East New York Farms teaches teens about the farming business while providing organic produce for the community. (Photo: Althea A. Fung

East New York Farms grows produce like long beans, which are popular in the West Indian community. (Photo: Althea A. Fung)

By ALTHEA A. FUNG

The clamor of the number three train as it rolls into the New Lots Avenue station in Brooklyn can be heard blocks away. The final stop on the above ground train line is a busy hub for commuters catching the train and buses.

Three blocks from the station exit, beneath the trestle, is a farm, a tiny farm, where area teens learn about agriculture.

Part of a trend of urban farming, East New York Farms,  in what was an abandoned lot, has been growing fruits, vegetables and honey for the past nine years.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2007 census, the face of farming is changing. A farm is defined as “any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold,” and across the country there are more youth and minority farmers and more farms are utilizing less space – with 36 percent being classified as residential or lifestyle farms. Organic farming is also rising steadily.

East New York Farms is an example of the new American farm.

In a predominantly black and Latino neighborhood, local teens, ages 13 to 15, are paid to run the half-acre farm and sell the produce at the East New York Farmer’s Market. Money made at the market, along with some government funding and donations, pay for the teens’ salaries and farm maintenance.

Farm manager David Vigil shows a group of pre-schoolers how to wash fruits and vegetables after they are picked. (Photo: Althea A. Fung)

East New York Farms is beneath is train trestle of the number three line. (Photo: Althea A. Fung)

According to David Vigil, the farm manager who has experience running larger rural farms, the farming teaches the kids about leadership and sustainable agriculture.

“For most of them it’s their first job, so they get to learn how a workplace works. It allows them to do work that is really positive for their community, it allows them to meet adults and other community members and interact with them and build trust. And it gets them involved in growing and eating food,” said Vigil.

According to Vigil, the farm is fertilizer free, which keeps chemicals away from the kids and the food that goes into the community.

To maintain the farm, especially in the winter, Vigil plants cover crops that add nutrients to the soil. During harvesting season, June to mid-November, Vigil and the 20 teens plant everything from carrots to bitter melon, an extremely bitter tropical fruit that looks similar to a cucumber. The farm grows lots of tropical fruits and vegetables that Vigil says are in demand because of the neighborhood’s large West Indian population.

Also in demand is the farm’s homemade honey. Though beekeeping is illegal in New York City, the farm has an education exemption that allows the young farmers to keep bees and produce honey.

In the three years that Vigil has been at East New York Farms, he has seen a change in the way the kids react to the produce.

“Anything that is left over at the end of the day they are able to take, or things that are little imperfect and we can’t sell, they can take,” Vigil said. “We used to take it to the food pantry but in the last couple of years the youth have been more and more interested in taking home what we grow.”