Great Kids Farm in Baltimore

Baltimore City high school seniors working during the summer at the Great Kids Farm.

Great Kids Farm Yields Great Taste

Fall 2009
The BCF Edge
The Baltimore Community Foundation Newsletter

Excerpt:

When Geraci first viewed the overgrown, abandoned, city-owned farm behind Catonsville’s strip malls and fast-food joints he saw only promise. He had had success in New Hampshire as a co-founder of the farm-to-school fresh food movement, and he envisioned the land as it could be, full of life that children would help create.

In short order, Great Kids Farm became a place of bustling activity. A donated herd of goats cleared the land for vegetable crops and an orchard. Fallen trees in a wooded area were inoculated to produce shiitake, chanterelles, and oyster mushrooms. Two of three existing greenhouses swung into full production using techniques from water-based hydroponics to worm-enriched he vermiculture.

“This is a living, working farm,” Geraci says. “We grow micro-greens that are nutrient dense and can be turned around in three weeks. We’re selling produce to several high-end restaurants to help sustain the cost of operations. The chicks that we nurtured under a light bulb are now clearing our vegetable gardens of harlequin beetles, fertilizing our crops, and leaving us eggs—all without a union grievance.”

The working goats and chickens—as well as swarms of pollinating bees—have been joined by legions of human volunteers, including more than 3,000 students. For many children, seeing food at its origins is a life-changing revelation.

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