Residents of the 449-acre Hartness urban village will soon welcome more than 100 new neighbors — who’ll be bringing plenty of eggs.
The community farm operating inside Hartness, founded on Greenville’s East Side by the Hartness family, is expanding its operations to include a new production garden and greenhouse, a crop share program and more than 100 chickens.
Hartness Farm is more than your typical community garden. Located within walking distance from the residences, the land fosters dozens of crops: cucumbers, leeks, collards, onions, eggplant, squash, radishes, tomatoes, beets, carrots, peppers and kale, along with many varieties of herbs. It serves as a farm-to-table source for Village Kitchen and the Patterson, the urban village’s two restaurant concepts.
Fresh Fridays
The next outdoor market on the village’s Grand Lawn will be hosted June 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring live music, food trucks, tap beer, wine and more.
But more ambitiously, the farm is the starting point for an agricultural partnership between the Hartness Community and Mill Village Farms, a local nonprofit that uses agriculture to nourish communities both physically and spiritually.
“The Hartness farm has come a long way since it launched last summer,” said Stephen McRae, Hartness Farm manager.
With the help of P. Allen Smith & Associates, an expert in conservation and sustainability, the farm is operating just as much as a classroom as it is a food source. Youth Volunteer programs offer lessons for local students to better connect them with the agriculture of their region. Open-air Friday markets, meanwhile, give community members a chance to eat as locally as possible.
Sean Hartness, CEO of Hartness Development, said the farm will grow along with the community.
“Food sustainability is critical, as we all know,” he said. “We asked a lot of questions when it came to starting this. Where does and where should the food originate? How can we leverage this partnership to do good? How do we empower people and serve the surrounding community to give them an opportunity?”
