Farming in 3,200 Milk Crates For a High-End Restaurant in Manhattan
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
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During my trip to NYC, I visited Jonathan Sumner, the Farm Manager at Riverpark Farm, one of the most unusual urban farms I've ever visited.
He grows in 3,200 individual milk creates on real estate that's probably some of the most expensive in the city. All of the produce goes to Riverpark, a celebrity chef-owned high-end restaurant right on the water, surrounded by the Bellevue Hospital and the UN building.
In this long tour, we dive deep with Jonathan and learn how he's producing such epic harvests out of what looks to be a challenging growing space - many small crates, crazy wind, and minimal sun.
IN THIS VIDEO
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- / riverparknyc
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0:00 - Intro
1:04 - Greenhouse
3:10 - Surrounding Area and Growing Challenges
4:03 - Growing Fresh Lima Beans
6:43 - Why Grow In Milk Crates?
8:59 - Cover Cropping Milk Crates
11:51 - Irrigating Milk Crates
15:11 - Growing Okra and Sorghum
17:15 - Walking Tour of Beds
23:46 - Growing Indigo to Dye Cloth
26:05 - Sun Challenges and Crate Rotation
33:22 - Outro and Taste Test of Different Produce
Thank you!! My next light order comes in 3 weeks. Ill email you in 2. 😀
Epic Gardening 8
Which restaurant? I live and work 50 mi north. I'm interested
Is it called riverpark?
@@johnlombardo7816 I think it's Riverpark. Strawberries and flowers in the food pictures on their website corresponds with this video. 😊
I love how you have become the ambassador of sustainable gardening all over the world. Thank you for introducing all the other techniques and not appear to be competing.
I grow in containers in Manhattan and as I'm watching this it keeps answering for every question I have. This is going to be the most time-saving video I watch all year.
Waiting to see if they discuss air quality issues.
Wow using the crates is a fascinating idea. I love how he "Rotates" the crops to get the best light and keep the soil healthy, very smart.
Dude, it's crazy. He goes to the nth degree with what he's got. Gave me a ton of ideas for my much easier to manage space :)
This is facinating! I can't imagine the challenges involved in growing here, but to have the chef and farmer collaborate so closley blows me away. Thank you for this video!
You know, I actually disagree in general with the comments about talking too much. I think that you help keep the video focused and moving along, and it’s more interesting to hear a conversation than a monologue in my opinion.
Great video and really enjoy these various tours.
appreciate that. One thing I think a lot of watchers forget is that any of the people I interview have never been on camera before, so sometimes you need some help remembering what to talk about or getting extra information pulled out of them!
@@epicgardening I agree, but when you cut them off mid-sentence it is really jarring as a listener. I love the nature of this and love the channel but I almost had to turn it off many times because you kept interrupting the person. I get moving and leading people in the right direction, but when they're in mid-sentence it seems like you're saying the way you say it is better, which negates the purpose of having a guest.
@@lesrussell2 Totally. He just kept cuttting the dude off for no reason. Such an obvious need for protagonism. This guy is too used to being the star of his own show. Worst than cutting the dude off, was not even looking at him at times or turning his head away from the conversation just to check how good he was looking on camera. The little dude was a bit submissive and the op just totally took advantage of it, dominating the scene the whole time. This video had a lot of potential but ended up being a video about how the op was so knowledgeable about every single thing the other dude had to say. His 1 million subscribers made him forget about the fact that ihe's just a dude who grows a bunch of plants in his backyard. It's what we call the small backyard gardener insecurity syndrome. The other dude was just so patient and humble. Respect!
This is a HUGE moveable and urban farm! Highly necessary if we want to learn from what he’s doing.
