While Tropical Storm Irene may not have hit NYC as hard as it some feared, the storm has caused some serious devastation in other parts of the state, particularly in much of the farmland that supplies Greenmarket shoppers with their heirloom tomatoes and ramps and whatnot. It's still too early to asses the full extent of the losses, but flooding, soil erosion and poor road conditions have all but destroyed some farms upstate, resulting in some heartbreaking stories from small family-owned farms. Governor Cuomo has requested federal assistance to help farmers recover from Irene damages totaling at least $45 million, but some NYC restaurants and food organizations are also banding together to help. Here's how: more ›

Seen here is the awesomeness of P.F. 1, the sustainable urban garden project now in its final days at the P.S. 1 art center in Queens. The project comes from the imaginations of Amale Andraos and Dan Wood. P.F. 1, winners of MoMA’s Young Architects Program, and is described in amazing detail on its website and this Times article. In a nutshell, however, P.S. 1 is a miniature farm constructed completely from recyclable materials: chiefly 260 gargantuan paper towel-esque industrial tubes. Andraos and Wood conjoined and converted them into working planters, building the tubes out to form a wavy plane that swoops up over a P.S. 1 wall brimming with things like beets, kale, and dill. Now at the end of the season, the plants are still growing, seemingly creeping off toward the sides of One Court Square just down the block, Day of the Triffids style. Also integral to P.F. 1’s design are rainwater collection and solar power systems, a tiny kiddie pool, and four chickens. more ›