From Organic Farms in Italy to New York City!

2 June 2011

Life Change:

Within the past two weeks, I have returned from three months of WWOOFing and executing research in Italy, graduated from my university, Couch Surfed around Brooklyn while on an apartment search, moved into Manhattan, and started waitressing. And gotten two parking tickets. I found an apartment with four other Couch Surfers for roommates on 111th and Adam Clayton Powell, one block from Central Park, for $550 (shared room the size of a closet sleeping on the top bunk!)

Challenge to Self:

Living in New York City--especially in the summer--is fun. So much fun, in fact, that you could spend all of your non-working hours going to free concerts, lazing in the parks, fine dining...and never accomplish anything. This is not the program for my summer. I am going to explore how to live as locally as possible in the Big Apple and find others who are doing it, too. I just returned from pulling weeds, making honey and milking goats on small Italian farms, and I want to find the equivalent here.

1. I will ride my bicycle as frequently as possible. I live 8.7 miles from my waitressing job in Little Italy, a lovely ride down the Hudson River Greenway . I vow to ride my bike 50% of the time. That means locally, but also to work, into Brooklyn, to go dancing, and to those free concerts. And in the rain.

2. I will learn how to fix my own bike, attend Times Up! bicycle repair events and find other bikers!

2. I will grow an organic garden on my apartment building rooftop.

3. 95% of my food will come from the locally owned organic market, farmers markets, and a Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.

4. I will find other people doing the same in NYC! I will seek out other urban gardeners, share strategies, and--more importantly--build a critical mass of us. There are restaurants that grow their own tomatoes and apiculturists who make their own honey, all from their urban rooftops. I want to expose them!