Agree. It's an interview. Supposed to contain tons of talking. Lol
Wow. That is one determined farmer. Looks like a big pain to grow in those crates. Amazing what they are doing. The watering spikes are super cool
And so young. I think of farmers as in their late 50s but both of them look so young with “old” experiences- when did they start gardening/farming to have so much knowledge of the science of the intricacies of gardening/farming. Just insanely spectacular !!! Thank you, thank God for sharing your gifts 🤗
It would be a good idea to check in with Jonathan to see how things are going for him now that Riverpark is permanently closed... Would be a good episode to catch up with how he is doing.
is that the name of the restaurant?
After Covid plus all of the manditory regulations, plus the currently hard economic times with high food costs and inflation, plus all the problems with crops, wars, here and everywhere, we really need growers. An update would be nice. At the very least, he knows how to grow his own food. Praying all is ok with him. I have a feeling he is going to make it anywhere he is.
I love the fact that he is also growing indigo to dye things for the restaurant alongside the food he is growing for the restaurant!
There are also a number of vegetable and fruits that produce beautiful dyes.
@@harriettejensen479 Tumeric is one of my favorites. Very beautiful colors
Yes! Very cool! Got me thinking as a textile designer why I'd completely ommitted growing my own dye plants for dying, spinning weaving!!! Indigo was our very first intro to textiles as a young student! So used ot buying my dyes!
Suggestion - maybe a Zoom follow up with Jonathan? How the shut down has effected them? What their current situation is? How they see the next year?
great idea, I would love to know this too
I doubt he’s doing well. The restaurant is permanently closed per google.
@@TheRoflcopter84 It re opened!
This is amazing! As a Southerner, so cool to see lima beans growing in New York! That is a staple in our house at least 3 times a week.
This would have made a great series. I'd love to know more in depth about fertilizing and watering the crates!
Next time I'm there we will definitely do on!
This was truly fascinating and interesting to watch. Thank you.
This was super interesting, and what a smart farmer! I use 25 gallon grow bags for my peas and some of my tomatoes plants. I put the grow bags into cement mixing tubs from Homedepot or Lowes (about $7), then I just keep a little bit of water in the bottom of the tubs. It is pretty low maintenance for home gardeners like me.
I really enjoy your channel and I've learned quite a bit from your videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
This is so impressive and educational to additions for a home garden. Thank you for this exceptional video.
loved this wonderful set up! My only question is if you set it up two deep why not fill the bottom layer with soil as well? It would absorb the water from the runoff rain. If rotated up and down in addition to what you do now it would give the soil an extra year to decompose and build new biomass.
What an inventive young man! You did the best interview with him. I learned so much that I can apply to my container gardening. Thank you for you pertinent questions and letting that gardener talk to us. So many interviewers are not as patient as you. Fascinating!
I once made a milk crate strawberry tower, with landscaping fabric. You must water a lot, and like he said its tap with high salinity and the salt builds up and diminishes the microbial life of the soil. I couldn't even get strawberries to do well, because I didn't water enough to keep it cool and moist, the large surface area exposed to the sun caused far more evaporation especially with the black coloration. I think at least in the summer you might benefit tremendously from trying to insulate the side walls of these beds, also if you reduce the airflow through the beds it would need less irrigation. The milk crates and landscaping fabric are almost like grow bags, where even the bottom of the sides are exposed to direct air, the surface area that is evaporating is tremendous compared to the surface area of a flat garden plot inside the ground. If you insulate in the summer and reduce air flow you can water less and there will be less salinity buildup and less rejuvenation maintenance. You could also setup a catch below your beds, they are so porous much water must be lost to run off, if you setup some gutters with a return to a reservoir you can save a lot of water and nutrients.
So water does go through the landscape fabric? I wonder if adding plastic around the fabric might help 🤔
@@ruthvillalobos9376 I think that would be helpful for water retention but it may lead to issues with low-oxygen microenvironments where the wrong kinds of bacteria could thrive and cause root rot.
Kevin, I'm hooked, you're doing a great job. Keep up the great work!
Love whenever you visit other gardens! More of this please 💜
Very impressive considering all the shade he's in, good stuff.
Couldn't agree more...learned a ton talking to him!
