Roof-to-Table Launch Event!

Roof-to-Table Launch Event || photo by Jane Winkel

It is my great privilege to announce that EAT UP | the inside scoop on rooftop agriculture was launched on Thursday amidst family and friends at Good Karma Café (928 Pine Street) in my hometown of Philadelphia.  The event drew in over 100 enthusiastic readers from as far as Toronto, who are now some of the first owners of EAT UP.  The book arrived at the event hot off the press after its publication on April 12, 2013.

Launch Event crowd || photo by Jane Winkel

Busy sales table || photo by Jane Winkel

The Roof-to-Table Launch Event celebrated three necessities of urban living: literature, art, and food.  Literature was highlighted through piles of fresh, EAT UP books topped off with a book signing (which was in high demand!).  The event celebrated Art through a 30-piece photography exhibition of images from the book, which painted a colorful backdrop for the festivities.  The Roof-to-Table Photography Exhibition features images of rooftop farms and vegetable gardens taken by nine photographers (including myself) in nine cities throughout North America.  Each photograph is framed with “twice-reclaimed” lumber made from barn siding re-purposed as flooring, re-purposed again as framing stock.  The event also featured the flavors of fresh, local Food!  The Avenue Delicatessen catered the event with a focus on locally-sourced produce, artisan breads and honey, and home-made jams.  Food mileage tags let guests know just how close key ingredients were produced!

My grandmother with her book || photo by Jane Winkel

Young vegetable plants sprouting from metal pales and terracotta pots and two vintage typewriters furthered the event’s ”author’s farmhouse” theme.  Piles of EAT UP postcards and note card sets sprinkled about enhanced the decor, luring people in for a closer look at rooftop agriculture imagery.

The Roof-to-Table Photography Exhibition will hang in the launch venue through June 29, 2013, and will then travel to Chicago’s Uncommon Ground where it will hang from August 20 – September 15, 2013.  A Midwest Roof-to-Table Launch Event on August 20 will be open to the public.  The exhibition is available for additional restaurant and gallery spaces from July 1 – August 1, 2013 and after September 23, 2013.

EAT UP | the inside scoop on rooftop agriculture, published by New Society Publishers (a carbon-neutral publishing house), is the first full-length book about rooftop food production.  Its three sections target home rooftop gardening, commercial rooftop farming, and the rooftop agriculture industry, making it the most comprehensive guide to date on the subject matter.  The book is available in print and ebook online and in stores.

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making your rooftop farm a reality

As my company, Roofmeadow, delves deeper into the world of rooftop agriculture, keep us in mind for your rooftop farm or garden project!  With engineers, landscape architects, construction specialists, and a rooftop agricultural expert (yours truly) on staff, we approach each project holistically, with the roof’s long-term performance in mind.  The hunger for local food has reached new heights, and we’re here to help you make this vision a reality.

This video clip will be featured at the Green Roofs & Walls of the World Virtual Summit 2013, hosted by greenroofs.com, from February 12th to March 13th.  Visit their website for information on how to access the Summit.

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who are these people, anyway?

Rooftop farms and gardens are sprouting up in cities across the country.  Restaurants, community groups, families, and individuals are enjoying the bounty, but who the heck is up there growing all this food?

Volunteer at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm (Brooklyn, NY) || photo by Lauren Mandel

Lots of people – that’s who!  People of all different ages and ethnicities, with different skill sets, and different reasons for growing food.  American rooftop farmers tend to be between the ages of 22 and 55, with men and women equally engaged.  Most, if not all of these farmers migrated to rooftops from ground-level farms.  Some came from urban farms, and others from more traditional rural farmsteads.  Farmers who land these highly-prized rooftop positions are generally very knowledgeable about their agrarian genre – whether it be row farming, beekeeping, or hydroponics.  It is rare that a newbie finds himself in charge of much on the skyline.

Trey Flemming of Urban Apiaries (Philadelphia, PA) || photo by Lauren Mandel

Farm interns are a pillar of small agrarian farms.  In this young industry, however, formal trainees are few and far between.  The rare rooftop farm intern generally falls on the younger end of the spectrum, and carries her position for one to two growing seasons.

Volunteers, on the other hand, are key players in most rooftop endeavours.  These are the passionate folks who lend their time and energy in exchange for the experience alone, and maybe some fresh veggies on the side.  Farm volunteers are sometimes much younger or older than typical rooftop occupants.  They may enter the roof from a marginalized, inner-city neighborhood, or form another unsuspecting environment.

