Summmmer

If you want Food Justice, you need backyard gardens. We installed this garden in 3 hours. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini oh my. Oh and a Mirliton in the back. Christopher says thank you! 

4 rows in 3 hours. Not bad.

If you want Food Justice, you need LOTS of backyard gardens. Our new neighbor Stanley is a mean cook and knows a little about that. So we got together and started planting...

Beaucoup basil around Stanley's house! You can smell it walking out the door.

If you want Food Justice you need a large scale paradigm shift. Marc is also our new neighbor, he's been helping us plant and learning about food and communities along the way.

Marc is new to the neighborhood.  Growing food is a powerful way to get to know one another

Gardens are for everyone. They may even be for you. We'd love to come install a garden in YOUR backyard! Call Turner (718) 415 0890 for a free estimate. 

If you want Food Justice, you're going to need to grow the growers to grow the food. Juan and Dante (Marc's father and our new neighbor) are working on just that. Sprouts can be a powerful thing in the right hands.

Juan passing along the wisdom to Dante. Growing a movement one grower at a time.

If you want Food Justice, you need to have good friends. And make new ones. An old friend/intern Jenny stopped by. She's made some new friends!

BABY GOATS LOVE BANANAS. JENNY'S GOT BANANAS. BABY GOATS LOVE JENNY.

Our summer program starts on Monday. Getting ready for another crazy summer.


Till next time

Igniting the Spark!

A few months back, we posted the trailer to a documentary being filmed, in part about OSBG. The movie is almost complete, and we need your help to finish it. Please read the note from director and good friend Ian and make sure to watch the dope video.

From Ian:

Hi Friends,

It's that time of year for another round of crowd-funding for our groundbreaking documentary!

Please take a minute to watch this nifty video featuring me, your guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mQ0HH8aLBU

And follow your heart to our fundraiser on Indie Go Go!

http://igg.me/at/thespark

We've changed the title to "The Spark" and restructured the storyline to include my experience of searching out the main characters while driving around the country for a year.  So you'll get to see what it's like to live in one's truck and on revolutionary couches all across America.  We're also prepping to film a monumental convergence between the tech innovators at OSE and urban farmers at OSBG in New Orleans...

If you recall, the film is about what ignites the drive in people to change the world around them in a significant way; about going from passive observer to active participant in life.

Please donate if you can, but more importantly, SHARE THIS VIDEO on your facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc...and please sign up to join our social networking campaign on Thunderclap - it'll only take a minute!

I truly appreciate all of your support for this project...we're going to make an amazing film together.

cheers,

- ian

RIP Buddy

We are sad to inform everyone that Buddy passed away last week. He was doing a lot better for a little while, but things took a turn for the worst and he didn't make it. We took him home, and buried him in the backyard where one of our fig trees had fallen. He was a very good dog and we miss him. We would also like to thank everyone who donated to help pay for Buddy's medical bills.

New avocado tree planted where we buried Buddy

Yesterday a guy came by asking us if we wanted a dog. We said no, but once we got a look at her we couldn't let her go! Welcome to the family..................... Bunny!!! What a sweet dog

Helloooo Bunny

Peace, more updates to come

Updates on Buddy's health and summer planting

Thank you everyone for supporting Buddy through this hard time. We took him from the emergency hospital and brought him to his usual vet on Tuesday. He is doing a lot better! After his blood transfusion, he was able to stand up on his own for a little bit, and he got some of his appetite back... he even ate a hotdog (you know how sick Buddy must be if he loses his appetite). We are feeling very lucky and grateful, even the doctors weren't sure if Buddy would make it. He is on the road to success, but we are not out of the woods just yet and we need your help!

Buddy being cared for by his veterinarian down on Magazine st.  

We have fundraised $450 so far, almost half way there. Our veterinarian has be kind enough to give us some time to pay them for their services while we raise money to help save Buddy's life. Please share with your friends!


In the meantime, here's a little update of the things we've been up to....

We fixed up the aquaponics system! With a few changes, our new system is more efficient. We put some of our Eggplant starts that were looking burnt out by the sun. They're getting huge and soon to be ready to go in the ground. We have almost 1,000 eggplant starts WOAH

We've already planted some Eggplants and they're  starting to take off! Now if we could just get some rain....

Eggplants and Zucchini! 

Hoophouse full of delicious sprouts as always, we still need a little more shade cloth though

Arugula is growing like craaaazy

The weeds are growing even faster! Its hard to keep up with them, if only they were edible..

The weeds were almost getting out of hand, so we enlisted the help of our goat Shi Shi AKA Goatface Killah

Shi Shi is king of the compost!

Rob is not quite as good at eating the grass as Shi Shi is, but he can grow the heck out of some food

We are also getting ready for our summer of service learning 2013. Contact sam at 917 306 6039 or sam@ny2no.org for more information about lodging, curriculum, and daily work.


 Things are looking up at the farm, especially with Buddy getting better. But we still need your support! Help us make sure Buddy gets back to his rightful place at the farm under the shade structure greeting visiters and protecting the plants!


Till next time

SAVE BUDDY!

HELP US SAVE BUDDY!

Our dog beloved dog Buddy’s fallen very ill.

The initial visit to the doggie hospital cost $300 for blood tests. 

The vet says he has very unusual auto-immune deficiency disorder where his body is fighting himself.

We can save him if we have the right medicines and treatment in the next few weeks. That’s going to cost us over $1000. We don’t have the funding to cover the costs so we are reaching out to people who love Buddy… seriously, who doesn’t love Buddy? And asking people who love him to contribute whatever you can to help him get treated

$5 helps
$10 helps more
$20 isn’t a lot
$50 means you have to curb your spending for the week
$100 gets you an OSBG T-Shirt and a thank you card signed by Buddy himself!!!


You can donate at www.ourschoolatblairgrocery.org on the top right corner of the front page. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!


SAVE BUDDY AKA FATHEAD, The guardian of the garden.

Greetings from the 7th Ward

Our friend Emily runs a garden in the 7th Ward. For last few Fridays the kids she works with cooked together and ate salad greens from our farm. 

They loved their salads so much they sent us these videos to thank us. Love it!

Class is in Session

This week have service learners in from Middlebury through InterVarsity and and a couple of folks from Tulane staying with us as part of a domestic study abroad trip. Today they were planting okra when our neighbor Stanley--a chef in New Orleans for 30+ years who also grew up farming--came by and taught us all how to prep the rows and give the seeds a head start. Stanley's a nice guy, but of course he also wants okra come summer! Seems like a pretty good deal all around.