Learn to farm without ever leaving New York City. The Youth Farm, located in Brooklyn, is a one-acre farm that educates people about farming. Who knew there was a farm centrally located in Brooklyn?! Well, there is. My son and I participated in a tour and were completely amazed. Over eighty vegetables and flowers are grown on the farm, which is located a short distance from the subway. Outside of teaching us city folk how to grow our own organic vegetables, The Youth Farm hires high school students every summer to work on the property.
Our group tour was led by Janelle Carter-Small, who is also co-owner of The Brooklyn Greenhouse, a business that provides hands-on indoor and outdoor agriculture-based STEM education to groups and classes she runs with her husband. Janelle provided us with a fun, interactive, and engaging experience as she gave us the tour around the farm. Throughout the tour you’re instructed to pick kale and other vegetables used at the end to create an organic salad. Yum, yum!
Tour with us as we chat with Janelle on life behind The Youth Farm and The Brooklyn Greenhouse:
Farming in Brooklyn…how long has The Youth Farm been planted on Kingston Avenue?
The Youth farm started as a learning garden in 2010 when the founding principal of High School for Public Service Ben Shuldiner, Bee Ayers and Stacey Murphy created a productive outdoor classroom which is now a 1 acre production farm in the middle of Brooklyn!
For those of us that don’t have full knowledge on production farming; please share with us what happens at the Youth Farm.
The Youth Farm is a program of Green Guerillas in partnership with the High School for Public Service and is a part of the BK Farmyards farming network. Programs are run by part-time Green Guerillas consultants like and volunteer staff.
Today farm managers Molly & Erin, along with crew leaders Sarah and India, Farm to school liaison Sawdaya and myself the education and immersion trip coordinator form a team of dope female farmers in NYC. The farm also runs an Urban Farm Training Program for adults, a year-round internship program, a High School Summer Program and host volunteers. Over 80 varieties of veggies and flowers are grown there and sold to the community during the farmers market (Every Wednesday 2:30-6:30 pm), and through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), you pay in early spring and get fresh, just harvested that day vegetables or flowers every week from June to October!
The Youth Farm grows organic food and flowers geared for the community while providing education to learn the process and spread awareness; what is something most people are surprised to learn about the process?
That’s an interesting question. I believe the process of learning to grow your own food is a personal journey and so people are surprised by different things. For me, I was surprised by how similar growing plants were to raising children and teaching children. The babies start in the nursery. They all needed the right amount of space, water, sunlight and attention to pests that may be harming them. Before some of them are ready to be transplanted to the ground, they may need to go to a “hardening off table” a space where they can get used to the weather conditions outside of the greenhouse much like college! These are all life lessons for parents, for teachers, for humans. Another surprising part of this process is how much it took me back to my Caribbean roots. Realizing that our grandmothers and their grandmothers always knew the right herbs and greens for us centuries before micro greens and rooftop garden parties but somehow we have forgotten how to GROW these things.
What is the average time for a group visit ?
Usually group visits at The Youth Farm last anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours. We design tours, workshops and experiences on the farm tailored specifically to the groups’ interests and goals.
Are you getting the preliminary knowledge to farm or will you leave with certificate level knowledge?
Adult farm students leave after 10 months of farming with a certificate in urban farming. That is what I did in 2015. Groups who visit hopefully leave with more knowledge on food systems, food justice, and growing food!
For the summer 10-12 high school students are selected for the summer youth program, working on the farm as their summer job, without ever having to leave the island by the way; What are some tasks these teens are assigned to do?
During the summer, the farm employ and mentor students who will spend 20 supervised hours on the farm mastering the science of composting, integrated pest management, water conservation, and soil health. The Summer Youth Coordinator/Farm to School Liaison Sawdaya along with other Youth Farm farmers teach them how to grow and maintain produce, marketing, health and nutrition workshop. At the end of the summer they work on a final project exemplifying their experiences.
From a student standpoint, do you ever find they get disengaged with learning about agriculture?
Students aren’t disengaged they are intrigued. In a world where children are constantly told no you can not do this, or that. In classrooms where they are taught to sit still and have “0 noise” . The Youth Farm is a place where children as young as 2 through high school and even college students can visit.The preschoolers absolutely LOVE using their 5 senses to explore everything! The middle school students who may start their visit unwilling to even sit on the grass leave with soil stained hands and big smiles. Along with farming, the teens learn public speaking, marketing, workshop planning, and more….plus they get to watch something they planted grow and eat it! Or take it home as a bouquet.
How does the student and adult workshops differ?
The student farmer program is a paid certification program where they farm 3 days a week from April to October. Adult workshops on the farm.
