Attention eco-, loca-, and food enthusiasts: There's a new farm nearby deserving your attention/obsession. In today's paper, Andrea Shang gives us the rundown of St. Mary's Urban Farm, the revamped plot of land at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on 125th Street, once simply a home to some shrubs and trees, now a thriving space for local produce.
They've got carrots, snap peas, strawberries, beets, arugula, grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, and even some catnip a volunteer planted and never reclaimed.
For those who return though, including many Columbia students, the experience working with the 28 soil beds has been difficult (At first, the soil was contaminated with high levels of lead, cadmium, and mercury, most likely from a paint factory and leakage from an underground oil tank), but rewarding:
"The garden has a powerful effect on all those who visit it," said Christine Lee, a transitional minister at St. Mary’s. She recalled when a group of local elementary school students came to the urban farm to release some butterflies they had raised in their classroom.
The urban garden gave the children “a real sense of pride. Who could have thought you could teach farming skills in Harlem?” Lee said.
