So, you still plan to grow your own food. Now that we’ve convinced you it’s possible and provided the quick & dirty intro on schedules, temps, etc., it’s time to talk about seeds. Working from seed, as opposed to an existing plant, takes the process into your hands earlier, which will help you save down the road. Select your seeds carefully, and after first harvest, you can collect new seeds from what you’ve grown. In a few years, you cut industry out of the process altogether. And the controlled conditions of a cozy apartment are ideal for sprouting these tiny incipient fruits and veggies. Here’s a starter course on the seeds you want, the ones you don’t and what to do with them. 
Brokelyn grow-your-own-food guide, part 2
Brokelyn grow-your-own-food guide, part 1
Fire-escape pepper photo by Urban Greenscaper. Click on it for lots more inspiration.
We know, we know… you probably don’t think you have the space or the know-how to grow a measly sprout, let alone the ingredients for a salad. And you might be right. But growing food in tight, urban quarters is not only possible, it’s easier than you might expect. Gardening experts estimate that every square foot of growing space yields almost a pound of food over the course of the growing season. That’s a sizable crop squeezed from even the most meager Park Slope patch of dirt. And if a Crown Heights fire escape is your whole domain, that’s at least a crudité. Here’s how to begin.
Cheaper ways to learn digi-design
If being able to type 90WPM is the most impressive computer skill you have, it may be difficult (i.e. impossible) to stay competitive in today’s hyper-digital workplace. Knowing how to use Photoshop, InDesign, FinalCut Pro and other programs can be beneficial when applying to jobs or landing freelance gigs. Though Pratt has an amazing list of computer graphics courses for the serious (and well-funded) student, some of us just want to dabble. So we did a price check to find the best rates on digital-design and video-editing classes around town. Got another lead? Please let us know in the comments.
Free and cheap ways to try Zumba tonight
By now you’ve probably heard of Zumba, the Latin-fusion, easier-and-sweatier-than-a-rhumba fitness style of dance that’s supposed to be this decade’s Tai Bo. It’s said to burn 600-1000 calories per class, which means you can a) lose weight, or b) eat this, and not gain weight, which I think might be a stronger argument. Zumba classes are popping up all over Brooklyn, and tonight (Wed. March 10) there are two ways to try it, one free and the other cheap.
Car-service price check: Cobble Hill
Baby's night out on Smith St.? Could run you $10 extra getting home.
This week we turned our car-service lens on Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. The area as a whole is pricey, with a trip to JFK invariably above $40 (why, we have no idea). And things get even more expensive when babies or pets are involved.
We gave the hypothetical starting point of Smith St. and Atlantic Ave. and asked for quotes to the following three destinations: 1) Flatbush Ave. and Eighth Ave. in Park Slope, 2) Delancey St. and Allen St. on the Lower East Side and 3) JFK Airport.
Car-service price check: Ditmas Park/Kensington
Good luck finding one of these in upstate Brooklyn. But how do car services rate?
We’re on to the third stop of our ride through Brooklyn car service price-checks: Ditmas Park/Kensington. Some interesting results this time: While the rate to JFK was pretty constant—it seems like there’s a set borough-wide rate to that place—the prices for another of our destinations varied quite a bit: by more than 40 percent from the lowest quote.
We gave the hypothetical starting point of Cortelyou Rd. and Argyle Rd. (in the heart of Cortelyou’s happenings), and we asked for quotes to the following three destinations: 1) 9th Street and Prospect Park West in Park Slope, 2) Metropolitan Ave. and Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg and 3) JFK Airport. We called each car service within a 20-minute span on an early weekday afternoon, and we also compared rates with those of a metered yellow cab. Here’s what we found:
Who’s your fave Brooklyn barber?
You’re a man, you live in Brooklyn, and you need a haircut. Your last barber got a little scissor happy and you ended up looking like a militant state trooper. Even by your traditional male standard of absolute indifference to appearance, you were too embarrassed to show your face at your Tuesday night Bocce game. But this time you are determined to get your hair done right. And what you need is the affordable barber who can translate your hairy vision—long on top, short on the sides, keep it curly, bed head, fade in the back, frosted tips, trucker mullet, whatever your request might be—into a satisfactory reality. We pose this question to our readers, male and female alike: where does the wallet-conscious Brooklyn gent get a well-done hair cropping?
Car-service price check: W’burg
How much is that doggy in the window? Around $3 more. Photo by Bitchcakes.
Our latest car-service price check brings us to Williamsburg, where we compared the fares for six different companies. Unlike the Park Slope car services we recently surveyed—whose rates were fairly well synchronized across the board—there was a bit more of a range in the prices quoted by WB dispatchers for the three sample rides we asked for.
As with last time, we called car services like anyone else would and asked for quotes on three different destinations. With a hypothetical starting point at Bedford Avenue and N. 12th Street, we asked for fares to: 1) to Lafayette Avenue and Ashland Place in Fort Greene, 2) to Delancey and Allen Streets on the Lower East Side and 3) to JFK Airport. We called each car service within a 20-minute span on an early weekday afternoon. We also compared rates with those of a metered yellow cab. Here’s what we found:
An app for gourmet on-the-go
Fancy food trucks are practically de rigeur in NY these days, with the high-quality likes of Schnitzel & Things, Van Leeuwen and Eurotrash getting attention all over the city’s most esteemed media outlets. But how to find that nearest four-star truck when you’re dashing to your retail late-shift, tired of showing up smelling like gyros and tzaziki? Well, now, as they say, there’s an app for that. I Love Street Eats is a free iPhone application that shows recent locations of gourmet meal trucks selling everything from Tex-Mex to Belgian waffles. It’s currently available in NY and seven other cities around the U.S., and it relies on vendors to update their locations daily. And if you can’t afford an iPhone, the Website has all the info too.
Hey cheapskates: beauty school students want your head
We personally can’t vouch for Cristina’s hairdressing talents, but she and her beauty-school sisters are looking for some guinea pigs hair models willing to submit to their newbie stylings for free to $15. She lives in BK, but the school is in lower Manhattan. Here’s the deal:
My school is holding some events and I (and my fellow stylists!) need models. We are taught by excellent instructors in a beautiful, extremely clean studio using professional product lines. We workshop with lead stylists from the top salons in the city. (You know, those ones where people pay $600 for a haircut?) Every step of every service is heavily supervised from start to finish. And it is really, really cheap. Here’s what we need:
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