OCTOBER 10TH, 2011
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A few weeks back, Hurricane Irene missed New York City and instead rained down on upstate New York. Farmers like Kira Kinney of Evolutionary Organics were quickly flooded, and what the river didn’t take was rendered unsellable by the USDA: fear of floodwater contamination has kept her from bringing her surviving crops to market. At her Saturday farmstand at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, Kira sells saved potatoes, post-storm raised salad mixes, and collard greens from an upper field near the road that stayed above the rising waters.
This Monday, a group of volunteers–mostly folks who shop her farm stand in downtown Brooklyn–came together to help put in Kira’s garlic. The rows were prepped by hand with a top dressing of compost. “Is this the result of all those food scraps I brought to you?” One man asked while loading up his five gallon bucket to shake down the long furrows.
The garlic, a German White hardneck, smelled delicious in the hot sun. It was odd but satisfying to think that the next time we’re in the garlic–to harvest–it’ll be an equally hot day in July.