TROY – A pioneering urban farmer is transforming a South Troy corner lot used by the city to dump snow into a 2,600-square-foot micro-farm and farm stand to sell fresh produce to neighborhood residents.

A $300 investment to buy the lot at 492 Second St. from the city set Dara Silbermann on the track to owning her piece of farmland where the small Bake A Del convenience store stood at the corner location until it was heavily damaged in a 1987 fire.

"I'm from rural Pennsylvania where there's a lot of farms. This is the first urban farm I've been involved with," said Silbermann, a 31-year-old Barnard College graduate who majored in economics and Spanish.

After college, Silbermann became a baker in New York City before moving into farming. She's worked on produce farms, but has ventured into herb farming and chicken farming. She estimates that her Cultivated Arts Cooperative 2nd Street Farm Stand growing site is the 13th farm she's worked at during the last eight years and the first she's owned.

“This is about growing a food system that’s people based before it’s land based,” Silbermann explained about her motivation starting her operation at the southwest corner of the intersection of Second and Harrison streets.

Silbermann is using a system of intensively planted vegetable beds to raise produce for the farm stand. Among the vegetables she’s raising are radishes, arugula, spinach, pea shoots, onions, scallions, kale, collard greens, cabbage and tomatoes. She also intends to serve as a place where small farmers can offer produce for sale.

A CSA – community supported agriculture – group has been started for the farm. Silbermann has eight members signed up as she prepares her initial distribution. The farm stand opens the week of June 5 with a Sunday schedule of 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a weeknight with hours of 4-7 p.m.

Silbermann, who lives half a block away from her farm, sees the opportunity for developing other small urban farmsteads in Troy. She points out that it’s at least a mile to reach the nearest grocery store to buy fresh vegetables6.

Sid Fleischer of the Osgood Neighborhood Association said Silbermann’s farm is a welcome addition.

“I like the idea of having more gardens in South Troy. She’s really doing a terrific job,” Fleischer said.

For information about the urban farm and its farm stand, email Silbermann at cultivatedarts.coop@gmail.com.