How This N.Y. Island Went From Tourist Hot Spot to Emergency Garden
Governors Island had a charming teaching farm that was a field trip destination. Now it’s producing hundreds of pounds of fresh produce every week.
By Rachel Wharton
New York Times
July 23, 2020
Excerpt:
Mr. Connell and his team reimagined their mandate and converted their land — with its fruit trees and its 50-foot demonstration farm rows — into a victory garden for New York City.
Six months on, their shift has been so successful that it has changed their whole approach, and it even has the potential to alter the future of this piece of the island, perhaps to the dismay of any developers still hoping to turn it into a Hudson Yards in the harbor.
“We were so preoccupied in past seasons by the work of engaging with these young people that we never gave much thought to producing food,” said Mr. Connell, 37, one of a handful of people who ferry to work on the island year-round.
Most of what they grew was eaten by students, Mr. Connell said. Some was left to wither and die in order to show the life cycle of a plant.
“We knew in past seasons we’d been able to grow 10,000 pounds of food, and we thought, You know, that’s a good number to shoot for,” he said. “We’re certainly on track to produce more than that — twice that,” he added, and that’s not even factoring in the extra beds planted this spring with squash and potatoes.
