Troy Farm provides a wide variety of agriculture to the Madison community

By Dave Link, Eastside News
Photos by Rick Dahms

Situated on Madison’s north side, Troy Farm has been a rural oasis for 25 years. At first glance it looks like one of the many community garden plots across the city, but Troy Farm is much more than a community garden. There’s a kids-centric garden, a take-what-you-need garden, community supported agriculture program and a working farm for a variety of growers. It also offers a tall grass prairie with walking trails and a grove of raspberry bushes. On the edge of the property there’s even a cohousing development.

All of this is run by Rooted, the Madison nonprofit that manages 70 community gardens serving over 2,000 households and offers garden-based education opportunities for youth and adults. Its stated mission is “to grow community-led, sustainable food systems through food production, land access, and urban agriculture education.”

Seen by neighbors as vacant land and used for gardens for several decades, Troy Farm occupies 26 acres planned by the city to be developed. But neighbors, local gardeners and other organizations worked to keep it a green space. Established in 2001 by the Friends of Troy Gardens, the land at 513 Troy Drive is owned by Madison Area Community Land Trust and overseen by Rooted.

“I think the city wanted (to develop the land) to increase their tax base … a way to bring in that revenue,” Rooted co-Executive Director Ginny Hughes said. “(But neighbors) wanted to come up with a model that had a place for people to walk their dog, a place for people to garden and just enjoy being outside right in the city.”

What does Troy Farm offer?

From Troy Drive the most visible activity is the community gardens, where plots are leased on an annual basis for gardeners to grow their own food or flowers. It’s very popular and there is a waiting list for new gardeners.

Rooted staff and volunteers also grow produce which is then distributed through the Troy Farm CSA. Members sign up before the season and pay up front for their “share” so Troy has money to buy supplies for the season. Once the produce is harvested, it’s cleaned and distributed to members.

Parents are likely to know about the work Troy Farm does with school-age children. It’s a popular destination for school groups and for after-school and summer programs.

“We see over 700 kids per year,” Hughes said. “And a lot of them are repeat visitors like from the community centers.

“The kids that are out here are cooking and gardening and exploring. Sometimes we’ll go on a hike to the raspberry bushes and mulberry trees or go like help the farmers dig some carrots or something.”

Howard Hayes, Goodman Community Center’s assistant director of youth and community development, loves seeing the center’s middle schoolers explore the farm and take in its beauty.

“I do think the foundation is in being outside and just learning how to be outside and being with your friends,” Hayes said. “(Troy Farm has) a whole area that is just flowers that is for the public to pick. And if you stop and look at it, one of the things you’ll notice is the amount of butterflies that are flying from plant to plant, and it does have this like majestic feel to it.”

Laura Bettenhausen manages the Kids’ Garden at Troy Farm, making sure the space is taken care of, planning the garden’s layout, coming up with the youth activities and scheduling the groups coming to visit.

“I contact groups months ahead of time for field trips — schools and community centers and neighborhood center cooking clubs,” Bettenhausen said.

Groups are attracted to the Kids’ Garden because it is a patchwork of vegetable plots and there’s an array of flowers in bloom — and of course chickens – for school-age kids to explore. They get to handle the chickens and check if eggs were laid. They get to touch and taste what’s growing, usually a wide variety of produce — celery, many types of peppers (some extremely hot), leafy greens, herbs and tomatoes. At the end of the experience, the kids can make a meal from what they harvested.

“It’s good for the kids to see where their food comes from,” Bettenhausen said. “Once one kid asked ‘Where’s the steak tree?’ I’m like, that’s a cow. But like how would you know (if you don’t know where your food comes from).”

Rich Hamby has been volunteering at Troy Farm for over eight years and he enjoys seeing smiling faces and the fun youth have at the farm.

“I volunteer mainly at the kids’ garden because kids are everything and they have to know where food comes from,” he said.

Groups that return often help take care of the garden by doing some of the planting, weeding, watering and making signs.

“I’ll have kids use pitchforks to get mulch. And we have chaperones who say ‘Are you sure?’” Bettenhausen said. “Kids like to feel helpful. The trust in new experience is cool.”

Down on the farm

In the back of the property behind a deer fence is the land used for growing the food for sale to CSA members, and also to a few restaurants and the Monona Grove School District. But the bulk of the produce is grown for donations to north side community centers so vulnerable communities have access to fresh produce.

“In addition to (the CSA) we also supply food to neighborhood centers,” Hughes said. “That was something that kind of came out of the pandemic. We looked around and saw unique ways that we can help. We realized that the community centers could really use fresh food.”

Then there’s another three vegetable farms, two flower farms and a composting operation using land in the back of the property, which according to Paul Huber, director of Troy Farm, means there’s not room for more growth.

“They’re basically renting land, but they also have access to all kinds of infrastructure here, greenhouses, cooler space, an area to wash and process vegetables, storage, power tools, machinery, hand tools, irrigation,” Huber said. “As much as we can, we also offer technical assistance, connections to any kind of resources we’re connected to.”

Huber is also proud of the farm’s solar power arrays.

“We generate enough power to meet our electrical needs,” Huber said. “So we’re fortunate, at least in the Madison area, I don’t think this exists. We’re certainly using a lot more electricity at night than we generate, but over the course of the year, we’re generating a fair amount of electricity in the wintertime that we’re not doing anything with out here.”

Troy Farm is for everyone

Community is a recurring theme at Troy Farm. Besides the community garden plots, the CSA and growing fresh produce for community centers, there’s education beyond the Kids’ Garden and school groups. In the spring there’s a plant sale. During the growing and harvest seasons, Troy Farm hosts garden nights with live music, food, activities for children and gardening advice.

“Really the education part, I think, comes through maybe in more subtle ways at Troy Farm,” Huber said. “But those garden nights are really a great kind of way for us to be able to have like a little ask a gardener booth and occasionally some of the volunteers will be at these events to help people learn about the space.”

Over the last 25 years, a lot of people and organizations have done amazing work to develop Troy Farm into a multifaceted urban agriculture hub.

“(Troy Farm is) for the well-being of everyone, and everyone sees that this land could not exist like it does if it wasn’t for all the people that came before and all the people that are here today working toward a sustainable resilient food system,” Hughes said. “You forget you’re in the city when you’re in here.”

The digital version of this story is brought to you in partnership with Main Street Yoga Center.