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Help Grow And Eat Farm-Fresh Produce on Governors Island

 A new 8,000-square-foot educational farm has cropped up on Governors Island.
GrowNYC Farm on Governors Island
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GOVERNORS ISLAND — A new farm has cropped up on Governors Island — and you can help it grow.

Nonprofit GrowNYC, which runs numerous city greenmarkets as well as another urban farm on Randall’s Island, is cultivating 8,000 square feet of fruit and veggie plants on Governors Island for the first time this year.

Visitors to the educational farm, which is open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. on weekends, can help water and weed the garden, pick produce like kale, tomatoes, figs and pears — and get a taste of the fresh crops.

“The purpose of the farm is to really let people, kids and students understand what it takes to grow the food we eat,” said Mike Rezny, program manager for GrowNYC.

“They can have fun and get a better sense of what healthy food is — sometimes it’s the first time people have been to a farm or tasted kale.”

Farm programming also includes nutrition classes and cooking demonstrations, using the just-picked ingredients from the farm.

It will be open to participants of all ages through the summer and will turn into an educational farm just for students when Governors Island closes to the public in the fall.

Rezny said GrowNYC had been looking for another place to create an urban farm since the Randall's Island garden grew so popular that there was a waitlist of more than 400 schools wanting an educational tour. 

In addition to picking produce, visitors to GrowNYC's Governors Island farm can also spend time with the goats, chickens and rabbits that live next to the island's composting center, which is run by nonprofit group Earth Matter.

For more information about the urban farm, visit GrowNYC's website.