Edible Uprising Farm

By Maria Buteux Reade / Photography By Elizabeth Pedinotti Haynes | August 02, 2023

A Feast for the Senses

Wander along the soft wood-chip paths and absorb the dazzling rainbow around shiny lobed chard leaves atop thick pink, yellow and white stalks; feathery fronds of carrots and fennel; silvery-green onion and garlic stems; brilliant red and yellow tomatoes Wyou: broad-leafed cabbages in green and deep purple; blue-green broccoli plants; and sweet peppers suspended like jewels amid verdant foliage.

Pause for a moment and listen to the buzz of cicadas, trilling birdsong and gentle breezes rustling the maples, willows, oaks and elms that border the gardens. Breathe in deeply and smell the warmth of summer emanating from this lush Eden in which you find yourself. Yet this earthly paradise is located not in a bucolic rural setting but within the city limits of Troy, just three minutes from the humming whine of traffic of Route 787.

Intensive Growing and Intentional Design

Alicia Brown and Ben Stein carved a one-acre oasis in the middle of a 50-acre wooded lot in 2019. Now in its fifth season, Edible Uprising Farm reflects their two diverse backgrounds. “I focus on intensive growing,” Ben explains. “Alicia brings amazing gardening skills and an intentional design sense to all we do. Because we have limited space, we have to keep things super tight and highly efficient. Our systems seem to be working because last year we grew 200 varieties of heirloom vegetables and harvested 32,000 pounds of produce on this one acre.” Intensive, intentional and efficient indeed.

The best part of the farm? “It’s a dream to be able to work together,” Ben says. Alicia nods in agreement. The couple has been together since they met in high school in Boulder, Colorado. “We’re good at planning together because we bring different perspectives that complement each other. Our communication is so clear, and we fully trust each other’s decision-making process.” Ben generally manages the planting schedule and the wholesale aspect while Alicia handles marketing and oversees the CSA. “I’m always looking to the next step, and Alicia makes sure the present is well tended,” Ben says gratefully.

Backtrack to 2018. The couple had been homesteading in southeastern Vermont for several years while searching for land on which to establish a large-scale commercial organic vegetable farm. “Any of the available ag land was prohibitively expensive, so we basically gave up and moved back home to Colorado,” explains Alicia. However, a friend knew of a vacant one-acre property in Troy, so Alicia and Ben made a detour to Troy while on another trip to investigate potential land in Vermont.

They politely declined the opportunity once they saw the tiny plot of tillable land, a far cry from the rural 100-acre farm they dreamed of. But then, as they drove to the Albany airport and realized how densely populated the area was, another reality struck them: “One of the biggest challenges for farms is accessing new markets and customers,” Alicia notes. “We started scheming and dreaming about what this project could look like at this scale and got really excited. We called the owner back and said we were definitely interested.” The landowner gathered soil samples that they sent out for testing, and the couple started mapping out the farm—via satellite images. They spent the early winter months ordering start-up supplies and drove across country with all their tools and belongings in a trailer that now serves as their walk-in cooler on the farm.

When they arrived in March 2019, the duo began to clear the property, taking down trees and digging out roots with pickaxes. “Part of what’s helped us succeed is that we had amassed a pretty wide skill set over the years,” Ben explains. “I had studied sustainable agriculture at Green Mountain College in Vermont and worked on the college farm. After that, I got another job at a large farm near Brattleboro. Alicia had developed gardens on the homestead we leased for a couple of years. So we knew how to build things, use chain-saws and other equipment, break ground, work the soil and establish a farm.”

Before a Seed Was in the Soil

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Alicia started marketing the couple’s story through her words, drawings and photography. “She somehow convinced people to become CSA (community-supported agriculture) members of a farm that didn’t even have a seed in the soil yet,” Ben marvels. They participated in a CSA fair in Troy that spring, hoping to attract a dozen shareholders but wound up with double that number. Knowing a small CSA program couldn’t keep them afloat, Alicia and Ben reached out to a handful of area chefs who saw their excitement and energy and agreed to support the nascent farm’s efforts.

That inaugural year was far from easy. Electricity came from a long extension cord snaking back to a house on the property, which also provided the only water. Using hand tools and a small walk-behind rototiller, the young farmers established blocks of garden beds in 50-foot rows and mulched the walking paths with wood chips. They also built two high tunnel greenhouses and a sturdy, covered shed for weekly CSA pickups. The little farm slowly has evolved into a community hub for the 100 shareholders and neighbors. “It’s funny,” Ben says. “People who have lived here for generations had no idea this place existed. There’s a real ‘wow’ factor when folks come down the road in between the two baseball fields and see what we’ve created.”

The Joy of Having Friends Nearby

Although Ben and Alicia never envisioned living in an urban setting, they’ve discovered the joys of having friends nearby. “Last year, we needed extra hands to help with the sweet potato harvest,” Alicia recalls. “We sent a text message out to everyone, and so many folks showed up that we finished the harvest in record time. That’s been a really beautiful surprise, getting to know people and watch them get invested in the farm. If we’re in a pinch, we always have friends in the neighborhood we can call on. And they love having access to this community farm.”

The young farmers firmly believe that soil health matters more than anything else. “If you take care of your soil, everything else will prosper. Our soil has no metals or toxins, and the fertility is pretty good because there were horses here about 50 years ago. We have almost no rocks, but we do find old baseballs embedded in the soil from the ballpark just over the fence,” Ben laughs.

Alicia reflects: “Before we started the farm, I had no concept of the personal sacrifice that being a farmer required. It was seven days a week, dawn to dusk, at the height of season. That intensity can be hard. Luckily, we both thrive on it. It takes a ton of dedication to make this place beautiful and productive. But living and working here is great for our family. The best moments are when we grab some veggies from the farm at the end of the day, grill and eat outside, and then wander the gardens and into the woods with our two dogs, Indigo and Yuki, and our nine-month old son, Levi. Those are definitely some benefits.”

Ben concludes, “We’ve discovered that we can make a living at this scale, do the work ourselves, produce a lot of beautiful food and feel passionate about doing it. And even if we move to a larger property, we’ll always maintain this smaller scale, intensive, hands-on approach because it just feels healthy and right. Six years ago, we never dreamed we’d be farming on a piece of land in the middle of a city. But we love it here.”

edibleuprisingfarm.com