Brooklyn Grange

The future is here! It’s 2010, and even though we’re all a little disappointed that we didn’t get a hover-board for Christmas (especially Brandon), this year promises to yield good progress and great food.  It might seem counter-intuitive to use terms like “progress” and “future” considering we at Brooklyn Grange are determined to bring back a century-dead agricultural economy, but we like to think of ourselves as a forward-thinking bunch. Plus, we plan to employ jet packs for getting up and down from the roof, and robots will supply 92% of our farm labor*.

And now that we’ve shaken off the holidays like snow from our boots, it’s time to get down to business put all our ducks in a row before planting time rolls around in March. On his way back from Wisconsin the other day Ben wrote up a to-do list for us. It’s a wee bit long, but luckily there are six of us and we’re up for the challenge. Here’s where we’re at:

- Raise $100,000: Although Daunting, this is a task that we’re psyched to complete. We’ve already had three fundraisers, and they were a blast. This month we’re going to be holding a star-studded Spaghetti and Meatball contest with our friends at The Meat Hook, plus we’ll have another big food event at Roberta’s in February. More on this soon, and if you feel like contributing today, visit our Donate Page.

- Get incorporated: We are, after all, a small business, and like all businesses we need to register with the state and get a tax ID number and all that good stuff. Luckily, we have an awesome pro-bono attorney who is holding our hand through the process.

- Write/Sign a lease for a roof: We’ve got a roof, kind of. It’s not actually “ours” until we sign some papers. And it’s going to be a creative exercise to write up a lease that explains in legal jargon how we’re going to build a farm on a roof. I’m glad I’m not the one who has to do it.

- Plan out planting calendar, buy seeds: This one’s going to be fun, although it’s sure to be a lot of work. The goal is to get a maximum yield (both in volume and price) out of our farm, but we’re still going to want to have fun and grow some interesting stuff. Last year Ben grew some cool (but not necessarily lucrative) crops – like hops that he gave to the guys at Sixpoint – and I’m sure that we’re going to end up experimenting at the new farm, too.

- Make materials list, buy materials, install: Yikes. if we plan to plant in March, it means we have just over two months to get this together. Let us know if you want to help out with the installation – we’ll need lots and lots of volunteers! (write to brooklyngrangefarm@gmail.com)

And this isn’t even the half of it. We need to register as a farm with the Agriculture Department, we have to work out compost and drainage, we’re probably going to have to get a truck (preferably something with 36″ wheels, flood lights, and custom decals), and we still don’t even have a logo.

Happy New Year, time to get cracking.

*Just kidding, we can only afford one robot, so this year robot labor will only account for 35% of our workforce.