t. Grower & Marketer Vegetable, Friut^^ ‘Mountain Of Mums’ Draws Customers To Ott’s Visitors can scale up the “Mountain of Mums” at dividual blooms light up the mountain on a dazzling Ott’s Exotic Plants, Schwenksviile. About 40,000 in- fall day. Photo by Andy Andrews, editor A Garden Grows In Philadelphia Urban Farm Connects With Community , Rural Producers DAVELEFEVER Lancaster Farming Staff PHILADELPHIA “Farmers wanted.” That’s the rallying call of The Food Trust, a farmer’s market association operating in the Philadelphia area. The Farmer’s Market Trust as the organization was known until recently was started 10 years ago at Philadelphia’s Reading Ter minal Market, according to Duane Perry, founder and executive director. Food Truai Matches Fanout With Customers, Local Communities DAVE LEFEVER Lancaster Farming Staff PHILADELPHIA Mary Corboy lives in downtown Philadelphia and bikes regu larly to the farm she man ages. From her home, the farm is a few dozen blocks away on an abandoned industrial or “brownfield” site in a resi dential neighborhood on the east side of the city, near “The goal was to create farmer’s markets operating in community settings,” Perry said. During the 2001 growing season, the nonprofit organi zation operated 10 markets in eight locations within Phila delphia and its suburbs. Set up in a variety of set tings such as sidewalks and parks, the markets are at tracting a growing number of urban people who care about the sources of their food, said Perry. Route 95 “It was just a trash dump,” Corboy said of the 3 /4-acre site before she took it over in 1998 and established the Greensgrow Philadelphia Project. Made possible through a lease agreement with the local community develop ment corporation, the project was started from scratch. No plumbing, electricity, or “There’s a really solid group of consumers inter ested in connecting with farmers,” he said. Twenty-seven farmers in 2001 supplied a wide array of agricultural products to the markets, from baked goods, cut flowers, and conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables to organic produce and specialty items such as “high end” salad greens. (Turn to Page 2) useful structures existed on the site except for a metal wire fence around the perim eter of the property. Originally started as a hy droponic operation for grow ing lettuce, Greensgrow has since expanded to include methods for cultivating a wide variety of crops includ ing tomatoes, specialty vege tables, and flowers. (Turn to Page 4) Mary Corboy of the Greensgrow Philadelphia Project with spinach grown on raised beds built out of clean fill, compost, and horse manure. Crushed stones and PVC piping serve as a drainage system underneath the beds. Photo by Dave Lefever ANDY ANDREWS Editor SCHWENKS VILLE (Montgomery Co.) What do you do with a mountain of soil? Create the “Mountain of Mums,” of course. That’s what happened be ginning back in 1963, when earth was moved into a pile to build some greenhouses for Ott’s Exotic Plans on Rt. 29 near Schwenksville. The story goes, Godfrey Ott told his children, Godfrey H. and Clarke, to “go pull some weeds,” out of a pile that had gone unsightly, said Godfrey H. Ott. Ott said that the weeds, being an eyesore, were replaced by some mums, and then pansies in the spring, for customers to appreciate. So why not make a hill of yellows the color of lemon ade, from an unsightly lemon? “We made the dirt pile with plants,” said Ott. “And (Turn to Page 3)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers