Curios Jane, a camp run for girls, will hold an all-female craft and food market on the Gowanus Canal this fall. Photo via Curious Jane.

As the temperature keeps decreasing and the amount of pumpkin-flavored food and Halloween-themed crafts keeps growing, we are hitting the end of outdoor market season, which means pretty soon we will have to do our shopping and fooding indoors. Also, with the unfortunate closing of Dekalb market on Sept. 30 after the market lost its lease, that leaves us Brooklynites one less place to shop and eat and avoid having to trek into the city on a weekend. There is good news though! There will be a two new markets opening this fall: one temporary one focused on designs and foods made by women, and another market that will be going on until November highlighting the funky flavor of Ditmas Park. (more…)

Today’s real estate highlights begin with one of the bolder renovations we’ve seen. This South Slope 3BR, a relatively affordable $3,200, comes with five flat-screen TVs and 360 degrees of glossy white tiles. The decor may not appeal to BK’s woodsier types, but throw in a club promoter, a medical student and a Russian spy and we’ll definitely come to your first house party, so long as you avoid the temptation to play only Skrillex. More photos here. Other finds in our Brooklyn apartment listings:

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The median home price in Brooklyn is $524K, but aspiring yuppies needn’t give up on the dream altogether — there are still some places on sale for less than half that, even in our fine borough. Our friends at QueensNYC rounded up apartments in five counties that you can get for $250K, including a sweet Upper West Side studio in Manhattan and this 1BR beaut in Ditmas Park. It’s got closets, decent-sized rooms, groovy kitchen, lots of light, and a good location on East 17th between Cortelyou and Dorchester. Plus, Ditmas Park! Here’s what else you can buy for entry-level dough in five areas.

Yes, that neighborhood. This place is actually a B&B.

There are stoop sales, and then there’s the annual collective basement purge in Victorian Flatbush, AKA Upstate Brooklyn (we made that up), AKA Brooklyn-burbia (we made that up too) AKA the place where people buy adorable Victorian houses then wind up so house poor that they have sell their children to replace the 200-year-old coal heater. (We didn’t make that up.) Find out what else they’re peddling at this weekend’s massive yard sale, so named because these people actually have yards. Our friends at Ditmas Park Corner helpfully explain the coordinates: (more…)

I have kids. They drink organic milk. It’s expensive, but I’d rather not have my 8-year-old son sprout breasts prematurely. In bad brokester fashion, I never paid that much attention to the prices until I noticed that the closest supermarket is charging $6.29 for a half gallon of Stonyfield Organic. (I’m talkinboutyou, C-Town at East 16th Street and Newkirk). Eesh! How rampant is this organic milk price-gouging? As an exercise, I checked every store in a five-block radius from Cortelyou and Marlborough. Here are the results: (more…)

This food is only a representation of next Saturday's meal.

Vegetarians and scarred Food Inc. watchers love to evangelize more than Tim Tebow (especially you vegans), but the point is, the only way you’re going to convert meat lovers is by letting the food do the talking. If adzuki beans and seitan are really all that, then prove it, people.

Next Saturday (Jan. 28), the folks at Sustainable Flatbush are going to give it their best shot at a free (now you’re speaking our language) vegetarian lunch prepared by chefs David Cohen and Alissa Bilfield (The Cookbook Project). (more…)

Everything must go at Whisk. Photo via DP Blog.

Ditmas Park has been reeling since beloved community member and owner of Whisk Cafe & Bakery Josh Rubin was found murdered in Pennsylvania earlier this month. The shop has been closed since he disappeared this fall. To help Josh’s family recoup some of the costs, Ditmas Park Blog reports the entire cafe’s contents will be up for sale this Saturday. The full (huge) list is on this Craigslist ad, but it includes oven, freezer, mixer, juicer, ice machine, coffee grinder, pots and pans, a router, chairs, even sugar packets and garbage cans. It’s from 10am to 3pm Saturday, at Whisk Bakery Cafe, 1119 Newkirk Ave., Ditmas Park.

Amazing Savings mock antique kitchen tools, $1.99.

Back when we started this blog way back yonder in 2009, one of our first posts was on the wonders of Midwood’s Amazing Savings, where you can get all kinds of books, toys, dishes, small appliances, crafting gear, gift wrap galore for super cheap. We just went back to the Avenue M location after a decent spell away, and it’s actually gotten better. Now that it’s in a bigger space, there’s more of the stuff we want (kids’ books, brand-name toys, fashion-fun shopping totes, adorable crockpots for one) and less of the stuff we don’t want (unrecognizable kosher dry goods; under-the-sink necessities.) How good are the prices? We did a comparison shop.  (more…)

We’re all about the DIY gifts around here — but not the lame ones. That’s why we’re heading to Third Root in Ditmas Park tomorrow (Sunday, Nov. 27) for a workshop on DIY body cream, facial cleanser and body scrub. For a $15 materials fee and a $5 to $15 sliding-scale instructional fee, you get to take all three products, along with a lifetime of homemade beauty know-how. Details:

Sunday, November 27
2 to 4 pm
Third Root Community Health Center, 380 Marlborough Rd. at Cortelyou.
RSVP in person, by phone at 718-940-9343 or by email at rsvp@thirdroot.org

Led by Liz Neves, maker of Raganella’s Botanical Solutions

[via Krrb]

If you work your way into the right hand-me-down loop, you won’t have to buy your kid clothes until at least age 5, when the castoffs start to get a little ratty. But Tuesday night at to the Old Navy outlet in Flatbush (a fave), the Halloween costumes were so cute they bear mention here. Dragons, hamburgers, strawberries, ice cream sundaes, some monkey-looking creature, all for $14.94, which is four bucks cheaper than you can buy them online. (All originally labeled $24.94). So much nicer than the garbage-y vinyl costumes they sell at drugstores. By the way, if you haven’t been to Old Navy (1009 Flatbush at Tilden), it’s worth a visit. They don’t seem to officially call it an outlet, possibly because some of the merch is full-price, but there are loads of wicked deals, especially among the clearance racks.