It’s Not Urban Farming. It’s Community.

Photo by Neal Santos.

Philadelphia Community Building

By Felicia D’Ambrosio
Generocity Writer
11/05/11

Excerpt:

Here is Farm 51, a micro urban farm conceived and carried out by public landscapes manager Andrew Olson, in collaboration with partner Neal Santos and neighbors like Roberta Baker, Yahya Adib Bey and his son Yahya Jr.

“I saw Andrew from the window of my apartment,” says Miss Roberta Baker, a resident of 51st and Chester Ave. for the past five years. “And I was so jealous! I came out here and told him, ‘I’ll talk to the greens.’ I can’t dig anymore, but I can talk to the greens. ‘You can grow better than that, I’d tell them.’”

Olson, who works full time for the Delaware Center for Horticulture, had begun cleaning out the trash-filled lot next door to his rented Victorian three years ago, intending to start a garden. A three-year grant of materials from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society jump-started the little operation, which launched a small weekly farm stand two years ago, in their second season. In addition to a few laying hens, Olson and Santos planted apple trees, a wide array of greens, radishes, onions, yellow squash and herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Read the complete article here.