Plot Twist

Ten years ago, Greensgrow Farms took a grimy brownfield and made it green. Oh, so green.

photos by Michael T. Regan

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At 2501 E. Cumberland St. in Kensington, beyond an ugly chain-link fence topped with razor wire, loom lush greenhouses bursting with baby plants — cilantro, basil, Early Girl tomatoes, a rainbow mix of peppers. It's pastoral paradise surrounded by gray, gritty city. "[This] was just a trash heap," says Mary Seton Corboy, looking across the plot of land. "It had been sitting here for years and years with nothing going on."

While "urban farm" may sound like an oxymoron, Greensgrow Farms co-founder Corboy has been making it a reality for a decade. What started in 1998 as a group of folks delivering produce from the back of a truck is now a thriving farm that provides urbanites with fresh, local food.

In 1997, Corboy and former business partner Tom Sereduk were living in Philadelphia but farming in New Jersey. "I just didn't want to go to New Jersey every day," Corboy says. "Nothing against New Jersey, but I lived in Philadelphia. Part of the idea of sustainability is working close to where you live."

Corboy and Sereduk looked for vacant property within city limits, eventually settling on a plot in Kensington. (Sereduk later left to start a cut flower farm in New Jersey, but still works with Greensgrow part time.)

The land they found, however, wasn't blessed with what you'd call "ideal growing conditions." It was the former site of Boyle Galvanizing, a steel plant, which meant that the land was tainted with toxins galore, most notably lead. Even if they'd wanted to grow on the land as it was, there was literally nowhere to put down roots.

"I could have dug maybe a teaspoon of soil out of this whole place," says Corboy. "Dirt there was. But soil there was not."

Greensgrow rests on a former brownfield, a term the Environmental Protection Agency uses to describe a contaminated parcel of land that has potential for redevelopment. Cleaning brownfields — which involves a detailed property assessment and toxic removal plan — helps the sustainability of a community by making use of land that would've otherwise remained vacant.

According to EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith, cleaning up brownfields not only helps the land — it also helps reduce human exposure to contaminants. "The brownfields program supports smart growth and the preservation of greenspace and open space by encouraging the 'recycling' of existing brownfields and existing infrastructure," she says.

Greensgrow also worked with Philly's React Environmental Professional Services Group in navigating the cleanup of the site, ensuring compliance with environmental regulations and helping to guide the land's redevelopment.

Still, you might wonder, as many have — is the food safe? Corboy's happy to discuss the myriad alternative growing methods the farm relies on to guarantee the safety of the food.

WHO'S GOT THE HERB? A Greensgrow Farms volunteer handles a fresh batch of cilantro sprouts. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

The most predominant technique is hydroponics, which allows Corboy and company to grow things without ever touching that questionable soil. The entire system sits about 3 feet off the ground, and all water used is contained in pipes. They've also experimented with growing in bags using imported soil and perlite, a volcanic glass. They've built raised beds on top of a concrete barrier, filling them with organic soil trucked in from New Jersey.

And about that fence. Corboy thinks it's ugly, too.

"Personally, I don't find the fence around this place very attractive," says Corboy, "but I'm not so foolish that I would take it down." (In the past, Greensgrow has been "robbed to the point of having [thieves] take pens and pencils off the desk.") So it's here to stay, not only to provide protection, but to allow people to peek inside and see what's going on. That's important for Corboy — because surely you've heard the rumors.

"There've been so many rumors for so many years about us — growing drugs, being busted by the Drug Enforcement Agency, people with three heads and that stuff," Corboy laments. "This is my answer to those people: We're right here, standing right in front of you." She thinks the rumors originate with those who might fear the changing landscape of their neighborhood, and takes serious issue with people who question the integrity of Greensgrow's food.

"I've been on this land for 10 years. I eat the food myself and I feed it to my family," she says. "I think it's an insult to infer that I would do anything that would put people at risk. I have every confidence that what we are doing is the right thing."

And for 10 years, they've been supplying fresh food to individuals and restaurants in Philadelphia. Prior to this project, Corboy was a chef, so Greensgrow's initial clientele consisted primarily of restaurants across the city. Over the years, though, it's changed its focus to retail food sales, simply because of an increase in demand.

This year, the farm has expanded its nursery to provide more opportunity for home gardeners to buy planting supplies locally rather than from big stores like Home Depot or Lowe's. The nursery is open every day but Monday and offers vegetable seedlings, annuals, perennials, fruit plants, and ornamental trees and shrubs.

Corboy sees the expansion of the nursery as mostly recession-proof in these troubling economic times. "We fill an important void in that regard as far as the nursery goes," she says, pointing out that it doesn't take much money to start your own small vegetable garden or pretty up your space with flowers.

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The farm also offers its version of Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, wherein consumers buy a share in a local farm and receive produce each week during the growing season. Greensgrow's is dubbed "City Supported Agriculture," and it's a little different in that in addition to offering what they grow on-site, they've partnered with 46 other farms across the Delaware Valley and beyond to give customers an even wider variety of food.

A typical CSA share from Greensgrow contains four to seven different vegetables and fruits along with a cheese or dairy product and a meat or pasta; it costs $775 for 25 weeks. Greensgrow also has a farm stand on its premises and offers many of the same items for sale that CSA members receive in their shares. Spinach, arugula, strawberries and asparagus are some of the first items that will be available this spring.

Last year, Greensgrow's CSA had about 150 members. This year they have 225. Corboy says they are conservative in their growth because they want to be able to get to know each of their members.

"Otherwise, you're just a supermarket," she says.

This year, they've also cut back on the number of restaurants they deliver to so they can focus their efforts on their immediate community. But you can still sample Greensgrow products at eateries like Standard Tap, Johnny Brenda's, Honey's Sit N' Eat, Ida Mae's Bruncherie and Memphis Taproom. Other eateries come to the farm to pick up food, including West Philly's Picnic and Capogiro, which gets in-season fruit from Greensgrow for its gelato.

All in all, Corboy hopes Greensgrow can reintroduce city dwellers to the idea that food is something that's grown, not something that just arrives at the store. "People in the city are so far disassociated from their food and where it comes from," she says. "They don't even know what it looks like in its raw state." She's worked with Head Start students who didn't know the difference between carrots and broccoli. "[Greensgrow] creates some kind of relationship between urban people ... and the idea of seasonality."

(editorial@citypaper.net)

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