Overcoming their hesitance to get their shoes muddy and their hands dirty, young folks bend down to plant garlic cloves in long beds of dark, rich soil and compost.

It’s a scene of bucolic tranquility until a wailing siren blasts a periodic reminder that this farm isn’t in the countryside, but in the centre of one of North America’s largest cities.

On Tuesday, Ryerson University’s rooftop farm hosted tours as part of its first annual Harvest Festival, marking the end of its first full growing season only blocks from Yonge-Dundas Square.

Groups of curious students, staff and urban agriculture enthusiasts filed down straw-covered paths, between aluminum heating vents and under the looming turquoise facade of the condo-converted warehouse across the street.

They then headed to a reception serving gourmet dishes prepared by campus chefs with produce from the roof: celeriac leek soup with blue cheese mousse, winter squash tarts with candied borage flowers, blue potato croquettes with radish cream.

In a farmers’ market atmosphere, complete with a fiddle and banjo duet, the farm’s director, Arlene Throness, beamed. The hard work was mostly over and the results have blown away expectations.

The farm produced more than 8,000 pounds of produce this summer, with dozens of volunteers, five paid staff and more than 500 visitors from around the city and across the country.

“There was a time when all we did was pick beans and tomatoes,” said Throness. “It felt like we were working for the plants. But now that’s all paying off.”

Joshna Maharaj, Ryerson’s assistant director of food services, says the farm’s success has been due to the university’s willingness to experiment.

“Bureaucracy exists, but the important thing is vision and will,” she said. “Institutions are the place where experimentation should happen. We can take risks and provide examples for others to follow.”

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Toronto has the continent’s first bylaw making green roofs mandatory on new buildings over a certain size, to save on energy bills and reduce storm runoff. But rooftop agriculture compounds the benefits of a green roof, adding employment, food security and local produce.

The rooftop farm was born from a combination of chance and planning. In 2012, the student group Rye’s Homegrown was searching for an appropriate place to start a farm, and the engineering building already had a green roof. Because seeds that had blown onto the roof had sprouted into knee-high weeds, they knew this could be a good place to grow vegetables.

After a pilot project in 2013 and a conversion in 2014, the 929-square-metre farm went into full production this year, providing food to the campus kitchens, the Gould St. farmers’ market and a group of supporters who formed a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project.

Melanie Cummings, a biology graduate who just moved to Toronto from Halifax, stumbled upon the tour after searching for urban agriculture projects online.

“I was so impressed this little roof space, that would otherwise just be a normal roof, has produced so much food,” she said. “I’m definitely going to volunteer next year.”

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