Vincent Dessberg of I Grow My Own Veggies (Sarasota, FL) || photo by Lauren Mandel

Laborers are common in large-scale, high-yield commercial farms.  Hydroponic facilities like Gotham Greens are structured to support a crop of highly-trained workers.  The pulse of rural farms across the country relies on migrant labor.  By contrast, the high-profile nature of rooftop farms tends to attract a very different workforce.  At this point in the fledgling industry’s development, commercial hydroponic farms are the only type of rooftop farm that can afford to pay workers aside from the farmer.  Perhaps this will change as the industry becomes more established.

We’ve now covered the key farming players, but what about rooftop gardening?  By 2009, the National Gardening Association found that 50% of American households grew some portion of their own food.  This astounding statistic means that anyone can be a rooftop gardener!  What’s your story?  Tell us about your own rooftop gardening experience, and you could land yourself  in one of the Eat Up volumes.

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the pitch.

In America, over an acre of farmland is lost every minute.*  With the increasing appeal of urban living and pop culture’s rediscovery of fresh food, urbanites are planting farms and gardens throughout cities. In the midst of this agricultural renewal, contaminated soils and vanishing garden space compel farmers, activists, and restaurateurs to look toward the skyline for a food solution.  Rooftops provide the space that cities need to grow fresh veggies close to home.

Eat Up| The Inside Scoop on Rooftop Agriculture will be the first book publication dedicated entirely to rooftop agriculture.  This three-part series provides a practitioner’s view of how to turn dreams of rooftop farms and gardens into actual spaces that feed people.  Each volume digs into the nuts and bolts of rooftop agriculture for either home gardeners (volume one), entrepreneurs and restaurateurs (volume two), and policy makers and academics (volume three).  All three volumes operate under the Eat Up brand.

The goal of Eat Up is twofold: to act as the pivotal voice of a movement, and to empower people to bring fresh kale, tomatoes, and beets to tables across America.  With inspirational photographs of rooftop farms, interviews with skyline farmers, and insider strategies, Eat Up provides readers with the practical tools they need to feed their stomachs and their souls.

Rooftop agriculture is not a fad – it is the future of our urban food system.

* U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2009. Summary Report: 2007 National Resources Inventory. Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC, and Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

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revamp | Eat Up v3.0

A manuscript often takes on several personalities before finding its most publishable persona.  As it turns out, Eat Up is no different.

I wrote the first draft of Eat Up in 2010 while in graduate school, and consequently chose to target an academic audience.  Writing this first draft was exhilarating and empowering, and I felt as though I was on track to contribute something truly meaningful to academia.  Several months after graduating I re-read the draft, only to find that what I had once perceived as well written was actually dry and, well, academic.

After the panic and disappointment subsided, I decided to hunker down and revamp the manuscript.  I hired someone to help with editing and strategic development, and launched full force into Eat Up v2.0 in 2011.  This new and improved version targeted designers, practitioners, policy makers, food activists, and yes – even academia.  The tone became more readable, and the chapter titles, a bit snarky.  V2.0 was a hop in the right direction, but what I really needed was a leap.

Eat Up v3.0 | cover and page 1

In comes Eat Up v3.0.  This draft re-evaluates both the underlying message and the target audience of v2.0.  The most significant change lies in the manuscript’s restructuring: the book will now be split into three smaller volumes.  Each volume in the boxed set will target a distinct audience, thereby providing the reader with the knowledge that he or she seeks, without all the extraneous information.  The books will, of course, reference each other, so that readers will be exposed to the full breadth of rooftop agriculture one snippet at a time.  Working titles for the volumes and their audiences are as follows:

Eat Up |  nourishing yourself with food from the roof  -  This volume will act as a DIY for individuals and groups who are interested in growing vegetables and herbs on their own roofs.  Whether planting a few tomato plants or starting a rooftop community garden, this book will appeal to small-scale growers around the country.

Eat Up |  from beans to bucks with food from the roof  -  This volume will target entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and others who are interested in the boutique aspect of rooftop agriculture.  The book will introduce labor, marketing, and distribution strategies while providing useful tips for “making it happen.”

Eat Up |  feeding the people with food from the roof  -  The third volume will focus on large-scale initiatives and rooftop agricultural networks.  The content will target city planners, policy makers, designers, and academics who are interested in learning how rooftop agriculture can feed the masses.

What do you think about this overhaul?  Are these changes a step in the right direction?

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open table

This post is all about you.  Previous blog posts have revolved around interviews with industry leaders, large-scale viability issues, the path to publication, and general musings about rooftop food production.  This post, in contrast, will ideally act as a discussion.

