St. Louis Place: New Roots Urban Farm

Photo by Steve Patterson: A view of The New Roots Urban Farm, a new-ish, organic urban farm on several city lots in St. Louis Place. New Roots has a goal of giving 50% of the food they grow to the community. Very cool.

New Roots has a stand at the North City Farmers' Market in Old North, and at that stand I purchased the most delicious tomatoes I have eaten in my entire life. I could not stop eating the damn things--I ate a pound of 'em in half a day! And what could be better than walking around the corner from one's apartment to a community farmers' market hosted on the spaghetti-western-like remains of a 1970s ped mall with some of the most varied and curious storefront architecture in the city*, to purchase affordable organic produce grown mere blocks away by some of the most ethical and generous farmers you'll ever meet? That is about as close to zero carbon footprint as you can get, and very much an "I LOVE THIS CITY and I LOVE NORTH CITY!" experience to boot. And seriously, those heirloom tomatoes.... I want some right now.

If you would like to know more about New Roots, Steve has a nice and very informative write-up on his blog: I Scootered To A Working Farm Yesterday. You can also read Molly Langmuir's January 2007 RFT article about the farm and the Near North Side community of Catholic Workers, Cool to Be Kind. And please, check out New Roots Urban Farm's own website.


* Also, it ain't fair for me to reference the 14th Street Mall without noting its mind-blowing renovation. It had become one of those spaces that was so idiosyncratically and famously abandoned that I couldn't imagine it in any other state. But now, literally every time I leave my apartment, I see new signs of change on the project, buildings empty for decades regaining life. Behold!: Crown Village