Sustainable Saturday - How to Build Community

Red Hook, Brooklyn, continues to amaze as I read more about it.  Yesterday, I visited for the third time.  Unlike the previous two times, when I came only to shop at the fantastic Fairway supermarket, I roamed around a small part of the community.

How to Build Community.   I had to photograph this idealistic sign.  Not a sign I would expect to find in a neighborhood of New York City that - let's face it - has seen some very rough times.

I can only hope that the people of Red Hook live up to this sign.

We found a little garden nearby, which does not appear to be one of the community or urban farms in the area.  The gate was open, so we went in and looked around.

 I can not seem to find any discussion of "Red Hook Farm" online.  What I did find is the Red Hook Community Farm, which sounds like my adopted "home town" Binghamton, New York's VINES, but on a much larger scale.  But this looked more like a demonstration garden.

 If anyone can solve the mystery of this garden, I would love to hear from you.

Strangely, some of the plantings seemed to be brand new, such as some young pole beans.  In New York City, the growing season has perhaps another month to go.

Others,such as this eggplant, were still in full swing. 

Nearby was a walk planted with native plants.  And, across the water, the Statue of Liberty, shrouded in humidity (making a picture with my iPhone impossible), completed the captivating feature.

Red Hook still has a long way to go in its recovery, but in a strange way, it has put hooks into me, the person who grew up in New York City and left many years ago because she just wanted to get out of there in the worst way.

I will be back.