by Alyce Ortuzar                                     

Grow Pittsburgh is a vision of three urban farmers: Barb Kline and Randa Shannon from Mildred’s Daughters, and Mindy Schwartz from Garden Dreams. The purpose of Grow Pittsburgh is “to model, teach and facilitate sustainable urban agriculture as a means of revitalizing urban communities, healing the environment, and improving individual health and nutrition.”  Children who see food as it grows eat healthier foods and have fewer health problems (such as diabetes and obesity). These children are also no longer separated from the land. Self-reliance and food security are inherent in this educational model (www.growpittsburgh.org). 

Garden Dreams

Garden Dreams rests on reclaimed urban land where two dilapidated and foreclosed houses had stood. After studying the system for purchasing foreclosed houses and paying the lowest price (offer one dollar more than 50 percent of the asking price), Mindy paid $3,500 for one house and $4,200 for another. She tore the houses down to create her urban farm of 1,758 square feet. Mindy did the excavation and restoration, which included a nearby carriage house where she lives, rents out apartments, and maintains a certified organic greenhouse that she built in the basement. She has been gardening since she was ten years old, and everything in her garden looked wonderful—the corn and the flowers were especially inviting. 

Testing the Soil for Contaminants

The morning presentation focused on managing heavy metal contamination in urban soils. Most soils contain low levels of naturally occurring toxins such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and lead. Higher concentrations of these elements result from human behaviors. Older houses and their foundations are loaded with lead, and until recently, arsenic was used to treat lumber. Older trees in areas that have not been farmed for fifty years can still contain captured compounds such as lead. Widely used in gasoline decades ago, lead is still prevalent in pesticides and industrial paints and is transported by the wind. Lead moves slowly, persists over time, and is not very mobile in soil unless the soil is tilled; tilling redistributes the lead.           

Soil should always be tested before doing anything. It is important to know the history of a site and the exact quantities of what is in the soil. Soil sampling kits can be purchased from agriculture extension offices.

Testing for basic nutrients, organic matter, and at least five metals can be somewhat expensive—around three hundred dollars—but these costs are not incurred every year. In a range of 1 to 50 parts per million (ppm), the average is 5 ppm. For certain compounds, levels of around 500 ppm are considered too toxic for growing food and are unsafe exposures for children. One alternative to this dilemma is using raised beds.  Raised beds prevent the roots from reaching the soil and insure that the plants are in clean soil inputs (such as compost, leaf mulch, and organic matter). Toxic compounds can migrate through soil from tilling or precipitation, and tissue analyses of plants are important tools for detecting the possible uptake of these substances.  

Remediation

Phyto-stabilization uses perennial, nonharvested plants to stabilize or immobilize contaminants. Rhizo-filtration absorbs contaminants into plant roots; this process is used mainly for water contamination. Phyto-extraction is where the above ground portion of the plant absorbs the metals; these plants are called hyperaccumulators and are harvested for incineration. Sunflowers pose a conflict because they are good remediators and remove toxins from the soil, but they then cannot be composted and might pose risks to any critters that eat them. A pH of 7½ to 8 immobilizes the arsenic and reduces uptake. Phosphorus can inhibit the movement of arsenic, and clover can restore some soils. It is important to place a garden as far from structures and foundations as possible.  Recommended resources include Another Chance: Zine About Bioremediation (2001) by Ally Reeves (beansprout3@excite.com); and Plants That Hyperaccumulate Heavy Metals (1998) by Robert Brooks. 

Mildred’s Daughters       

Now located in the heart of a residential neighborhood, this site has been agricultural since 1875. Six acres have been continuously farmed—they were the site of a World War II Victory Garden. The farm has a teeter-totter (seesaw) that is a work of art as well as a future pump for the well, and a straw bale building with lime and sand plaster that serves as a meeting, gathering, and teaching spot. Garden clubs hold classes there. Barb and Randa spend a lot of time teaching. Many young people work on the farm, and the local Waldorf Preschool brings children there for hands-on learning opportunities.

Barb and Randa have been farming for seven years. The farm has a grant from the Tides Center to cover operating costs for writing a three-year business plan. The Tides Center is an umbrella nonprofit organization that provides ethical, professional, and administrative oversight (www.tidescenter.org).            

Barb and Randa describe their farming efforts as “weed and feed.” The farm’s marketing niche is growing certified organic, colorful heirloom vegetables. Some are from open-pollinated seeds that are fifty years old. One favorite is the purple potato, originally from Peru (not Ireland). The farm’s bounty includes numerous varieties of tomatoes, pole-dried beans, lima beans, lucky leprechaun beans (self-pollinating), carmona lettuce, and squash that have to be isolated for one mile to hand-pollinate them.  

Resources  

Reemay (available from a fabric store) is used to cover and protect some of the crops from insects. A woven fabric is also placed underneath other crops, which permits water to reach the soil but can also overheat the soil. A highly recommended book is Heirloom Vegetables by Sue Stickland. Seed sources include heirloomseeds.com, Johnny’s, Seed Savers’ Exchange, and Fedco Seeds.    

The farm also has a CSA (community-supported agriculture) with twenty-four members that operates for twenty weeks. At the farmers’ market, setting out samples successfully attracts customers and entices them to buy the produce. Other marketing suggestions include developing a relationship with newspaper food editors and establishing a “Farm Fresh Column” (if the food section does not have one). Provide the editor with lists of what will be available about six weeks in advance and include recipes. 

Urban Models

Barb, Randa, and Mindy hope that their efforts to farm successfully in an urban setting become models for revitalizing impoverished communities, providing access to fresh and nutritious food, engaging and empowering people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, and creating and preserving an environment where healthy food and healthy people flourish.