Watch below for a detailed report on illegal beekeeping in New York City and see some bees up and close:

See related article by Geneva Sands-Sadowitz and hear more from Fort Greene resident and beekeeper, John Howe at The Local, The New York Times blog covering Fort Greene. Click Here.

ConcreteFood.com spoke with Leda Meredith, an educator, professional dancer and local food advocate. She spent a year eating only food produced within 250 miles of her Brooklyn apartment. She is the author of Botany, Ballet and Dinner from Scratch: A Memoir with Recipes. Her blog is Leda’s Urban Homestead.

You can call in to listen to the show live at this phone number: (646) 478-4102

UPDATE: If you missed it live, you can listen to the archived show here.

The Washington Post recently interviewed cookbook author Kate Heyhoe on reducing your “cookprint.”

“An ecovore looks at the total impact of food with fluidity, not rigidity. Our food choices are, at any given time or in any given place, in constant flux, because of changes in ecosystems, economics, and technology. Ecovores eat foods that are in harmony with the environment, both currently and for the foreseeable future, locally and globally. An ecovore’s diet pivots on a series of judgment calls based on conditions at the time and place,” said Heyhoe to the Washington Post. READ full interview here.

Some food related Earth Day events in the city include:

EarthFair 2009: Grand Central Terminal, April 24th and April 25th

A two-day festival of art, music and the environment on Vanderbilt Avenue & in Vanderbilt Hall. A large exhibit area highlighting our sponsors, other green businesses, organic food and environmental groups will include interactive displays that will not only educate, but provide an opportunity to take positive action for our environment. EarthFair also features live musical entertainment including numerous well-known performers and New York City-based bands.

Cooking demonstrations and legalize beekeeping outreach at the Earth Fair 2009: April 24-25, Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt Hall (inside) and 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue (outside)

McKinley’s Children’s Garden Earth Day Celebrations’ Seed Saving Workshop: April 25, 12-1pm, McKinley’s Children’s Garden, 108-56 Union Hall Street at 109th Avenue, Jamaica, Queens

Garden Planning: April 25, 1-3pm, Hattie Carthan Community Garden, 654 Lafayette Ave at Clifton, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn

Check it out:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

ALSO, for more great info, be sure to check out this post from NYC on Deadline, “Local Food, Local Workers.” It features interviews with restaurant managers who serve locally grown food at their eateries, local food consumers and advocates, as well as local farmers.

AND, if you are interested in connecting with the local food movement, check out these excellent resources:

Local Harvest

Local Fork

100 Mile Diet

The New York City Compost Project operates out of the botanical gardens in each borough. With no botanical garden of its own, the Manhattan Compost Project is run by the Lower East Side Ecology Center. Urban composting has two distinct parts. It can be both part of municipal effort or done by individuals in their kitchens.

The number of free public workshops was also cut due to reduced funding. They had to raise the price on bins for individuals as well. Worm bins went from $10 to $40 and Garden Gourmet Composters went from $20 to $55. The price of Metal Can Composters remained $20.

“The service will remain cut until more budget funds are available. In the interim, the leaves will be disposed along with refuse. These are though economic times, and in that context, the present cuts to composting are not as significant as they could be.” said New York City Department of Sanitation Spokesman, Matthew Lipani, in an e-mail.

Watch below to learn more about urban composting in New York City. Featuring the Manhattan Compost Project. NOTE: some numbers may have changed due to the recent budget cuts.

Click here to see the complete original article and video post on the New York City News Service.

Let us know what you think about urban composting and the city-wide budject cuts!

The day kicked off with a packed auditorium of New York City’s community gardeners and supporters to hear from Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Adrian Benape, and keynote speaker, Leda Meredith. Meridith was ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theatre II, Edward Villella, Manhattan Ballet and others. Her recent book Botany, Ballet, and Dinner form Scratch: A memoir with Recipes, in which she writes of the ways she connects to nature, living a busy city life.

There was also a performance by dancers form the American Ballroom Theater Youth Dance Company, the group that inspired the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom.”

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy, 41st district, Brooklyn, surprised the audience to speak about her personal love of gardening an commitment to increasing New York City’s green space.

Watch below for Council Member Mealy on her passion for urban gardening:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Council Member Darlene Mealy from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

Nonprofits, government agencies, and independent companies, packed into a hall on the second floor of the conference. Organizations with any connection to food, gardening, the environment, energy etc. came together for the opportunity to network and advertise. Participants included the USDA, Just Food, Community Energy, and a yoga and permaculture ranch from upstate, to name a few.

Watch to hear from members of  the host organization, GreenThumb, The New York Restoration Project, and The Staten Island Compost Project on why this conference is important to them and their organizations:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Exhibits from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

I attended the “Wake Up: It’s Spring!” workshop and cooking demonstration. Yonnette Fleming of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden, spoke to attendees about the most nutritious foods that they can grow in their gardens. She worked with participants to create fresh salad with some homegrown greens, fruit, flowers, and sprouts.

