I met the friendly and experienced Zach Pickens at Farm Beginnings, a 10-week course on the business side of farming, last fall. He’s already got a few years of urban farming under his belt at Riverpark, a restaurant perched on the east side of Manhattan which has its own outdoor area carved out for growing its own produce. Zach’s the man in charge of the farm, which is nestled between a high-rise office building and a very active helicopter pad, which is handy for scaring off the deer.
I had visited the farm early in the season and wanted to see how it was doing in full swing. The structure is very modular—milk crates lined with soft-pot fabric create portable 1-cubic-foot pots for one plant or for a few. All in all they add up to something like 3000 sq ft of planting area. Zach has the whole thing on drip irrigation, which must have been a big job to set up. Each crate gets an irrigation point. A greenhouse, aerated compost operation, and microgreen station in the building round out the farm. Here, Zach tends to his field of eggplants. The greenhouse in the background is busting with tall tomatoes which are loving the warmth. The value of a warm environment whenever possible was one of my takeaways from talking with Zach.
Climbing beans on the other side of the farm.
This is the kind of urban farm I’d love to have a hand in some day—a step up from my little patch for sure, and a guaranteed customer a few feet away. Zach’s doing it right!