‘Springing’ into Action

By Myeasha Taylor, Perlman Place Farm Manager

April 16, 2015

Spring is here and the greenhouse is at capacity. Despite the constant greenhouse hiccups of propane running low and dropping temperatures, we’ve managed to grow healthy crops like toscano kale, collards, broccoli raab and leeks. Not only that – we’ve also grown our team with one new Mobile Farmers Market Assistant and five Production Assistants. What once took three hours for one person only takes an hour with a team. Teamwork is a major component of producing on an urban farm, and I’m super excited about the growth of our team.

With the expansion of Real Food Farm’s Perlman site, corpmembers experience what it takes to start a farm from the ground up and how to maintain an existing farm. Most of our work at Perlman has been spreading compost and designing layouts for the different fields. Come May, we hope to have our berry blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry  brambles established as well as our fields of eggplant, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

This’ll be my first year producing berries in a city. I’m looking forward to the challenges of producing it on such a nutrient rich soil. It’s fundamental to grow healthy soil to grow healthy food so Austrian winter pea was planted to boost the soil life on what used to be homes in the 1970s. Austrian winter pea is a cover crop that produces a high yield of nitrogen and is pretty cold tolerant. So with all the icy cold weather, the peas managed to stay alive.

Stay tuned for more updates on Perlman’s first year of food production. Big ups to our 2lb harvest of figs last year. We’re going for a new record!

About Real Food Farm

Real Food Farm works toward a just and sustainable food system by improving neighborhood access to healthy food, providing experience-based education, and developing an economically viable, environmentally responsible local agriculture sector.