Growing winter food – and community spirit – in a geothermal greenhouse in East Boston

Greenhouse manager Will Hardesty-Dyck aims to use the 1,500-square-foot enclosure to grow year-round, for about 2,000 pounds of produce yearly.

By Ariana Bennett
Christian Science Monitor
February 23, 2023

Excerpt:

Tucked near a highway underpass, a greenhouse glows faintly in the cold night. Inside, volunteers stand in the warmth, crowded around two pizzas topped with homegrown basil. Rows of potted greens, herbs, peppers, eggplants, and even strawberries line shelves along the walls.

The greenhouse is a new project of Eastie Farm, a nonprofit educational urban farm founded in 2016 and housed in East Boston. Focused on feasible climate action, the nonprofit – and its new greenhouse – provides the surrounding community with greater control over its food supply. The building runs on geothermal energy and is the first of its kind in New England. As a model of what 21st-century development could look like, the greenhouse represents a practical application of geothermal, an often inaccessible technology.

“Everything that we do, we try to make sure that it has a relevance here and now, and it serves the purpose for the people who are living here today,” says Kannan Thiruvengadam, the director of Eastie Farm. “This technology is already possible. You don’t have to wait for tomorrow or the day after.”

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