What questions do you have about rooftop agriculture?  What’s on your mind?  Why are you interested in this topic and how does it affect your life or aspirations?  Please feel free to post any thoughts or questions that you may have, and don’t hesitate to chime in in response to other people’s comments.

Some of these conversation points may be included in the book, or will help to inform the existing topics of discussion.  Now is your chance to let it flow.  The table is open for discussion.

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pitch it. pitch it good.

Pitching a manuscript to a publisher is like trying to convince someone that your child is the brightest or your glass of water is the wettest.  It’s nerve racking.  How can you possibly convince a professional, who reviews manuscripts day in and day out, that yours is special – something different?

Well, step one is writing a pitch letter.  For non-fiction manuscripts, this is a lengthy (10-40 page) document that proves that there is a need for your book in the marketplace.  The pitch requires clear articulation of your idea, and quantifiable proof that you book will fetch an audience and make money for the publishing house.  The pitch includes a snappy description of the book’s premise, the author’s qualifications, a market analysis, and excerpts from the manuscript.  The key is to hook the reader with the intro line while effectively capturing the essence of the manuscript.

Step two is mailing the materials and step three is breathing.  Yes, in that order.  At this juncture, the manuscript and pitch letter are mailed, fingers are crossed, and sleep is finally attainable.  Now let’s wait and see how everything unfolds…

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fact or fiction

Your average American has never considered growing food on a roof.  Truthfully, the idea of “urban rooftop agriculture” sounds a bit far fetched, until you see it in action.  These are powerful places.  Their power can be seen in watching a child at a rooftop farm pick a cherry tomato for the first time, and instantly gain a new appreciation for her food.  Their power can be seen when planting a rooftop farm in an urban food dessert and witnessing the ripple effect of community initiative and healthy eating.

The benefits of urban rooftop agriculture are overwhelming, and yet, building these farms requires overcoming several obstacles.  With small pockets of rooftop farms and gardens scattered around the country, and some larger hotbeds, such as Greenpoint, Brooklyn in New York City, how large will this initiative grow?

Is urban rooftop agriculture a fantasy movement, or is it poised to become an integral part of the urban food system?

The rooftop agricultural movement in the U.S. is surely in its fledgling stage, but momentum is rising.  Media coverage and the academic buzz highlight the growing interest in this initiative.  Growers and young trend setters are taking the risk and building farms above city skylines across the country.

Rachel Carson wrote about the environmental movement in her book “Silent Spring,” before the movement had grown its own two legs on which to stand.  This movement is no different.  Urban rooftop agriculture will be big.  It will be big because cities are expanding, rural farms are succumbing to housing developments, and people need to eat.

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inner snark

In re-crafting and editing “Eat Up,” I catch myself slipping into a mildly snarky tone.  Maybe it’s just my inner snark breaching the surface, or maybe it’s because rooftop agriculture is a relatively wild subject matter, that demands a little humor.

The book touches upon technical information, fairly serious subject matter, and cultural critiques, and I find myself inadvertently inserting some snark to lighted the load.  Sometimes the snark grows out of control, though, and I have to prune it back with care and precision.  An example of an over the top sentence that was removed from the book introduced a chapter on agricultural methodologies (the chapter is called “Seed to Plate”).  The sentence initially read: “There are almost as many ways to grow a tomato on a roof as there are to skin a cat.”  Admittedly, this sentence grew out of a late night writing session, and it seemed rather brilliant until I read it the next morning and quickly deleted the nonsense.

The introductory sentence to the chapter now reads: “There are many ways to grow a tomato on a roof, but the most effective growing method may be dictated by production goals and building conditions.”  Lets save the snark for later.

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dreaming big

As discussed in the previous post, the importance of selecting the right person to write the book’s foreword is paramount.  The most appropriate candidates for “Eat Up” fall within the categories of food writer, community activist, designer, and practitioner.  Ideally, a prominent person in one of these fields will accept the invitation to write the foreword, thereby promoting their own goals while contributing to the growing rooftop agriculture movement.  Writing the foreword could help the following authors to promote their own initiatives by addressing:

- Food author:  food systems, food access, food equity, organics, nutrition

- Community activist:  community building, education, food justice, public health

- Designer:  roof access, building codes, integrated design

- Practitioner:  feasibility, cost, sales outlets

My dream team top pick shall remain unnamed, but I searched high and low for a personal connection to this literary superstar.  The one connection that I found did not yield the results that I hoped for, an so the jury is out on whether to approach the author via email, mail a manuscript and written letter, or schedule an appointment and fly across the country to talk.

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