This week Jack Inslee talks with Ben Flanner about this week's update from the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop farm. Ben's getting ready for their kale and swiss chard to sprout, and talks about digging growing beds at their Northern Blvd. farm in Queens. Get ready because his flock of chickens is due to arrive and he welcomes everyone to come by and say hello!

On this episode of Greenhorn Radio, Severine interviews Michael Meier from the Brooklyn Grange Farm in Long Island City, Queens. Michael is a south Florida citrus country native who was introduced to farming as a youngster spending summers at his grandparents' farmstead in the North Carolina Smokies. He moved to New York City in 2005 and quickly became a part of the local food scene there. He spent a few years working in the ad industry and honing urban homesteading techniques to grow food on the side, before taking an apprenticeship position in 2011 at Brooklyn Grange, a one-acre rooftop farm in NYC. As farm manager with Brooklyn Grange this season, Michael is learning what it takes to run a quickly expanding farm business and is working towards a lifetime career in agriculture, whether on city rooftops or in the country like normal folks. Tune in to hear Michael talk about the Grange's role in the urban farming landscape, and how it serves as a model for a for-profit farm that can help feed the city. Hear about some of the factors that make Brooklyn Grange different from a traditional rural agricultural farm. This episode was brought to you by Hearst Ranch.

"The point of our farm isn't to try to provide every last vegetable or leafy green people need in the city, but to help create a business model for a sustainable urban agriculture that works and can generate jobs and revenue... Looking at the environmental benefits and the educational and social impact that we have, it's a constellation of things, but we are a farm and our main priority is producing food... We're hoping that by constantly testing, working, and spurring innovation in this space that we'll help grow an industry." --Michael Meier on Greenhorn Radio

This week on Let's Eat In, Cathy talks to the author of the "Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking", Kate Payne, about quick pickling, mending parties, and more. Kate takes us inside the re-appropriation of homemaking with an emphasis on community and crowdsourcing. Don't miss out on her ultimate date meal or missing her and Cathy at the Brooklyn Flea this May! This episode was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.