Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market

[Cassandra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/dining/07urban.html?ref=style

"At a less established operation, the Brooklyn Rescue Mission’s Bed-Stuy Farm, mission staff members began growing produce in the vacant lot behind their food pantry in 2004, and ended up with a surplus last year. So they enlisted their teenage volunteers to run a sidewalk farm stand selling collards, tomatoes and figs; this year they plan to open a full farmers’ market.
<snip>
The Red Hook farm began in 2003 when the Parks Department gave the youth group Added Value permission to use an abandoned three-acre asphalt ball field. The group started with two raised beds, built a hoop house where it could start seeds, then laid down an acre of compost two feet deep on top of the asphalt. Last year the young farmers sold more than $25,000 in goods."

Just a really nice article about what's possible.

[Muttocracy]

1. neat - I heard about this in Philadelphia too recently. nt