New York - 2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference

Welcome to my page if you are reading it for the first time. I am in New York blogging on the roof top a 5 story walk up on a sunny afternoon... I see buildings as far as the eye can see. One building in the NE corner has a small coniferous tree forest growing majestically on the top of 30+ story building. This is a one of a kind city!
Here I am posting from the sunny New York. I am in the Big Apple for the first time in my adult life. It is such an energetic city environment. Far different from my rainy Portland which is like gnat to a bumble bee. I am certainly not the only Oregonian in this city siting on roof tops and looking up at thousands of apartment spaces filling the skyline. There are opportunities everywhere I go as I travel via the 4,5,6 lines too and from Manhattan I can only wonder what are the cornerstones of these communities.
My excitement is mostly leading up to the start of the 2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners conference which is to be held at Brooklyn College. I hope that I can meet and learn from experienced farmers. I want to ask them what did it take for you to get started in the business of farming? What make farming so rewarding to you and your community? Are there opportunities for young people to begin working on their skills as farmers? What kind of person makes a great farmer? What does a successful urban farmer have to do to be successful?

These are just some of the questions that I will be asking while I attend this historic conference.