As Hurricane Sandy pummeled the city on Monday, the storm waters surged through the streets of Red Hook, flooding basements, cars and Red Hook Community Farm’s field of late-fall salad greens, arugula and cabbage.
“The farm was under two and a half feet of water. It’s total crop loss,” said executive director Ian Marvy, who lives nearby in Red Hook, where he stayed as the hurricane struck. Read More
Rounding the corner onto Schenck Avenue in East New York, the staff of East New York Farms winced a little—the farm’s gate had been wrenched off its hinges and a port-a-potty was lying on one side, but things were not as bad as they might have been. The plants—particularly the long beans—were wind-beaten and crushed in places by fallen branches, but the greenhouse had protected many of the pepper plants and the bees were alive and well in their hives.
“A lot of trellising is down, but we’re almost done with the market season,” said agricultural coordinator Deborah Greig, who walked The Observer through the 1/2-acre farm. Willow branches littered the many varieties of pepper plants, but the plants themselves had been low enough to escape most of the wind’s fury. A large tree had toppled over by the back fence, but it was not a beloved one. Mostly, Ms. Greig had been worried about the bees. “I’m surprised they’re doing okay. It looks like just the brick got blown off the top of the hives,” she noted. In a few hours time, the port-a-potty had been righted, the farm manager was swinging an axe at the fallen tree and the non-profit was planning to hold its scheduled market, the last one of the season, the following afternoon. Read More
