On the heels of Kings County Distillery’s latest book deal, another local producer is bound for the bookshelves. Brooklyn Grange has snagged a contract of its own, according to Publishers Marketplace.
A deal memo on the site (subscription required) says farm honchos Anatstasia Cole Plakias, Ben Flanner, Gwen Schantz and Chase Emmons will author Brooklyn Grange: The Story of a Rooftop Farm. According to the memo, the book will be about “the naissance and formidable growth of its namesake, the world’s largest rooftop farm, sprung from the ingenuity of a few like-minded Brooklynites ready to work with their hands and change the possibilities of urban farming forever.”
Brooklyn Grange launched its Long Island City farm — at the time the largest in the city — in 2010. These days it sells produce to restaurants like Roberta’s and Marlow and Sons, produces honey (as well as a honey festival coming up in September), installs apiaries and green roofs, trains refugees and others to be farmers, sells at markets in Greenpoint and Long Island City, and hosts film screenings, talks, tours, dinners, educational sessions with local youth, and even yoga sessions and weddings.
The book won’t be the farm’s first time in the limelight — “Brooklyn Farmer,” a documentary about the opening of its second rooftop (a 65,000 square foot farm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard), recently screened at Rooftop Films.
An excerpt from the doc is above, and here’s the trailer:
Brooklyn Grange will be published by Gotham, with an on-sale date TBD.