Eastie Farm’s new “zero emissions” greenhouse is located in a narrow alley, a block from the expressway, on a rough corner of East Boston. The glistening structure grows among gardens with native plants: milkweed, choke weed, huckleberry, mountain mint, paw paw saplings, and two large mulberry trees.
The ability to swarm urban permaculture farms into unlikely places and transform these forgotten spaces into vibrant, welcoming, community education and food distribution centers is genius of Eastie Farm, first covered by Civil Eats in 2019. with the event. A dozen or so residents with young children line up for their community supported agriculture (CSA) share as staff quickly sort boxes of green beans, apples, squash , and corn purchased from local farms. Inside the greenhouse, electricians are completing the circuitry for a geothermal energy system that will pump heat, from 450 feet below the surface, to warm the plants during the colder months.
Extending the season—providing fresh, local, nutritious food throughout the winter months—is an overall goal, as is adapting to the changing reality of the climate, which is unique to this type of program. .
Eastie Farm’s greenhouse will enable the urban farm, which manages three mini-farms and four school-based gardens in East Boston, to extend its growing season and provide a winter classroom for its environmental education program. It expands the organization’s ability to increase food security in a predominantly immigrant community, with a median household income lower than the rest of Boston and the longest average distance to a grocery store.
It is one of 20 greenhouses built on Massachusetts farms in the past two years to increase the availability of locally produced food in underserved communities. A state-funded food security infrastructure grant program, launched at the height of the pandemic, helped pay for the greenhouses, along with 487 other infrastructure projects, from food delivery trucks and freezers to farm equipment to the public housing authority’s farming initiative. The $58 million program aims to make local, fresh food production more efficient and accessible and to mitigate future crises by better connecting local producers and harvesters to a sustainable food system.
Ashley Randle, deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, said the program is a national model for “how to strengthen infrastructure to build a stronger, more resilient food system and local economy.” While it’s too early to measure the program’s impact, he said, “This is truly transformative for our local food system in Massachusetts.”
Extending the season—providing fresh, local, nutritious food throughout the winter months—is an overarching goal, Randle said, as is adapting to the changing reality of the climate, which is unique to this type of program.
“We’ve been hearing more and more,” he said, “especially after the last two years of two extreme seasons, that plants that normally survive or thrive in the region may have shorter growing seasons now, or more harvest time is short, and therefore farmers must adapt to such changes.”
Zero Emissions Greenhouse
Climate resilience is at the core of Eastie Farm’s mission, in part because it is located in a neighborhood vulnerable to flooding and sea level rise. When the urban farm got the idea of building a greenhouse, it decided to power it entirely with renewable energy, said Kannan Thiruvengadam, Eastie Farm’s director. “We want to do something good for the community, but not compromise what’s good for future generations.”
Commercial greenhouses rely on a heat source, such as propane gas, to warm plants in winter and grow seedlings in early spring in cooler climates. Greenhouses also use electricity to power large fans for air circulation and ventilation and grow lights during the winter. Energy use varies by size, design, and location, but fuel costs are typically the third highest greenhouse cost behind labor and plant materials.
Geothermal-powered greenhouses are more common in regions with hot springs, but they are rare in the East, where there are “low-temperature” geothermal resources—that is, the ground’s constant temperature of about 55 degrees Fahrenheit at depths of 10 feet or more. Eastie Farm’s geothermal system harnesses this heat year-round, warming the plants in the winter and cooling the space in the summer when outside temperatures can reach 100 degrees. Providing that natural cooling reduces the need to run fans in the summer.
An electrician works on the connection to Eastie Farm’s geothermal hydraulic system. Above is a layer of solar shades and the roof that opens. (Image credit: Meg Wilcox)
Eastie grows its own seedlings and vegetables like kale, arugula, and spinach in the winter, says Thiruvengadam. It also grows subtropical and tropical fruits, such as Zapote and avocado, and tree saplings in response to community requests.
The environmental and community education programs planned in the greenhouse are equally important, says Sebastian Teveres, manager of one of the urban farm sites. Teveres says she teaches East Boston elementary school kids how to “get back in tune with the earth” when they feel stressed. “I see the change in the kids.”
Constructed of glass, polycarbonate, and metal, the elegant 1,500-square-foot greenhouse was designed by Dutch firm Gakon Netafim. Its energy and water management features include a roof that opens to let out hot summer air; two layers of shades for passive heat management, including blocking solar energy on hot days or retaining the sun’s heat on cold days; and gutters running across the ridges of the roof to channel rain or snow into a 500-gallon, black rain barrel tank inside the greenhouse. The tank provides irrigation water and acts as a thermal mass, radiating the heat of the day to be absorbed by the sun at night.
The runoff will be diverted to a mini-aquifer Eastie created by excavating and replacing the impervious clay beneath the site with a fill that allows the water to seep down. “We do not send water to storm drains in the city,” said Thiruvengadam.
The winter lights and geothermal pumps are powered by 100 percent renewable energy through the city’s Community Choice program.
