There’s an urban farm in Boston growing 6,000 pounds of produce a year. It happens to be located on the roof of Fenway Park
Green City estimates roughly 500,000 children and adults encounter Fenway Farms every year.
By Samantha Bresnahan
CNN
October 10, 2023
Excerpt:
On any given day, farmers from Green City Growers plant harvest and maintain the roughly 5,000-square-foot rooftop garden area called Fenway Farms, tucked up on the third floor behind the third baseline.
With 2,400 total square feet of growing space, the beds can cultivate anything from A to Z – “asparagus to zucchini,” says Chris Grallert, president of Green City Growers, and a local farmer who grew up going to Red Sox games as a kid.
“Local is not new. In 1920, this area [in downtown Boston] ranked fifth in the nation for values of crops or fruits and vegetables. And all the communities around Boston had local markets and local gardens,” Grallert says. “Having a rooftop farm at Fenway Park is an amazing way to be a part of reinvigorating a local food production system.”
As a seasonal garden, farmers start prepping at Fenway in March and can go as long as December, depending on the weather.
In late August, near the end of the summer season, the farm was flush with eggplant, cherry tomatoes, carrots, onions, multiple varieties of peppers, beets, greens such as kale and arugula, and herbs like basil. Once the peppers are harvested, for example, another fall crop will be planted in their place.
“We can produce anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 pounds of fresh produce a year, depending on what we’re growing,” Grallert says. To maximize the yield with the available space, the team avoids planting larger crops such as sweet corn, pumpkins, or watermelon, he adds.
