The racks of wheat grass and seed trays supported a new crop last Thursday night: used clothing, draped on the wooden beams alongside scrap cloth and torn pants. Over cake and lemonade Janice Bees taught us budding DIY seamstresses and seamsters her own renegade tricks of the trade. While we made our own patches and saved our pants from the scrap pile with some “industrial stitches,” others went around the room exchanging shirts and hats and knitting strips of old dresses together with the biggest needles I’ve ever seen. The workshop predictably refused to wind down by our designated closing time, and once again we found ourselves lingering well later than we’d intended in the warmth of the Op Shop community. It was past 10 by the time I left with an excess of exciting plans for the weekend as well as some premature marital advice, bags of clothing left over for charity nestled together under the grow lights.
– David Durstewitz

Sunday March 27th

Planting seeds with Lia, March 23rd

Today Lia and I planted all day, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, herbs and more. It was a beautiful day!
photo by Lizzy Szwaya

Lia and Ken juice wheat grass with Basti and Clemmie

photos by Lizzy Szwaya

Theodore’s Spring ceremony

Theodore gave an inspiring talk about seeds and handed all of us a tomato seed, we then planted them in our soil blocks to be transplanted into the Public Learning Garden in Nichols Park.
photos by Lizzy Szwaya

Potluck Sunday March 20th

photos by Lizzy Szwaya

Grand Opening Op Shop IV: Spotlight on Urban AgriCULTURE

When we first came in tonight we noticed that the wheat grass had grown at least an inch over night. The one tray we had put under the grow light was thick and dense and, at the tips of the grass, there were drops of dew that had formed. Dew! It was a little moment when dawn stood still for us.

Trays arrived from the Valley of Jordan, a new Middle Eastern grocery store and deli at 1009 E. 53rd Street, beautifully prepared and most generously donated by owner Wael Ghousheh. The food was delicious! Amber and Lia prepared a wonderful noodle dish with lettuce leaf wraps, we had water infused with apples and ginger, cucumbers, and lemons, and a deep thick tray of wheat grass waited for us to drink in its intensity.

Jasper, Sebastian, and Lia worked very hard to produce the tiny shots of pure green in little white porcelain cups to offer to our guests. We mused over wheat grass residue readings. Next time, we decided, as we had no one there who could read wheat grass residue.

The night was warm and beautiful, the smell of the grass was sweet and pungent, and the people were familiar and new.

Thank you for a lovely opening night!