Common Ground Urban Farm
About The Common Ground Urban Farm
The Common Ground Urban Farm is a small-scale farm which models sustainable agriculture, engages youth, students, and city residents in educational opportunities, and provides healthy produce to the surrounding community. Our dedication to weaving a multi-generational, multi-cultural approach to our process means that countless individuals across ages and identities play a role in the produce we grow annually.
Urban Farm Overview
Our production is diverse with three 3-season high tunnels, animals, and a mid-sized static aerated composting system. The farm strives to grow crops that are culturally responsive to the New Haven community; community feedback and student input shape what we grow, which in turn influences what ends up on the lunch menu in the CGHS cafeteria and in the community through our farm share and Mobile Market.
On 1 acre, we grow an average of 35 mixed vegetable crops each year that include collards, cilantro, turnips, eggplants, hot, sweet and seasoning peppers, sungold cherry tomatoes, peas, green beans, cucumbers, cut flowers and many more. In this single acre, we’re able to grow over 14,000 pounds of food for the community each year.
Our farm supports a colorful group of livestock including 60-100 laying hens, 11 ducks, 2 turkeys, 6 beehives, 2 goats, and 2 sheep. We raise them using humane and ecological animal husbandry for educational programs and farm products. Tangibly, they provide us with eggs, honey, wool and chemical free land management. While harder to quantify, many CGHS students have also remarked on the invaluable therapeutic effect having animals on their school campus brings to their lives.
Our farm is supported by the work of the farm team (Farm Manager, Farm staff [Mobile Market Coordinator/Compost Program Coordinator/Maple Sugaring], Farm Director, Food Justice Education Coordinator), Green Jobs Corps HS students, individual and group volunteers, 4-5 Seasonal Adult Farm Interns, HS interns (earning credit).
Farm Staff
Farm Director
Deborah Greig
Volunteers
Interns
Who Farms Here
Assistant Farm Manager
Diane Litwin
From greenhouse to garden, volunteers are essential partners in our work. If you enjoy working outside, meeting new people in your community, and learning more about how to grow food, you’ll love volunteering with us.
Mucking animal coops, seeding in the greenhouses, applying compost, planting and taking on larger projects are just some of the farm chores you can help with. No experience is required to volunteer; we will train you on everything you need to know.
Don’t forget to dress for the weather, wear sturdy closed-toed shoes and bring a water bottle. Come on your own or register to bring a group.
If you would like to meet Common Ground students, learn about our programs, and help us on the farm all at the same time than Open Farm Day Volunteer Saturdays are a great place to start.
We love our volunteers! Volunteers can drop in on the farm every Saturday from April-November between 10am–1pm to help us make our garden grow. Stay for as little or as long as you like and green up your thumbs. Find us at the Harvest Pavilion in the Big Garden.
Fill out a volunteer inquiry form here
Group Volunteer Opportunities
We are happy to host corporate groups, alumni associations, community service students and college classes during our volunteer days.
To schedule a group contact the Farm Director, Deborah Greig, at Deborah.Greig@commongroundct.org or 203.389.4333 x1217. If you want to come by on your own, email farm@commongroundct.org.
Summer Internships
Interested in digging deeper for a more intensive internship opportunity? Common Ground accepts applications for our Urban Farming Internship, once per year starting in February.
We hire 2 – 4 seasonal farm interns who demonstrate an interest in urban agriculture, food justice and food systems work. You don’t have to want to be a farmer or even have any farm experience. Food touches all parts of our world and we are looking for people who want to take what they learn here into their world and create a more just and healthful food system.
High School Students
Common Ground High School is engaged in our farm on many levels.
Green Jobs Corps (GJC) provides year round employment to students in various environmental organizations in New Haven. Each season 3-6 students work here on the farm! They are the backbone that supports the work that gets done to grow over 8,000 lbs of food a year. GJC youth are paid minimum wage, participate in job readiness workshops and develop real-life, transferable skills while experiencing the realities of growing food.
High School Classes – Common Ground uses its urban farm as a learning laboratory, helping students to master academic standards and develop leadership capacity through active, authentic learning opportunities. Students practice conversational Spanish and French as they work in small teams on the farm. In math, projects include calculating the true cost of a Common Ground egg and calculating the pH of soils across our campus. Guidance classes grow and sell perennial herbs for our seedling sale. Environmental Science courses monitor nutrients in our farm soil. The opportunities are always growing. We aspire to engage the high school in all areas of the farm.
Field Trips, Summer Camp, and After School Programs
Pulling weeds to feed our animals, picking blueberries, and harvesting key ingredients for cooking programs are just a few of the ways our community programs participants “work” on the farm. The big lower garden is always available for groups to experience and enjoy based on the program and interest of the group.
Food Justice Education Coordinator
Victoria Zucco
How We Farm
Our Practices
The Common Ground Farm is a small scale diversified farm utilizing humane and ecological practices. Our priority and commitment is to care for our natural systems and honor the community that farms with us. Beyond using integrated pest management and amendments approved by the National Organic Program we do not certify organic and believe the merits of our farming techniques expand beyond the National Organic Program.
