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Queens County Farm Museum in Floral Park, NY, has grown crops since the 17th century.
It’s the last trace of what was a bread basket for Manhattan until the 20th century. But until a year ago, only a quarter acre of the 47 acres was cultivated.
Then the farm hired a director of agriculture to expand the agriculture using sustainable methods, and a field manager to plot and care for about two acres of vegetables it will be growing — mostly heirloom varieties from organic seeds. The farm also increased production in the antique greenhouse on raised beds and added a plastic-covered hoop house so it can have year-round crops.
For the first time, the farm is running a stand at the Union Square Greenmarket. Every Monday since November, the farm has been selling greenhouse produce — more than 15 pounds of salad greens each week — eggs, honey, frozen heirloom tomatoes from last summer’s abundance, and pork from pasture-raised pigs.
There is an extra-large chicken coop with plenty of outdoor space for scratching and pecking. By the summer there will be several chicken tractors — small hen houses on wheels that enable the birds to fertilize the fields with their droppings and feast on crop-damaging insects.
Adrian Benepe, the commissioner of the city’s parks department, sees the farm’s future in its past: “It’s a part of a model for how we can be a more sustainable city.”
New York Times, 3/4/09, Annaliese Griffin
