Episode 255: Growing with City Growers

This week on The Farm Report, host Erin Fairbanks welcomes Courtney Epton, Director of Education at City Growers to the program. City Growers connects urban communities with agriculture, food and environment through farm education and advocacy in order to foster a culture of health and sustainability. The organization highlights its programs for children and teens at Brooklyn Grange, the world’s largest soil rooftop farms. With a background as a veteran NYC public school teacher, Courtney shares that she cannot imagine a better place for kids to learn than up on the Brooklyn Grange’s two rooftop farms and loves to see students teaching themselves through observation, and teaching each other through investigation and inquiry. Passionate about advancing City Growers’ mission of fostering a sense of ecological understanding and stewardship among NYC’s students, she sits down with Erin discussing City Grower’s reaches and wishes for the year including students’ farm knowledge being used at home, inspiring kids to think about the intersection between the farm and what they eat, plus how details on their Honeybee Workshop where students to use their five senses to explore the intricate world of a bee colony. At the tail of the episode, tune in as Erin speaks with Abby Paloma, founder of Farm to Yoga via our friends at EscapeMaker.com. This program was brought to you by EscapeMaker.com. “The food doesn’t come from the grocery store, it comes from a place similar to this but different in lots of ways. We also want to promote healthy eating habits and pro-environmental experiences for the kids.” [15:20] “Kids don’t always make the jump to can urban farming feed the world but they are thinking about: Why is this here? Why is this important? Are they organic here? Are they using pesticides? Why do large farms use pesticides? Why is a that a decision people make?” [28:20] —Courtney Epton on The Farm ReportSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.