The big apple; commotion, cars, honking, taxis zipping down the street. In a city where skyscrapers wilt over you like palm trees, it’s rare to look up and see the faint sight of small plants and trees hanging from atop of a building.  However this is the norm at the Brooklyn Grange, located atop building number 3 in the Brooklyn navy yard, and run by a young group of farmers whose goal is to bring an alternative, healthier way of eating to local restaurants and markets.

In a city where the population of bees has drastically declined, it’s hard to imagine that just on top of an 11 floor building in Brooklyn, exists a whole micro world of farms incorporated with chickens, bee-keeping, food compost, and fields upon fields of vegetables. When you enter Brooklyn grange much like a Sims game everyone goes about doing their task, ignoring the city sounds around them. The rooftop is covered with groups of people watering away at kale, scattering fresh seeds onto the soil, and just giving off an overall chill vibe despite their location smack in the middle of a busy road.

The tour guides were very informative and explained all the benefits that rooftop farming brings not only to the building, but also to the city itself. Every so often, they would take a break from explaining the beauty of rooftop farms and let us stop to try one of the fresh grown vegetables. Although, I was a little skeptical about trying a fresh cucumber straight from the ground, I took a second to realize the preconceived notions about organic food we as Americans have embedded in our culture. Why is it that we think food straight from the soil without being touched is dirty? The obvious reason is because it’s not washed; but if you think about it, our food we eat everyday may have been washed and waxed with toxins and chemicals that are more harmful to our bodies than just plain soil from the ground. Once I overcame that idea, I began to enjoy the experience more.

Next time you’re in Brooklyn stop by Brooklyn Grange, if not for a tour, I recommend you pick up some freshly grown food. All though it may be a little more expensive to purchase an 8 oz. bottle of honey then a jumbo sized supermarket bottle, the benefits rooftop farming brings outweighs the costliness. Overall I’d say it’s nice to still have a good touch of farming in such a fast paced city.  Where agriculture and the big city meet, on a rooftop in Brooklyn.