The Youth Farm supplies fresh produce and flowers to restaurants around Brooklyn, so cool, can you tell us some of them?
Sure, we grow a variety of tomatoes, tamatillos, bitter mellon (cerassee), cucumbers, callaloo , onions, garlic, lavender, lemon balm, thyme, lemon sorrel, kale, lettuce, peppers, beets and so much more.
I’ve heard of several New Yorker’s starting (trying to) their own farm on balconies, rooftops, wherever they can; how easy is it to do with the proper spacing of course?
Its actually pretty doable. There’s tons of online resources and blogs that will help guide you. You can sign up for classes with organizations like Bk Farmyards, or have The Brooklyn Greenhouse come and help you design an indoor or outdoor green space or read our upcoming newsletters about gardening with children.
For me, I would love to incorporate something like this for my children to get involved in with baby steps what is the best first step for introducing them into farming?
Try container planting. Plant a seed in a food safe container and let them water it and take care of it. Eventually they can either continue container planting or transfer the seedlings into the ground. If there’s a community garden or farm nearby, go to one of their volunteer days and let them get to know the local farmers and gardeners!
What are some ways that volunteers can get involved?
If they’re in NY, every other Saturday The Youth Farm has volunteer days as do most urban farms. Community gardens are always looking for volunteers, check out your local parks page for a garden near you. The Brooklyn Greenhouse will also need volunteers and part time staff this August throughout the 2016-2017 school year as we bring AgriSTEM workshops to daycare centers, schools, and help families create their own vegetable and more green spaces.
Now you along with your husband, Mark, are the founders of The Brooklyn Greenhouse; can you enlighten us what happens here?
The Brooklyn Greenhouse, LLC was born when Mark and I decided that we were tired of traveling hours within our city for STEM activities for our children and disappointed in the lack of STEM curriculum in early childhood settings. We want to increase the diversity of children interested in AgriSTEM careers. I was reading an article once that said there will be over 50,000 high skill Agriculture jobs are expected to open up from now to 2020 alone. Farmers yes, but also engineers to design more efficient machinery, scientists to develop ways of growing in drought ridden areas, mathematicians to help farmers with their budgets for growing, etc. Why not get children thinking about this from as young as 3? If your 3 year old can name every Thomas train and the parts of the train (like ours) and spend forever playing in dirt (like ours) then they can learn the parts of a plant and have fun too!
My son is a big STEM’ey, I am loving that it is getting more attention, as every child will not have an interest in sports; do you plan to expand The Brooklyn Greenhouse to more areas (come to New Rochelle first LOL)?
Because this is officially our first year, The Brooklyn Greenhouse is definitely a Brooklyn business, and we are excited to connect with as many Brooklyn families in gardens, farms, schools, churches, stoops, backyards and windowsills as possible. We do have something in mind for branching out that will allow us to reach families across the country. For our workshops, we will definitely come to New Rochelle, can’t promise it will be first, a few schools have already reached out in city AKA Manhattan!
As a NYC childhood educator for the past eight years, did you always want to start a business or did you because you saw there was a need for your idea?
We started the business because our children needed it. If they needed it then we were sure there were other parents, educators looking for the same thing. If not us, then who? I met a parent Jodie at our son’s primary school. She had found a way to use her business Georgia to connect to a legacy of strong women in her family, express her own flyness, and use it as a platform to speak on social issues that were important to her and her family eventually starting another fashion business Doobop. I knew fashion was NOT the industry I’d be in, but wanted a way to connect to the legacy of women in my own family who were STEM women but weren’t acknowledged as such. When Nadia, one of our close friends and a phenomenal school principal asked me if I had done a vision board, I had to admit I hadn’t. She didn’t think classroom teaching was all God had planned for me, she believed there was something else but I needed a plan.
How did you create the concept for The Brooklyn Greenhouse and how long from it being an idea was it before you had the actual business up and running?
The idea for the Brooklyn Greenhouse is the result of 3 major moments in our lives from 2010. 2010 we realized we kept running into families from East Flatbush, Canarsie, Bedstuy, East NY, Fort Greene all over Brooklyn seeking STEM enrichment for their children in more affluent areas of the city, and even in those programs, none were culturally diverse representing NYC’s many beautiful cultures nor did they have an agriculture focus, an area in STEM that is growing in NYC and around the country as more urban farms and gardens are being created indoor and outdoor. The second aha moment was a year later in 2011 when I was tutoring on the weekend and I realized my students who struggled in math and science did so, not because they weren’t “good at math and science” but because they were tactile and kinesthetic learners, in other words they had to learn with movement, with their bodies and they weren’t getting that in their schools for math and science after 1st grade.
