Tom pointed out the history of how farming changed mid-century -- after World War II.

At that time, it was considered a favor to get people off the farm. Working with one’s hands is wonderful yes, but tough.

Here, Tom showed a Gifford Pinchot sign he came across that celebrated this notion: getting farmers out of the mud and onto paved roads!

As in ‘preaching to the choir, Tom said the pendulum has swung the other way – and we now have nearly every city practicing urban farming.

There are generations of kids who have been exposed to growing their own food through the efforts of passionate citizens and organizations including public parks: i.e. Randall’s Island, botanic gardens, and GreenMarkets.  “Often, these kids go off to become professional farmers,” said Tom.  

Cities have built-in advantages, he said.  There is the ‘heat-island’ affect that can extend the growing seasons. 

In addition, cities can offer protection from winds and provide ready access to technology to better implement farming approaches such as hydroponics, and drip irrigation and greenhouses and window farms.

“In many ways, urban farms are more efficient than rural areas.”

He cited Lake Mead where the water levels have been steadily dropping due to less than average snowfall feeding the Colorado River.  Can’t miss that bathtub ring badge of water loss.

The Ogallala aquifer supplies 30% of the country’s total irrigation water and yet its waters have been so tapped that the trees there are drying up, Tom noted.

This aquifer, by the way, nourishes the “breadbasket of America” and has been dragged back unwillingly into the news recently because there are those who argue to allow the construction of the Keystone pipeline to carry oil to the Houston refineries from Canada, thereby increasing the risk, to say the least, for environmental disaster and loss of food security.  Does anyone remember the Gulf oil spill? 

And India has frequent blackouts due to the strain put on the grid by the overwhelming use of water pumps needed to extract water…  

 

Metrics

OK, so the audience was already sold on the idea of urban farming, and were spellbound by the history and stories of farming romance engendered by working with the land…

Now the pragmatics were wondering about that place where the road hits the rubber, er, tractor tire.

How much money can one expect to make or how much yield will urban farming produce??

Tom says 20-30 pounds of tomatoes and cited Gotham Greens and others who claim they can earn $50K on a half-acre to 100 tons of produce yield from one-third acre. 

It all depends on the way the land is farmed. 

Shanghai, for example has a population of 23 million and produces 90% of its eggs and 50% of its chickens and pork, and more than two metric tons of wheat and rice.   “Something to aspire to,” he noted.

New York has 52,000 acres of back yards. 

An exciting development is “Distributed Farms” – where farmers do a lot of work on homeowners’ space who set aside land for farmers to work their land, with the homeowners having shares – similar to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  This could be a Home Supported Agriculture or a HAS!

Further, New York City has 14,000 un-shaded rooftop that can be farmed. This can also be considered an added advantage for building owners and landlords because the rooftop farms offer insulation that can benefit heating and cooling costs.

There is 11,000 acres of brownfields and vacant lots in NYC. 

Riverpark – celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Kips Bay restaurant overlooks a garden that was a “stalled” commercial development and is a good example of this enterprise.

In general, it was noted edibles can be grown in containers and raised beds to safeguard against ground pollutants, as is done at Riverpark’s farm.

Just look around – food can be grown most everywhere: in community gardens, patio containers and windowsills and on fire escapes – (the last being illegal, of course, and shouldn’t be promoted as a place to grow anything.)

Talk about Job Creators

Unlike some big shots, who claim they know business only to lay off workers or shut down plants, farming on the other hand does indeed generate jobs. 

Tom said it is a difficult metric to determine, but delighted the audience not only with his research and results, but also in his sheer pluckiness in finding the data in a Kellogg Foundation Report from which he extrapolated his work.

So here it goes:  The USDA says for every $1 million in sales, 13 jobs per million are created so therefore, urban farming can expect to provide 13,000 jobs! 

Major cities that can contribute to urban farming jobs are Detroit, San Francisco, Boston and New York that combined are one-third of the US population. 

“It’s an Agricultural Disneyland” Tom declared. 

How to Foster an Agricultural Disneyland – and get a Tool Library!

No “Land of the Future” amusement here, rather buying locally grown food and encouraging local restaurants that support local farms. 

“It is a great cachet for the restaurants,” said Tom.  “And many of the chefs get to help determine what’s grown – so they get an exclusive” to offer to the customer.

Another way to get urban farming going is to recognize zoning laws need to change.  City planners need to consider the height of buildings; consider having limits not apply to greenhouses.  “We could be looking at 12,000 acres of commercial rooftop use for farms,” noted Tom.

Our goal should be 15% of our food supply be grown in our own breadbasket. We can even grow apples -- just like they do on Randall’s Island, he observed.  

“Start with vegetables as opposed to livestock, “ grinned Tom while offering another tip to get urban farming in place.

Push for more community gardens and farmers markets with Tool Libraries as GrowNYC has.  www.grownyc.org

Tool Libraries? 

What a great idea.  Tool libraries lend the garden instruments needed to till the land and can reduce overhead costs for start up efforts.

Another kick-starter is to allow for cottage industries.  For example, the Bronx Community Farm wanted to sell their produce but didn’t have a way to do business with a GreenMarket.  But after the city lent a hand, the Farm can now sell food commercially and make money to fund their operations.

Sure to enable urban agriculture is to support Farm to School programs to promote nutrition, careers, etc. 

Note: many master chefs recognize cooking is transformative – they work diligently for children’s gardening programs including chefs that are featured in this Examiner’s book, Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook  http://tiny.cc/4zjhbw

For example, chefs Bryan Futerman and Joe Realmuto build greenhouses and teach cooking and sponsor fundraising for their Spring Seedlings Project they spearheaded in 2008 to teach kids about growing their own food and quality of what they cook and eat.  http://www.thespringsseedlings.org/index.php

Here’s a nice story about their efforts in the East Hampton Patch:

http://tiny.cc/x2ulcw

Chef Bill Telepan’s Wellness in Schools (WITS) helps city schools produce healthy menus. Other Celebrity chefs, including Marcus Samuelson, lend a hand to teach and train school kitchen staffs. WITS aims to foster “healthy eating, environmental awareness and fitness as a way of life for kids in NYC public schools.  http://wellnessintheschools.org/

What’s on the Horizon?

When asked what’s new under the sun, Tom delivered on the keynote’s headline provocation and didn’t hesitate to say he thinks there is great momentum, there are more ways to engage and to complement traditional agriculture along with plenty of ways to be sustainable. 

He also offered examples of successful Distributed Networks and shared the fact that Bryerson in Canada has a Distance Learning program.

He believes the future of urban construction and urban farms will be part and parcel of each other.  Urban farms will have become part of the construction building criteria and lexicon.

Agri-Tourism will become a popular form of travel entertainment, too.

For more information from Tom and his world of Urban Farming, visit his website:

http://farmeresq.com/

Tom Fox, author & Urban Ag Conference Keynote Speaker

Next up is the Panel Discussion review filled with insight and tips from “some of the most productive and innovative projects in the city’s urban farming community,” as profiled in The Hort’s flyer.

They should know.