New Sifter! Check it out!

Thanks to Alvin and William for  their innovation and determination!

Queens Compost Bike Tour

 Smiling Hogshead Ranch and the NYC Compost Project hosted at Queens Botanical Garden  organized a bike tour of six community composting sites in Queens, including Sunny Compost. A big crowd checked out our tumblers and bins and shared in some fruits as they made their way to the other sites.

The tour included stops at:

• Queens Botanical Garden’s site
• St. Marks Church/Farmspot CSA compost site in Jackson Heights
• JH SCRAPS
• Brooklyn Grange
• NYC Compost Project hosted by Build It Green’s compost site at the Queensbridge Baby Park
• Smiling Hogshead Ranch

The last stop included an overview of SHR's six different composting methods being demonstrated. Including the unveiling of their newest addition, ThermoSense, a technologically advanced
compost monitoring system, installed in partnership with We Radiate and
funded by the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board’s CCNYC 2015 Composting
Grant.

Congrats to all who organized this amazing event celebrating community composting in Queens

Just another weekend at Sunny Compost!

Volunteers worked hard this weekend turning bins, emptying tumblers, sifting finished compost, chopping up newly donated food scraps, sharing information about vermicomposting, adding compost to Barnett Avenue, planning workshops, and adding hay to our leaf bin! It's never dull! Come join us!

http://www.sunnycompost.org/volunteer

BB in the garden.

Spring has Sprung!

Thanks to all of our die-hard winter food scraps dropper-offers, we have plenty of compost and survived the harsh winter. As always, thanks to the folks at the Sunnyside Community Garden for their kindness, smiles, and assistance in helping SunnyCompost maintain our efforts.

Brief news:

• BiG!Compost has expanded their hours at the Sunnyside Greenmarket to 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM every Saturday.
• Open Bin NYC takes place Saturday May 9, 2015. Join us in Queens as we check out the windrows under the Queensborough Bridge as part of International Compost Awareness Week. 
• Join us on Sundays between 2 and 5 to drop off your food scraps or to volunteer. Signing up is easy: simply go to our website and sign up for a shift. They are listed as 2:00, 3:00, 4:00. If you sign up, we will be there to show you around. When you volunteer, you may:
  •     Chop up donated food scraps. We provide tools and gloves.
  •     Sift finished compost so it's ready to be used. We provide sifter and gloves.
  •     Turn compost piles. We provide compost pile, tools and gloves.
  •     Meet and greet our food scrap dropper-offers. 
  •     Clean up/organize our space.
  •     Chalk our Tumblers with the date of the action. We provide chalk.
  •     Miscellaneous: Provide moral support to hard-working food scrap choppers. Grab a coffee or water from the deli. Smile.
  •     Become friends with BB (do you see him in the photo above?)
  •    Meet interesting people.

  As always, check us out at http://www.sunnycompost.org/home. See you in the garden! 

2015!

SunnyCompost is thriving with lots of food scraps donated each week. We were also included in the report on 2014 Community Composting in NYC submitted to the New York City Council. Check it out!

In other news, you may have seen reports of the plans of NYC Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for creating affordable housing on various pieces of land, including 16 community gardens in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Fortunately, we are not affected. But there are opportunities to support our fellow gardeners:

• Sign petitions like this one or this one.
• Attend a rally on Tuesday, February 10th at City Hall.
• Reach out to your Community Boards and your Council members on this issue seeking their support

2014 comes to a close

Another year of composting comes to a close! Time sure does fly! SunnyCompost had some great successes this year:

• Lots of new volunteers!
• A new leaf bin was built!
• Three big batches of compost were created!
• Open House and Pumpkin Smash was held!
• Workshop for PS 11 students was held!
• Workshop with Woodside Neighborhood Association was held!
• We donated finished compost to Sunnyside is Blooming and Re-Create Queens for planting events!
• We've had steady drop-offs of food scraps for over two years!

Grateful to all who help us - Sunnyside Community Garden members, Sunnyside Gardens Park, NYC Compost Project, BiG!Compost, NYC Department of Sanitation, Woodside Neighborhood Association, PS 11, and all of our dedicated volunteers.

For some Holiday Composting Tips, check out this cool article about nuts! Check out this article written for Thanksgiving but applicable to any holiday where you'll be cooking up a storm!


Reminders:

• Sunny Compost is open year round. Our drop-off hours are on Sundays from 2:00 - 5:00. (See attached flyer.)
• If the weather is rough or if we don't have any volunteers, you may place your food scraps in the black bin outside the gate.  As always, please take your plastic bags or other non-compostables with you.
• BiG!Compost food scraps drop off at the Skillman Avenue Greenmarket is now open year round!   
• Sunnyside Greenmarket  Saturdays, 10am-1pm YEAR ROUND
  Skillman Ave between 42 and 43 Street (http://www.bignyc.org/drop-sites)
• (The textile recycling collection, Wearable Collections, will not be year round. Last day at Sunnyside Market is 12/20.)  
• We have finished compost if you need any. Makes for a unique gift! 
• We welcome new volunteers. Our sign-up sheet is online.  

Thank you for being a part of our community's compost program!

Sunny Compost

Open House (3rd Annual!)

FREE COMPOST WORKSHOP AND PUMPKIN SMASH

A fun local event (not sponsored by the CSA but we sure do like them!)–

SunnyCompost invites you to its 3rd Annual Open House on Sunday, November 9, 2014 from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.

November is here and SunnyCompost wants to celebrate with YOU and your food scraps, your leaves, and your pumpkins!

• Tour the composting site located at beautiful Sunnyside Community Garden at 50th Street and Barnett Avenue in Sunnyside.
• Join us and meet your neighbors and fellow composters.
• Learn about composting – a Beginners Workshop will take place at 1:30
• Hands on activities – chopping, sifting, and much much more!
• Bring your pumpkins for smashing!
• Bring your bagged leaves for mulching (aka Project Leaf Drop!)
• Bring food scraps for composting!
• Take a sample of finished compost!

Please stop by! We’ll have refreshments (compostable)!

Can’t wait to see you!!