After the meal was prepared and Flemming began to pass the salad around,
I couldn’t help but notice how out of place the Styrofoam bowls and
disposable forks felt

Flemming advocates seasonal eating. In other words eating specific foods depending on which season it is. This relates to local eating in that you should eat foods that are native to an area and eat them when they are growing naturally in an environmnet. As supposed to shipping watermelons from the south. For spring she focused on edible flowers and the nutrients that they contain.

Watch below to hear from Flemming and see the spring meal that participants helped make and eat:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Spring Food Workshop and Demo from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

The conference was an chance for gardeners in and around New york City to gather just as spring is begining.

The FLOTUS dug up the White House lawn last week with help from local schoolchildren. Fifty-five different vegetables will be planted in the organic garden, the first on the grounds since the Roosevelt's "Victory Garden" during WWII. (Click photo to see ABC News video / Photo: White House Organic Farm Project)

Will First Lady Michelle Obama inspire Americans to start growing their own vegetables? That remains to be seen, but last week, she began digging what will become a new organic vegetable garden on the White House grounds.

The folks from the Web site, White House Organic Farm Project, are definitely happy about it.

In the city, few people have the sprawling lawns the White House has. Don’t despair, says the First Lady. For urban dwellers who do not have a backyard of their own, she mentioned the important role the country’s one million community gardens can play.

With the advent of a presidential organic veggie garden — at the very least, quite a symbolic move — sustainable food advocates are excited that this administration seems open to their agenda. But are they ready for the D.C. scene? Agribusiness is an entrenched lobby, and has the support of many in Congress. Still,  how this nation eats and relates to its own food system may be changing.

Click on the thumbnail to see a photo slideshow of the day's events and participants.

Many New Yorkers, most of whom were members of one of the city’s 55 CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture groups), networked with one another and with local farmers at the CSA in NYC conference held on Sunday, March 8, 2009.

The annual conference was sponsored by Just Food, a local non-profit organization that works for economic, environmental and social justice through food systems. The non-profit works to make fresh, affordable, local food a viable option for all New Yorkers.

A CSA group is made up of members of a community who buy shares of a regional farmer’s upcoming harvest. The money the farmer receives allows him or her to grow, distribute a season’s worth of produce, pay workers, and sustain a way of life. Once a week, from June to November, the farmer delivers fresh food — usually 7-10 types of vegetables, up to 40 different types per season — to the CSA group members.

The sold-out conference consisted of various morning and afternoon workshops, all pertaining to food, farms and sustainability, and focusing on the CSA model. Later, there was a farmer panel and a food expo to conclude the day.

In the city “no one ever touches Mother Earth,” said conference keynote speaker Cheryl Rogowski, of W. Rogowski Farms. “[The city] is made out of concrete and steel,” she said.

This is why CSAs are important, she said, because they are beneficial to both parties. Farmers need investment and a guaranteed market for their crops, and city dwellers need healthy, locally-grown food, and the feeling of connection to their food source.

Rogowski has been on of the pioneers in the CSA movement in the past decade. A 2004 MacArthur “Genius” fellowship winner and first farmer to win the award, Rogowski also blogs at at The Black Dirt Blog.

SLIDE SHOW: Chickens and the City

The Walt L. Shamel (Dean North) Community Garden started raising chickens, for their eggs, last fall. The garden is a part of the Green Thumb community garden system, which is run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. As a member of Green Thumb, the gardens’ main goals are to help feed the community and education neighbors on eating fresh, healthy foods. Anyone can become a member of the garden by paying small fees and taking a part in the care of the land. Members host open hours for neighbors to use and enjoy the garden.

“I just find it interesting the way people don’t really make the connection between food and animals,” said Greg Anderson, primary caretaker and member of the Walt L. Shamel Community Garden.

Cities across the U.S., including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, allow residents to raise chickens in their backyard, a trend that is growing by the day. Within the past month, Durham, N.C., and Portland, Maine, passed laws allowing residents to keep hens.

The act of raising chickens in city lots and backyards is not only bringing fresh eggs to people, it’s bringing people closer to nature and each other. Anderson has had school groups to the garden to teach young people about food production and healthy eating. He hopes to hold more workshops in the spring.

“In an urban setting it’s so interesting to see how engaging animals are, especially for youth,” said field coordinator for Heifer International in Brooklyn, Aley Kent.

Highlighting its urban location, the Shamel garden is just behind the Bedford-Atlantic Armory. The Armory currently houses a men’s homeless shelter the city is proposing to make it the main homeless intake center for the city, which has caused uproar throughout the neighborhood. Sometimes the men spend time in the garden when they are sent out of the shelter every morning.

There are specific concerns that arise when dealing with keeping livestock in a city. Noise complaints are more likely in a city. The Shamel Garden members worry that nearby feral cats will get into the chicken coop. Others have vermin problems that are accentuated by the city environment.

Community gardens have been growing fruit and vegetables for many years. Raising livestock is beginning to take hold as a way to get fresh, local food, especially to neighborhoods that don’t have easy access to healthy food.

“People are more aware and more people are finding out it’s legal,” said Anderson.