A large focus of this internship is on learning from community gardeners and farm managers around the city and gaining hands-on experience with day-to-day tasks required to maintain flourishing community gardens and urban farms. In addition, this summer, fellow intern, Kendra, and I will also be working on developing 3D models for use in building a completely virtual model of one specific site, Red Hook Community Farm, in Brooklyn. We are aiming to complete several detailed models of common objects at the farm and will continue working on developing models of specific crops throughout the upcoming school year as research assistants in our faculty advisor, Jenny Kao-Kniffin’s on-campus lab.
Due to the nature of our work, our schedule tends to rotate throughout the week, where each day we are typically at a different site around the city to experience what urban farming looks like in the context of different spaces.
Our Schedule:
Mondays: Kelly Street Garden (Bronx)
Tuesdays: Red Hook Community Farm (aka Columbia Street Farm) (Brooklyn)
Wednesdays: Red Hook Community Farm (Columbia Street Farm) (Brooklyn)/ Working at Cornell Tech campus (Roosevelt Island)/Visting other sites around the city
Thursdays: New Roots Community Garden at Woodside (Queens)
Friday: New Roots Community Farm (Bronx)
I am absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to see so many different examples of how urban gardening and urban farming is adapted by local community members to best suit the space limitations they face and the needs of their communities. This truly proves just how unique and resilient urban gardening and urban farming is. I am incredibly excited to jump back into lots of hands-on work this summer and I can’t wait to learn from and help out all of these incredibly inspiring and passionate leaders across the city!