South Pine Street City Farm

 

Jessica Clark is not your typical farmer. Instead of spending a rustic life on a bucolic family farm, the 31-year-old Kingston resident grew up in the Bronx. And when she decided to start up her own agricultural venture, she didn’t look to the rolling farmland of southern Ulster County, but a vacant lot on a dead-end street in Midtown Kingston.

Clark’s plot is located on a quarter-acre parcel owned by the Binnewater Ice Company. Five years ago, Binnewater President Diane Davenport tore down a dilapidated house on the parcel and donated the land for use as a community garden. When the garden project failed to take off, Davenport agreed to donate the lot for Clark’s farm project.

“I would love to see a healthy, small urban farm come out of it,” said Davenport, who comes from a farming family. “I just thought it would be nice for the community, rather than an old rundown building, to have something fresh and green producing something there.”

The South Pine Street City Farm is a collaboration between non-profit organizations, small businesses and a farmer who wants to see her hometown bloom.

The food that is produced will provide the citizens of Kingston with fresh, extremely local produce. The farm will also provide veggies for participants in the Share Our Strength's "Cooking Matters" program hosted by The Queen's Galley in the Hudson valley, which teaches nutrition and cooking basics to families. The farm will also produce food for the best local chefs at Kingston's finest eateries.

The farm is a collaborative effort with Queens Galley, Binnewater Ice Company and The Kingston Land Trust.