Great vid. I grow my veggies on my backyard/parking place covered with concrete pavers, in bags ranging from a cubic foot to 100 gallon. In my greenhouse I use a recycled waterbed bag to prevent leaching. I handwater the bags with dug in 3 inch pots ballasted with pebbles. In addittion to no dig, crop rotation and cover crops, I also harvest rainwater, use in place composting when filling new bags and multi species planting such as sprinkle seeding radishes, carrots and spring onions, or fall planted garlic interseeded with carrots in spring. Greetings from Holland.
Greetings! Glad to hear your'e making it work in your space as well. I love the rainwater harvesting you're doing...I wish I could do it in my area...I just need rain...
Awesome you guys are doing a miracle in the heart of the city, I wish you were there 30 years ago when I lived there 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
As you said in the video, mind blowing! I will definitely try get a table next time I'm in NYC, post Covid-19. Roof top gardens are becoming a thing here in Norway to prevent sudden down pour of rain from flooding city streets by retaining rain. I hope we will see some roof top farmers also.
OUTSTANDING TOUR. Thank you for making this video. Farmer Johnathon is amazng. Keep up the good work.
Hell yeah, another great episode from the produce to the plate & everything in-between, keep it up, not that I don't like watching your garden as well, but this is a great eye opener into the world of other plants that are not widely grown on any other Utube shows...
That was great! So informative. Thanks for showing us your green kingdom Jonathan. Congrats!
Discovered your channel with this video, so awesome! Thank you! I just got some saffron crocus bulbs and was going to use milk crates for them so I could move them as needed (I saw somebody's video a while back who did this), and then this came up! Love your channel!
You're so welcome, thanks for watching!
Oh my gosh I love lima beans and they are so expensive to buy fresh, so they are going in our garden this year. My favorite recipe is cooked in my Instant Pot flavored with a demi glace and pancetta or prosciutto and butter. It is heavenly.
Thank you for this great video. I would enjoy seeing more like this!
Recycle the foam that many packages come with. Put the foam in the bottom crates. I might be wrong but I think that would offer some insulation and for sure would keep the cold air from blowing right through. Just an idea.
Cool venture - just worried about the highway pollution ie dust from breakpads, gasses etc.
anything is better than the big growing companies
We all can't live in a bubble
Couldn't he just install a filter at his water source, to eliminate the harsh city water chemicals?
I think you can have an open tank and fill it with water from the city's system and after some hours or day the chlorine will have been evaporated
That’s what I do with the water I use for gardening. I attach a filter to the hose.
@@stathisxanthopoulos1933 unless the city water is using chloramines which can last weeks
@@Bebeembop it depends on the water in each county. There are a bunch of toxic things that are allowed in small amounts, without my tank that takes 3 hours to fill the water tastes like chlorine and has chromium
Harsh city water chemicals? In NYC? They have the best tap water in America.
WOW! A Michelin starred farm.
Epitome of epic gardening!! Thanks for sharing this farm to table garden. So so sad that the restaurant is permanently closed due to the pandemic. Do you know if the garden is still growing?
The restaurant isn't closed. A quick search reveals that it's open & has a mask requirement.
how does this work land wise? in Vancouver bc where i live we have "community gardens" where developers allow people to grow plants for a HUGE tax write off. they pay 0 property taxes on lots worth 10/100s of millions of dollars.
is that what's happening here?
or does the restaurant own the land?
How do you prep a milk crate for growing?
Where did You get the dairy crates.
This such an awesome project! I remember watching a video a few years back on this farm..it was cool then and it's totally awesome now!
SO many improvements over the years!
I'm up to 28 crates this year, but because I have so few I use felt/flannel bags inside the crate. Fun to see such a big operation. My biggest challenge is feeding on a regular basis. We make great compost which works great in our beds but due to leaching I don't feed the crates often enough. That's my goal for 2019. Thanks for the video.
You're welcome, good luck with your containers!
