Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/395149
stalled a rooftop garden with the intention of bringing the local, organically grown produce to our customers," says Vanessa Maykel, a Whole Foods marketing team leader. And after two seasons, the results have been tastier than expected. Agriculture ne 106 nshoremag.com November 2014 photographs by lauren poussard I Up on the Roof Lynnfield's Whole Foods rooftop farm brings locally sourced food to a new level—literally. By Jeff Harder n september, the vegetables in the produce section at Whole Foods in Lynnfield are what you'd expect to come out of the ground this time of year—turnips, carrots, cu- cumbers, and a host of other vegetables. But there's something about the harvest you couldn't imagine—some of it comes from a farm that's two flights of stairs above the produce section itself. Last year, Whole Foods opened at Mar- ketStreet Lynnfield with a feature unseen at any of the supermarket's other locations around the country: a 17,000-square-foot rooftop farm that's yielded more than three tons of organically grown crops since its debut. Beyond its convenience, the rooftop farm demonstrates a savvy approach to growing food in unlikely loca- tions. "Whole Foods Market Lynnfield in- When Whole Foods first considered adding a farm onto the roof in Lynnfield, the company got in touch with two busi- nesses in Somerville: Green City Growers, which transforms and maintains urban spaces that become productive food sources, and Recover Green Roofs, a de- sign–build firm specializing in vegetated roofs and rooftop farms. The two busi- nesses have long had a symbiotic working relationship: Back in 2010, they collabo- rated on a 5,000-square-foot farm on top of a Dorchester restaurant. That project presaged the built-in- place, open-air rooftop farm woven into the fabric of the Whole Foods building in Rooftop Garden The farm on top of the Whole Foods in Lynnfield produced three tons of produce this year.