The last push was when our second son was born in 2013, we realized we didn’t know where his food was grown, how it was grown. We were a lot less shell shocked from all that comes with being first time parents, and more ready to say no to the store bought products. The more I learned about agriculture and growing food, the more I realized my students needed this as much as my children. This was Science, this was Math, this was Engineering, this was technology. People were coming to Brooklyn from everywhere starting urban farms, but no one was teaching the Brooklyn children in early childhood settings the STEM behind it so they can create their own growing spaces while learning, creating, innovating. We applied for a Kiva Zip loan in 2014 and raised 5,000 in 3 days. Thats when we knew. In 2015, I joined the farm apprentice program at The Youth Farm, creating lessons when I went home from what I learned but geared toward children and this year The Brooklyn Greenhouse was born. I’m now doing what I love, teaching and coordinating field trips on everything from food justice to composting to simple machines on The Youth Farm as a consultant through Green Guerillas.
What challenges are you faced with that you never thought would arise?
When people first heard of what we wanted to do, they automatically assumed we would be a nonprofit. Social entrepreneurship is growing. Getting people to accept the idea that a black woman, with Caribbean roots, is a teacher AND an urban farmer and that her husband, an Army veteran and PA is right there growing beside her…. in Brooklyn has been a fun challenge.
On another note, Soil and compost is really expensive. Who knew?! This was an eye opening concept, that we’d have to purchase good quality soil with lots of nutrients to create raised beds which in a lot of spaces in urban areas is necessary due to soil contamination. When we plant directly into the ground, we have to send the soil for testing. However paying for Soil in NY , (long known for rich farmland), feels a little like paying for sand in Barbados.
With two boys, a husband, a career and business how do you find balance to manage it all?
Balance. Have you ever tried to work with a balance scale? Apparently its not affected by gravity. You’d have a specific mass on one side and your goal is to balance the scale on the other side with an object of equal mass. Supposedly both sides are balanced because they are affected the same way. That’s not life. Even on the balance scale, where everything would seem balanced, if you looked closer, you’d notice it was still moving, slightly swaying. Nothing is ever stagnant. The constant fight for balance while moving leads to this superwoman complex which leads to disease. Balance starts internally, eating right, sleeping (or trying to), and planning personal times for you. You can be an awesome mom and wife and still say, I’m going to need grandma or auntie or godma or hubby to watch the kids, I need the internet to be down, I need the ocean, a quiet green space, coconut water, a fish cutter (yum) and my iron pills because anemia.
Working with a team of motivated women at The Youth Farm and being your own #Girlboss; how do you empower other women?
I hope I can empower women to use the knowledge passed down to them by their ancestors combined with the skills they’ve cultivated living out their own lives to stand in their greatness. Particularly moms raising boys. I think we have a unique challenge and could benefit from sharing experiences, resources, and strategies. In farming, particularly urban farming and urban gardening there is an empowerment that comes with food justice and actively changing the food system available in our communities, all while teaching STEM to the babies.
What’s next for The Brooklyn Greenhouse?
Well we entered The Brooklyn Public Library business plan competition this year! It is helping us make sure our plan is solid plus if we win, we receive a pretty decent amount of money toward the start of our business! That would be amazing. For the 2016-2017 school year we are looking to partner with a small group of daycare centers, schools, religious institutions, community gardens and camps and continue our relationship with The Youth Farm to teach AgriSTEM workshops and help them create and maintain their own growing spaces. Look for our first online newsletter in August. You can sign up on our website to get tips on starting a garden with children, teaching STEM, yummy recipes and more.
the VIRGO GIRL FIVE THINGS TO ASK:
What would you tell your 21-year-old self?
At 21 I was extremely confident and sure and so focused on career, I’d probably only tell her to travel more. I wish I could talk to my 27 year old self. The new mom, the full time grad student, the first year teacher, the newlywed, the army wife, the new homeowner. She was so sleep deprived, so unsure. afraid of somehow ruining her child, her students. I’d assure her that she was enough.
I start my day with . . .
“ Depends on the morning, it may be our toddler’s feet in my face! Usually I eat a piece of fruit, drink a cup of tea or and I check the weather forecast at least 3 times. I like to answer and write as many emails as I can before 8 am if I can. I find that helps keep them from piling up.
If you could invite any woman to dinner, who would it be?
One? I can’t choose 1. Can I choose 3? I’d invite Oprah, my love for her is strong! My maternal great grandmother who had her own business she was a Mauby woman and built two homes for her family back in the 1930s in Barbados and My paternal grandmother who was a midwife and used her knowledge of herbs to help the new mothers in her village in Barbados oh and Solange, I’m fascinated by her.
Best advice you have received?
Be the change you want to see in the world Gandhi
Life motto you live by?
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Albert Einstein
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