As CT NOFA members, we sign their Farmers Pledge which is committing to “work in harmony with natural forces and leave the little piece of the world over which they have stewardship in better condition than when they found it.”
Our Compost
Good soil health is paramount in good farming and one complex component of good soil health is amending with Compost. We process thousands of pounds raw materials on our site to make A LOT of compost for our garden. Waste from our kitchens and school lunches, weeds and spent plants from the gardens, animal bedding and manure from our animal yards are mixed with leaves to make rich compost.
The Common Ground Compost Program has grown significantly, since 2017 when we built a midscale in-vessel aerated static pile (ASP) composting system with the support of a CT Dept. of Agriculture Grant and later, a partnership with the City of New Haven's Food System Policy Division’s USDA Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction Grant. We have grown to annually divert 93,000 (2024) of food waste from landfills and incinerators, with our primary sources being our school cafeteria, New Haven’s local food rescue organization Havens Harvest, a mutually-supportive integral partnership with Peels and Wheels’ bike-powered neighborhood-scale operation and “Pay what you can” community drop offs. New Haven is CT’s 3rd largest city and the 2nd largest waste producer, generating 5% of the state's total. Compostable waste comprises 33% of CT’s waste stream and offers the biggest opportunity to reduce waste going to incinerators or landfills (New Haven Food System Policy Division & Abbott-Lum, 2022). CG is committed to the role we play in New Haven’s waste stream by minimizing the transportation and decreasing incineration rates of compostable waste, supporting sustainable food production, creating job training and education opportunities, and building community around this environmental justice issue.
The compost system has the capability to produce highly-valued finished compost that has the potential to go beyond our own urban farm to school gardens, backyard and community gardeners, and other urban farmers. Streamlining our production has allowed us to deepen educational compost offerings to the community, through our youth and adult training programs and community based outreach materials. To meet these goals, we are working to 1. Increase capacity with new equipment and ongoing maintenance; 2. Support staffing to aid production, education, and job training for youth (our Green Jobs Corps crew) and adults; and 3. To build partnerships focused on increasing citywide composting and general composting enthusiasm including outreach, education and community events like our annual Fall Pumpkin Smash.
You can find our compost to add to your own garden every spring at our annual Seedling Sale.
Our Animals
Our farm supports a colorful group of barnyard favorites for you to visit and enjoy. From laying hens and a melodic rooster, to a big manipulative goat and more, our animals are here to broaden our ideas of what a farm animal is.
We strive to demonstrate humane and ecological animal husbandry. All our animals free range outside with access to fresh food and water. We raise our animals not only for education but for farm products. They provide us with eggs, meat, and wool. They are a 24/7 operation.
We welcome visitors to hold a chicken, pet a goat, or interact with our other farm friends at Open Farm Days, held every Saturday between 10 am - 2 pm, April through November.
Our animal population includes:
9 ducks
30+ chickens
6+ turkeys
1 sheep
1 goat
Farm Share
What is the Farm Share?
The Common Ground Urban Farm provides students, families, staff and general public customers with in season veggies (like kale, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, tomatillos, cabbage and more) from the Common Ground Farm!
Thanks to our sliding-scale payment options for 131 CSA Farm Shares from April-November resulting in $5,850 of subsidized shares annually (2023).
The Farm Share is beneficial to both the community and the farm. For our farmers, the Farm Share helps predict income and supports crop and harvest planning. For the consumer, it connects our residents with their food growers and the freshest food possible at an affordable price.
We offer a sliding-scale General Public Farm Share from July-October to 55 people at $30/week with an average of $1,350 in subsidized support. These individuals opt to pay about 50% of the share’s value ($150 of $420 in 2024) and often pay with SNAP. Additionally, we offer a Spring and Fall farm share for 50+ Common Ground High School (CGHS) students and families at $20/week with an average of $4,500 in subsidized support. 90% of CGHS families opt into the pay what you can model, less than the value of the share, predominantly between $0-15.
We are able to grow fresh, local, organically grown food for you while training people from our community and CG High School. You can support our farm and our farm’s future!
Mobile Market
Come visit the Mobile Market!
The Mobile Market, in operation since its pilot season in 2012, is a farm stand on wheels that brings fresh produce from Connecticut farms directly to New Haven neighborhoods. Common Ground supplies the Mobile Market with fresh, local tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, corn, peaches and more, grown on our farm and other farms around the state!
The Mobile Market accepts WIC and Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program cards, cash, and credit card payments. Customers get 50% off with SNAP purchases (thanks to CitySeed).
Come visit the market, grab some fresh, tasty fruits and veggies, and make it a vibrant part of your neighborhood this season.
Questions? Contact mobilemarket@nhep.com or 203-389-4333 ext. 1217.
The Mobile Market would not be possible without our partners at Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, Mary Wade Home, New Haven Public Library, Alder Honda Smith, City Seed, The Towers, City of New Haven Elderly Services Department, and Elm City Communities.