The Sustainable Farm Incubator, a partnership between the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and Fairmount Park, is an innovative national model for creating viable farm businesses in cities. Philadelphians and other people in the region who are interested in growing food will receive the support, training, and resources to translate farming into a sustainable way of life. School groups, community members, and other environmentally-conscious visitors of Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill Center will be able to meet these farmers first-hand and see, touch, smell, and taste the value of sustainable agriculture.

To achieve this goal, ten acres of Manatawna Farm will be transformed over the next five years into small plots tended by emerging farmers.

In the preliminary year, the partner organizations will hire staff and settle land leasing. The newly hired staff will then develop curriculum, cultivate the land for growing first growing season, and start recruiting the initial class of farmers.

The first year class of emerging farmers will work in pairs on ½-acre plots, learning from staff and each other about growing food like strawberries, tomatoes, butternut squash, pumpkins and okra, and about farming business basics like how to set prices, create budgets, and find customers.

They will receive experiential training through working with the Upper Roxborough Community Supported Agriculture Network and alternate weekend shifts at the Schuylkill Center Farm Stand. The farmer’s education will be complemented with trips to other Philadelphia urban agriculture hot spots like Weaver’s Way, Greensgrow, Flat Rock and Mill Creek Farm to learn about the variety of farming techniques employed in urban places.

In the winter, students will continue their education by learning more about broader sustainable agriculture concepts, trends and issues, attending the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture annual conference and travel to other regional agriculture sites.

Over time, the Sustainable Farm Incubator’s resource network will grow as more classes graduate from the program. Some graduates will stay to farm larger plots and mentor new classes, while others will translate their newly acquired knowledge and begin their own farms in the region.

These new farmers will serve as valuable alumni network and provide future field trip destinations, become employers for other farmers and suppliers for the Schuylkill Center Farm Stand, Upper Roxborough CSA, and local restaurants interested in locally-grown, chemical-free foods.

The Sustainable Farm Incubator itself will grow to extend the season through greenhouses and storage capabilities and can delve into processing opportunities of jams, sauces, soups, and sauces. The Incubator’s success becomes an innovative national model for creating viable farm businesses in cities. The Schuylkill Center and Fairmount Park are lauded for their creative partnership and teach other cities on how to implement similar programs.