I garden in outer borough of NY in backyard grow bags, storage bins and crate because I want height and portability to move plants around as the sun gets harsh in summer months. Cut gallon water bottle. Make rock bags to fill them of double water permeable weed cloth, lava rock an zip ties. Insert at bottom of container to retain water. for large container I poke holes at retention height, fill with lava rock top layer with weed cloth.
I loved this tour. I lived in that area from 1982-1988 in waterside plaza. My daughter attended the United Nations school and I worked at the Trinidad and Tobago mission to the United Nations. It was wonderful to see this video and it brought back very fond memories of my time in nyc. I wish that farm was there at that time.
Wow, so glad you enjoyed. Happy to bring some memories back for you!
Show us how you prep and make the milk crates full of soil from start to finish.
Yes,please!!!
Extremely impressive. How awesome it would be if more restaurants had their own farms.
Thanks for the inspiration. I have a small apt balcony and have been considering growing veggies in stacked milk crates. I can grow greens out the sides of the lower crate, I think?
Yup, you could have it work for sure!
If you haven't seen it already, search for strawberry towers built out of milk crates. I've seen videos where they stack the crates 2 or 3 high & grow strawberries on every side. Once the leaves fill in & cover the crates, the towers look nice.
This is your best video for me. Watched whole thing. When you guys talked about rotating the crops I knew he was going to rotate the crates. Excellent.
It would be interesting to see an "update" type video on where this guy is at now, two years later AND "post" shutdown. Being in the heart of NYC during the "Pandemic" and how it impacted everything.
Out of business.
Thank you for showing us a slice of paradise in the big city.
Awesome!! I hope this catches on! This is the circle of life!
Couldn't agree more!
Very cool except. Would love to hear more of what Jonathan would have to say - his growing techniques and experiences and the foody aspects like the flavour and texture profiles and how these boutique plants and their respective parts are used in quisine. His contributions were a little bit dominated and interrupted in this interview but found it very inspiring! Thanks!
you can tell he didnt like the interruptions lol
It's cool you gave this guy a spot on your channel, I'm sure he really appreciates it. Why not have the shots focused around him and his garden though? In other words, the main focus of each shot seems to be you, the host, it's just a little distracting. If feels like you feel the audience won't like your video or the content as much if you aren't the center of attention. No offense haha, I like your channel just trying to help. Hell, maybe I'm alone in this thinking.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing this tour, totally fascinating, you guys are urban heroes😁
You're too kind! Thanks for watching.
Wow Jonathan, I am really impressed! I hope we see more of you on this channel.
@Epic Gardening: After watching this video, I feel as if I completed an university course on urban farming; Jonathan Sumner, the Farm Manager for Riverpark Farm is brilliant - I mean WOW! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 💯
Could you put ice in the cartons to melt and add enough nitrogen to the soil that way? What about adding red worms to the soil for more minerals?
I found this super interesting! I have pretty much run out of space in my back yard to plant veggies, but I have a shady side yard that isn't doing much of anything right now. Between this video and the one you did on growing in shade, I now have perhaps another 20 square feet of growing space. I also learned something about mitigating the chlorine in my tap water and doing what meat eaters call "eating nose to tail" of my veggies. When you have a small space and you want to be produce self-sufficient, being able to eat plants at all phases of growth makes each plant and each square foot of garden more productive. Thanks!
@Harriette Jensen
There is a RUclipsr whose channel is called Plant Abundance. He adds Vitamin C/Citric Acid to his water barrel, about a 1/4 teaspoon, to neutralize chlorine & chloramine in his tap water. It's cheap, easy and actually benefits his crops. Check it out.
Just Fantastic,thanks for taking us! We learn to do with small areas to grow !,
Absolutely loved this tour! Thanks Nate and Jonathan!
Add a lined bed and put the crates inside of the bed, this will cut down on wind drying out the soil. Any water leaching when it rains and when he waters can be collected and drained into a separate sump.
Good tip!
