After 400 Years, Farming Returns To Lower Manhattan

One of the stranger sights I've seen in NYC is the wild turkey that lives in Battery Park, just across the street from the Staten Island Ferry terminal.  That turkey, nicknamed Zelda since first being spotted in 2003, will now have some actual farmland to roam this year as a 1-acre "urban farm" opens for business in the Battery.

There's an article in today's City Room Blog about the farm, which was the idea of students from the nearby Millenium School off of Wall Street.  Now more than 650 kids from 8 schools in the city have signed up to start planting seeds and hoeing rows for a planned first harvest this summer.  And in a nod to Zelda, the farm has been laid out in the shape of a turkey.

Of course this is not going to be your average farm.  First off, the soil itself had to be trucked in from Long Island.  But, weather and sunshine permitting, they hope to be selling cucumbers and eggplants in a few months at a small food kiosk.