The Urban Farm Experience

If it was ever a secret that the downtown area is leading the pack in turning the concrete jungle a little more green, the Parks Department's announcement back in April that they would devote an entire acre at Battery Park to an urban farm really let the cat out of the bag.

Community gardens and rooftop farms have been popping up all over the city for years, but the Battery Park plots are the first of their kind-in fact, it's the first public farm to grace the soil of Manhattan since 1625.

The 80 plots along State and Pearl streets are being used by students from eight city schools (including nearby Millennium High School, whose environmental club set the plan in motion with a request to plant a vegetable garden in the park) and various community groups. A few park food vendors will even incorporate vegetables and herbs from the farm into their dishes.

Unfortunately, the Urban Farm at the Battery will only be around for two years-but the closing of the farm will usher in construction on the Battery Garden Bikeway, connecting the east and west sides of Manhattan, giving us yet another reason to love the area.