Vintage Photographs - Old New York City Restaurants

I have found another fascinating Blog about old New York City entitled Eater.

You can find collections of fabulous vintage photographs there. It has been a very long time since a slice of Pizza cost 25 cents. 

The Blog also provides food industry news, reviews of restaurants and job listings in the local food industry.

You can also find photographs from a time when Coney Island was the happening place to go in New York.

And you can see what passed for Fast Food at the turn of the century.

A Park for Fruit and People

I found the City Farmer News website which covers all aspects of sustainable farming. I have been envisioning turning the many pocket parks in Philadelphia into mini fruit farms, so I was cheered on when I saw that I am not alone in my thinking. I love the idea of a Fruit Park which is at once a source of corporal and spiritual nourishment.

 Grand Opening On Saturday, January 5, 2013 At Del Aire Park

Press Release
Dec 26, 2012

The trees were planted with the support of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Program and the guidance of Fallen Fruit, an artists’ collaborative founded by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young, whose mission is to unite communities through the creation of sustainable public art projects. Del Aire residents planted 27 fruit trees, eight grape vines, more than 60 trees were given away to neighbors. Once the trees bear fruit, all park visitors will be encouraged to pick from the new edible landscape at harvest time. Within three years, the trees are expected to be completely sustainable and drought tolerant.

Egg Money

photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

It is not so easy being a Chicken farmer. This young woman is doing it. Shelby Grebenc has been raising chickens for both eggs and meat at her family's Adams County farm. In this 2011 photo, she holds Chipmunk, one of her Americana hens.

http://www.denverpost.com/style/ci_21967690?source=pop

You may be tired of reading about Chickens but I am probably not going to stop. Hey, it is my Blog.  My Babcha helped raise a family of six with her chicken and egg money in the early 1900s. All they had was an acre in the country. I think I really may get some Hens. Ever had a fresh country Egg? Delicious. 

Ms. Shelby has plenty of peppery and wise things to say about Life, Salesmanship and Chickens like this:

"If you want sustainable, wholesome, pasture-raised organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free food, you have to support it. You can not get these things by talking about it and not paying for it. The next time you shop at a farmers market, think about what it cost me to grow it. Don't ask me to take less and then tell me you can get it cheaper at a big-box store. I know you can — but it will not be as fresh or as good as what I have, and you won't make me cry."

A Fish Grows in Brooklyn

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

First, my apologies to Betty Smith.  I know a good title when I read one. So I stole yours.

I continue to find articles about brave new sustainable farms in big cities.  I favor this adventure in feeding ourselves that is urban agriculture. I love Fish.  I use lots of Herbs. Will the Fish and Herb Farm be the latest in trendy restaurant decor?

Fish fuel farm! Bushwick’s Moore Street Market to boast ‘aquaponic’ garden

BY DANIELLE FURFARO

The Brooklyn Paper

Yemi Amu believes that fish poop can change the world — or at the very least change an abandoned Bushwick lot into a thriving farm.

She and her partner Jonathan Boe have spent the past year setting up small aquaponic gardens — closed systems that use fish feces and water to feed plants — and now they’re planning their masterwork: a fish poop-powered urban farm at the Moore Street Market in Bushwick.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/47/all_williamsburgfarm_2012_11_21_bk.html

“It saves water and you don’t need a lot of space,” said Amu, who is constructing the urban oasis under the moniker Oko Farms. “You can do more than you could do with a soil-based garden and you get both fish and vegetables.”

This fish is a species of Tilapia, a freshwater fish which is very suited to aquaponic farming. Unlike carnivorous fish, tilapia can feed on algae or any plant-based food. This reduces the cost of tilapia farming, reduces fishing pressure on prey species, avoids concentrating toxins and makes tilapia the preferred "aquatic chickens" of the trade.