This is amazing! Talk about the ultimate square foot gardening! lol I love that he is cover cropping. I am in Florida, so I use cowpeas that even grow broad leaves in the sand. I did that after one year of wood chips dumped from the un-sprayed roadside timmers and ran chickens over it 10 days in each section. They ate all the termites, ticks, and insects that I wouldn't want "migrating" to the house. I cedar chipped all the way around the foundation as well. Works like a champ.
Every great restaurant should have their own garden. I would definitely grow for dedicated restaurants.
And another bonus for this location is never having to worry about the pesky deer eating everything during the night. 🦌
We use a trailer home filter on our chlorinated water hose, lasts through 60,000 gallons. Works great. We buy them at Walmart. I do not know if you have Walmart there. But you can buy online.
Sambuca uses anice and fennels that you were chewing :) great flavor.
Beautiful operation! Thank you for sharing.
You're welcome!
Thank you. What a treat to see.
Thanks for this excellent discussion of these unique techniques, practices, and philosophies which make lots of good green plants to enjoy. Given my interests in systems thinking, permaculture and tiny homes, I nerd out on some technical farming details and really enjoyed this vid.
Hands down one of best videos I have seen on any topic, but especially about a unique urban farming environment where so many kinds of plants coexist in a largely uncontrollable and artifical environment. I think one point that should be stressed is that the levels of organizational complexity at play in that garden are impressive. I think that the intricacy of data collection and planning for every cubic foot of soil as well as attention to all other details of intertwined systems (soil sun water crop rotation symbiotes and parasites, etc), is key to allow for such levels of efficiency and consistency.
Not that other farms don't do those things, but honestly it seems that both the depth and breadth of attention to details and systems there is far and beyond many other farms. People make small and urban farms work, but sometimes have only rudimentary attention for long-term thinking or systems minutiae like data collection, sanitation procedures and environmental controls. Videos like this elevate knowledge and discussion in the farming world.
I am building a tiny, controlled environment hydroponics microfarm that will Kratky 32 lettuce, kale and arugula plants in 64oz glass jars in a 4x8x5 foot tall area for weekly market production. I like considering these odd farming ideas, which one may find far-fetched or absurd, and then hopefully seeing them suceed with good planning, understanding, and lots of hard work. Thanks for sharing this example of making things grow where you wouldnt expect.
P.S. I also just realized that the catchphrase "Making things grow where you wouldn't expect since 2018" is probably not the best for a new business, or any kind of business.
So glad you enjoyed this video J C - Love your setup as well, please share the videos when they're up!
Your writing style has the personality of a wet card box. The jar farm idea…ok lol
Love this. Why didn't I think of it; I have a sunny carport, can easily get milk crates for free, and I have an old outdoor curtain that I can use to block any dust from the alley (although we're all seniors where I live and we creep down the alleyway). Thank you so much, you've just doubled my growing space and I'm already planning next years crops. I have two things working against me; I rent and am limited with what I can do, and I live in the Alberta Rocky Mountains with an extremely limited growing season. If he can make it work in NYC, I'm sure I can make it work here. I'd be interested in knowing how he makes his arches for covers and how he uses a trellis system for such small individual boxes?
Another thought...Bees; is he using hives to provide honey for the restaurant and pollinators for the plants?
Thanks, for sharing this. It's so helpful to see different methods of growing that people are using.
This is such a gem of an older video
So interesting and inspiring, thank you, Kevin!!!
Kevin, I am curios about how Riverpark Farm is surviving since the restaurant is closed due to COVID. Is he able to tend his farm and send his produce out so it doesn't waste?
According to the chef's IG, the restaurant has permanently closed.
Hey dude, I've never seen any of your videos before. I really liked this one for sure. I was born and raised in New York City. It was nice to see this Manhattan crate farm. :D
Thanks Kevin, appreciate the kind words!
Excellent Video! Very impressive! Thank you!
I'd love to get the relationship like this with a restaurant!
as soon as i saw the building in the back I said " heyy that looks like manhattan," and then I remember the thumbnail and realize it makes sense to grow stuff in milk crates.... i pass here every day
Remember you can use alfalfa pellets for for horses as a side dressing fertilizer for all the plants.
