Facing climate change, urban farmers adapt in Boston

During the 2022 drought, temperatures were so high that many of the seedlings planted at the Urban Farming Institute didn’t take, said Pat Spence

Mandile Mpofu
The Bay State Banner
Apr 24, 2024

Excerpt:

As rain clouds gathered above, Danielle Andrews bent down to reach into the soil in a section of an urban farm in Roxbury. She lodged her hands into the rich dirt and tugged at something underground before pulling out two earth-covered potatoes, one with dozens of tendril-like protrusions sprouting from its skin.

On any day during the harvesting season, what she held in her hands on that April afternoon would be nothing of note. But it was springtime, and the potatoes, which the growers had accidentally left in the ground through the winter, should’ve rotted by then, explained Andrews.

She attributed the anomaly to the once-again mild winter in Massachusetts, which saw an average temperature of 33.6 degrees Fahrenheit between December 2023 and February 2024, according to data from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration.

Walking through the garden, Andrews, Boston farms and greenhouse manager at the Food Project, an urban farm network operating in the city and Lynn, pointed out other unusual growing patterns. She singled out cilantro that had regrown in abnormally plentiful bunches and flushes of chickweed and nettle, weeds that typically begin blooming later in the year.

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