176
-Grower and Marketer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 26,2002
Food Trust Matches Farmers
(Continued from Page 1)
In addition to Corboy, two
fulltime workers plan, build,
plant, tend, and harvest there
throughout the normal grow
ing season and beyond.
Higher temperatures in the
city along with two green
houses and a high tunnel con
structed on the site extend
the period for plants to grow.
In the first week of January,
Corboy reported that the
spinach was still being har
vested. The tomatoes quit
producing around Christmas,
she said.
Fresh produce from
Greensgrow is sold directly to
restaurants in downtown
Philadelphia. “The entire de
livery route is less than 10
miles,” Corboy said.
Greensgrow also serves to
connect urban neighbors with
agriculture. According to
Corboy, about 2,000 people
toured the site in 2001.
“This is a way for people in
the city to actually see food
being grown,” she said,
noting that many of the visi
tors are kids.
“I want them to under
stand what I’m doing. Maybe
they want to become a
farmer,” she said.
While Greensgrow has re
ceived some funding from
several local foundations and
the USDA for new projects,
the ultimate goal of the oper
ation is to turn a profit by in
novation and “all the things
that a regular small farm
does to survive.”
Corboy and the other
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workers build raised soil beds
out of a mixture of clean fill,
compost, “spent” mushroom
soil, and horse manure
happily provided by the man
agers of the stables down
town that house the city’s
numerous carriage horses.
Their first raised beds had
water retention problems, ac
cording to Corboy.
“We were having a terrible
time (from lack of drain
age),” she said.
Mat Brener, an agricul
tural engineer with a special
interest in urban ag, sug
gested rebuilding the beds
with a drainage system. He
helped secure a grant from
the Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education
(SARE) arm of the USDA to
work on it.
Brener’s drainage project
involved installing perforated
PVC pipe surrounded by
crushed stone under the 15
inches of soil in the raised
bed.
Although the original soil
may still be contaminated
with heavy metals from a gal
vanized steel plant that used
to operate there before it was
closed down in the 19705,
Greensgrow has developed,
and continues to develop,
ways to grow safe food on the
site.
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The beds were constructed
on existing concrete pads,
which serve as a barrier from
the contaminated soil under
neath. In areas without a
concrete base, a plastic fabric
is laid on top of the crushed
stones before the beds are
built on top of them.
Corboy has sent leaf sam
ples from plants grown on the
site to Penn State to have
them tested for heavy metal
content. The tests have
shown no harmful substances
in the plant tissues, she said.
Rural Connections
Corboy, a former chef,
hopes that a working part
nership between Greensgrow
and the Philadelphia Fair
Food Project will result in the
development of marketing
cooperatives consisting of
rural and urban farmers.
This Neighborhood Urban
Ag Cooperative (NUAC)
mission is to train people to
become urban farmers and to
link rural producers of fruits,
vegetables, meats and other
farm commodities with their
urban counterparts.
Such a cooperative would
enhance the marketing
power of both groups, Corboy
said. Rural producers would
help supply a complete line of
farm fresh, healthy foods to
city markets, while their
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The city’s potential is great
for other projects similar to
Greensgrow, according to
Corboy. The local New Kens
ington community develop
ment corporation alone has
72 abandoned industrial sites
that could possibly be turned
into farms, with many other
such brownfields existing
throughout the city, she
pointed out.
Corboy envisions a smor
gasboard of urban farms of
fering a variety of fresh
produce and community sup
ported agriculture (CSA)
shares to people from the
neighborhood. Some of those
farms could specialize in
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food production,” she said.
“We see our advocacy role
as getting city and state to
recognize this is a good use
for abandoned land.”
Corboy acknowledged the
help and support of Penn
State on various projects in
cluding plasticulture and
greenhouse tomato produc
tion.
She is looking for more
urban ag enthusiasts.
“I don’t want to be the
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