Amazing and crazy cool, next time I go to the city I'm checking this place out! Question for Jonathan: Have you considered growing gourmet mushrooms on location? Mushrooms are my passion :)
I think he's considered but space wise and effort wise it hasn't been worth it so far...but I'm with you CJ - I love them
Why not take out all the rows of crates in the middle and create some large sized beds in the middle? -Use the milk crates as the boarder to make raised beds. Could even stack em two high for more depth.
What's most impressive is how he can concentrate on the plants given that level of constant noise from the city. I couldn't even get through 15 minutes of the video because of it.
Wayyyyyy ccol! How awesome is this??!! :) Way to go and thanks for sharing this with us! New experiment! :) I love the fact it's just right there, so the people eating there are also getting "live" food! This is just really neat! I learned a lot too especially with the fennel! :)
Adding some water filters will help you greatly!
thumbs up on utilization of milk crate… here in our area, we don't have much milk crate.
what we have is a beer case…and I'm using it as plant box.. (I don't have any idea if it's legal to use, any advise will be appreciated)
and I call my place a "Beer Garden"
i also use mushroomsoil and worms in my crates for enriching the soil and keep it fluffy..if worms leave you know the soil needs better watering and better soil.. Does he use the scraps from the kitchen as compost? Great that indigo, and you can use it for colouring your handmade plates (clay in combo with egg or grinded seashells ;) you can put in an horizontal roller (like at the airfield or sportsclubs) and put the crates on it and rorate the band..like in a asian restaurant.. so you can automate the amount of sun daily...
Roses love sun and it makes great jellies and scents , Sunflower cleans the soil and it has a small root ball. The flower of course is amazing. There is sunflowers like teddy bear. I hope you can use this. I love what you're doing. Fennel seeds are great.
using beans will bring back the soil , in the past it was used in the one year field rotation mustard for re feed of the good stuff. three sister planting also helps and plant herbs to increase the good bugs like lady birds
Gives all new meaning to square foot gardening....Also Justin Rhodes did an American farm tour...he would probably love to have you...hes in NC..Have fun..so cool!
Isnt air pollution a big problem when growing crops? It sounds to me to be a health hasard.
I would love to see how you lined the crates
Me too!! "Lined with landscape fabric." That's ALL that was shared. Yes, but how? Are they Grow Bags? Folded? Stitched? Fastened?
Thanks for sharing this amazing garden. Please feature more things like this on your channel Eric❤️
I enjoyed your tour of the urban garden in NY. In my view, the farmer is a hero to the patrons of the restaurant. I hope the restaurant remained open since the start of the pandemic. I’ll visit this restaurant when I go to Manhattan as soon as a vaccine is on the market.
That was super interesting and inspiring. Thank you for taking the time to make an in depth exploration with such a challenging project successfully meeting the demands of commercial production.
Wow... that’s so fascinating 🥰🥰 and obviously , the fumes and whatnot from the freeway don’t seem to b affecting the crops 😆 love it 🥰
Nice! My husband's Ancestors settled Kipps Bay.
In this very specialized use case I'd seriously consider planting in hydroponics. You have do do so much work to keep you potting mix going strong, it would be so much easier with bato buckets / dutch buckets for long standing crops or NFT-lines for leafy greens, which are nearly as modular. Since american tap water is not that good, you might need an osmosis filter, but other than that it should be a lot less effort, especially for leafy greens in NFT-lines.
This is especially true since you are using micro drip irrigation, which is 50% of the work for bato buckets already done.
Love this set up. Great to see more sharing their spaces, ideas & tips, Thank you! More need to follow suit, as yes there are a ton of home gardeners and newbies!
I grow wood sorrel and purple wood sorrel on purpose. It's like the lemon candy of the leafy greens.
It would be nice to be able to go on a guided tour of the garden like this!
Just LOVED this video; how inspiring! Thank you for sharing this amazing experience!
Fantastic Tour!