The Farm Eco-Center
Clifton, NJ
The City Green Farm Eco-Center is a five-acre site located on Grove Street in Clifton, New Jersey. In 2005, with the additional support of Passaic County Open Space funding and New Jersey Green Acres funding, the city of Clifton permanently preserved this land, formerly known as Schultheis Farm, to remain as green, open space forever. City Green leased the property in 2011 and has since transformed it into a hub of agricultural and environmental education and recreation.
Today, in addition to several acres of organic food production, the Farm Eco-Center boasts, a learning farm, chickens, goats, beehives, a greenhouse, and an outdoor kitchen, in addition to City Green’s offices housed in the original farmhouse on the property. City Green uses the site to host field trips, job and volunteer opportunities, farm stands, family programs, educational programs, and a wide range of events. The Farm Eco-Center is the heart of City Green. It is a model in sustainable community agriculture and urban farming, and a vibrant, living example of land production in harmony with the ecosystem.
The Learning Farm
The City Green Learning Farm is a hub of agricultural and environmental education and recreation. We host summer Farm Camp, school field trips, adult educational programming, and recreational events in The Learning Farm.
All of the perennial flowers in The Learning Farm are native to New Jersey, ensuring a wild variety of birds, insects, butterflies and bees! These beneficial insects also act as pollinators for our food production, and help manage pests.
Visitors to The Learning Farm gain access to this beautiful natural habitat for plants and wildlife, as well as experiential learning, job and volunteer opportunities, cultural events, and the demonstration of a sustainable farming operation.
The Farm
City Green’s urban farms are the heart of the organization and consist of two separate food production farms: the City Green Farm Eco-Center in Clifton, and the Learning Garden in Eastside Park in Paterson. City Green grows over 75 varieties of vegetables and herbs that are not only culturally appropriate for the communities they serve, but healthy, local, and delicious as well. Each farm adheres to organic growing practices to ensure healthy soil, healthy farm workers, and a healthy habitat for wildlife. Farming methods include crop rotation, cover cropping, natural pest management, hand weeding, and planting disease-resistant crop varieties.
The produce grown at City Green’s farms is distributed to the local community through a network of farmer’s markets and location-specific deliveries via the “Veggie Mobile,” with a goal of providing access to local farm-fresh food along with meaningful job and volunteer opportunities in an agricultural setting. But the importance of City Green’s farms goes far beyond its bountiful harvests. Through interaction with the farm operation, individuals are able to create a connection to their food, understand the value and importance of open space, gain an appreciation for nature and local agriculture, and understand the potential of urban farming in revitalizing urban areas and improving public health in local communities. City Green Farms help ensure that farmland remains and important and productive part of the northern New Jersey landscape.
farming operation.
