Brooklyn Grange (one of the farms featured in the video above) is reportedly the largest rooftop farm and it recently rolled into its second growing season. The organic urban farm, believe it or not, is located in Brooklyn, NY (funny coincidence with the name, eh?). The farm sits on top of a 6-story 1919 warehouse and is 40,000 square feet in size. It was built by Bromley Caldari Architects.
http://youtu.be/oM2gzf3CVRI
After a successful first growing and selling season that began last spring, the farmers at Brooklyn Grange are continuing their production of organic produce that includes 40 varietals of juicy tomatoes, peppers, fennel, salad greens, kale, swiss chard, beans of all sorts and a variety of delicious root vegetables like beets, carrots, and radishes, as well as plenty of herbs….
Brooklyn Grange is the product of Wisconsin native and Head Farmer Ben Flanner, who in 2009 started the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, the first rooftop soil farm in NYC. Flanner’s interest and passion for farm-to-table food led to a farming team with roots in the restaurant business. The owners of Roberta’s in Bushwick, Chris Parachini and Brandon Roy, as well as restaurant veteran Anastasia Plakias, sustainable food advocate Gwen Schantz, and the team’s first apprentice Rob Lateiner, in addition to dozens of volunteers, all contribute to the farm’s growing success. The team partnered with Bromley Caldari, a NYC architect firm dedicated to problem solving, and Acumen Capital Partners, a private company dedicated to the reuse and sustainable renovation of commercial spaces in New York City. Acumen has leased the warehouse rooftop to Brooklyn Grange for 10 years.
Brian Merchant of TreeHugger recently ran into Flanner at the Climate, Cities and Behavior conference and did a short interview with him. Here are the videos:
Learn more about Brooklyn Grange on its website.