The Philadelphia Inquirer - Ginny Smith
After 11 years of toil, Mary Seton Corboy has made a success of Kensington's Greensgrow Farms.
Mary Seton Corboy grew up with private schooling, braces, and piano lessons, everything her parents thought would ensure a "clean-fingernail future."
As cofounder of Greensgrow Farms, a 3/4-acre farm and nursery in the middle of Kensington, Corboy barely has time for a personal life - bowling every Tuesday is "an excuse to see friends and drink beer" - let alone froufrou nails.
Over 11 years, she's done her share of "bone-grinding, blister-making" work in the dirt. But these days, she spends way more time in the office at Greensgrow.
Inner City Agriculture Brings Produce Closer To Consumers, And Nourishes More Than Just Appetites
For Mary Corboy, co-founder and chief farmhand at Greensgrow Farms in Kensington, an average day of work consists of much more than simply overseeing the myriad operations at the pioneering urban farm. As Greensgrow's reputation has expanded beyond Philadelphia, the one-acre plot in the deindustrialized neighborhood has become a destination for aspiring urban farmers--here and elsewhere--who want to draw lessons from Corboy's success.
“I was literally looking for a good tomato,” says Mary Seton Corboy, former chef and co-founder of Philadelphia’s urban Greensgrow Farms. “I knew how far tomatoes were being shipped though it was growing season in the northeast, and I thought it was absurd.” In 1997, she and co-founder Tom Sereduk began an urban farm in an unlikely area: a derelict lot in an industrial section of Philadelphia, across the street from a chemical plant. Without any background in business or urban farming, she saw an opportunity to grow better food locally and reclaim control over how and where food is grown.