An Urban Farm in a Concrete Jungle

While New York City is known for its financial and advertising sectors, for the boogie-woogie lights of Broadway and Times Square, and even its “Silicon Alley” start-ups, showrooms for just about every major technology company, and now, its Maker Faire, there’s another, older and often unseen side to the city of five boroughs. Prospect Productions recently interviewed Kennon Kay, Director of Agriculture at the 47-acre Queens County Farm Museum. It is described as “New York City’s largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland and the only working historical farm in the City,” having been in operation since 1697. While the museum and farm are quite far away from the iconic architectures of the city and its bustling public transportation network that 17.7 million commuters use daily, it’s nonetheless amazing to consider what’s possible in this town — I often find myself mumbling, “Only here.”

Kennon Kay is a normal twenty-something New Yorker. She lives on a normal Brooklyn street in a normal walk-up apartment. Her commute to work is long, crowded, unpredictable and filled with traffic. All quite normal. But normal ends when Kennon enters the gates to her job. There, inside those gates, the wail of noise, of sirens, horns, jackhammers and trains are replaced by the high-pitched chirp of chickens, the grunting of pigs, and the sway of the breeze through the acres of green that make up the Queens County Farm Museum. Here Kennon Kay is Director of Agriculture; the farm’s 47 acres, her office.

Always one for minutia, I love this directional signage technique that allows the arrows to be turned and pointed in a specific position:

[via Huffington Post]