Watermelon, Corn Sprout From Broadway In Uptown Urban Farm

Owners of a bodega on Sherman Avenue and Broadway have planted beans, corn and even watermelon in neglected tree planters.

By Brendan Krisel, Patch National Staff | July 25, 2018

INWOOD, NY — A tree might grow in Brooklyn, but Uptown there are watermelons, tomato vines, beans and corn.

A group of Inwood bodega owners has turned a corner of the sidewalk into an urban farm, amazing passersby with a bounty of food growing from tiny patches surrounded by concrete.

Owners of the store on the corner of Sherman Avenue and Broadway set up the makeshift farm at the beginning of the summer and plan to donate the produce to their neighbors.

"We did it before in the '90s," bodega owner Al Stell said. "We saw this empty and wanted to do something for the community."

Close to the store, the city had left five planters on the sidewalk but failed to put in trees or flowers. They were just open patches of soil, Stell said.

The urban farmers took them over, dedicating a planter to each type of crop.

They tend to the fruits and vegetables every day, Stell said. They even have people watch over the plants at night to make sure nobody tries to steal them or prematurely harvest the crops.

"It's a lot. It's every day," Stell said. "Somebody took a watermelon which wasn't done yet, I don't understand why they did that."

Most plants are left unprotected, but the bodega owners have installed a makeshift cage around the watermelons. Stell said that the last remaining unused planter might be used to harvest sugar cane.

The bodega owner estimated that some of the plants might be ready to harvest in August.

"We're not going to sell any of the plants," Stell said. "Maybe we'll set up a grill outside the store."

Photos by Brendan Krisel / Patch