We took the long way to the community garden, pedalling a thirty mile loop through East NY, Broad Channel and the Rockaways on the bright summer's day before the storm. If the weathermen weren't tracking Irene, you might have thought that this weekend would bring more bright sun and perfect conditions for a day at the beach. But we don't live in a time when the forecoming weather is a mystery, so we enjoyed the ride and the moment, knowing we wouldn't be riding or gardening in the sun today. We admired the lush green growth at the community garden on New Lots in East NY, imagining the gardeners there harvesting and tidying up before the storm just as we would be doing in our own garden plots, and took in the beauty of the clear waters of Jamaica Bay, which we're hoping doesn't rise far enough in the storm to flood the gardens at Floyd Bennett.
Back at Floyd Bennett, we looked out on a pasture that grows on cement. Before the airport, much of this place was under water, or a series of small marsh islands, something to ponder. Then we rode the last ten miles home, paniers full of potatoes and other ripe produce. We live in the heights, (well, it's high for Brooklyn), so we will be home this weekend. Some of our neighbors at the garden, under mandatory evacuation in Coney Island, were still figuring out where they would spend the weekend. We hope for the best for our garden plots in the storm, but we can always rebuild if necessary. Our investment is slight, miniscule in comparison to the regions farmers and wineries. So we hope for the best for the new urban rooftop farms in Greenpoint and Long Island City and the farms and wineries out east in Suffolk county.
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2 comments:
I would have read those clouds...
I think we'll be ok, meaning the gardens.
The storm surge will be something to watch, but I'm remaining optimistic.
Back to normalcy soon!
Dude, you are reading the clouds, while I am looking for bunnies and funny shapes up there. But on the total opposite end of the spectrum, I remember once staring at a big fat anvil of a rain cloud coming towards the garden and remarking that it was about to rain and just about everyone that I was with proceeded to tell me there was no rain in the forecast. And then of course, it just dumped rain. Every once in a while, I get it right, but it's not my area of expertise. Hope you fare well over at Tilden.
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