Plant lights are glowing in a corner of the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, 501 E. Badger Road. In March, it became home to the tiny-but-mighty sprouts operation of Troy Farm, a five-acre organic vegetable farm on Madison’s north side.
The sprouts operation is just one aspect of Troy Farm, an urban agriculture arm of Community GroundWorks — a nonprofit that also operates Wisconsin School Garden Network, Goodman Youth Farm and the Capitol vegetable garden, among other initiatives. The goal is to create more equitable food access by educating farmers and gardeners in communities and schools around Madison.
Troy Farm began producing sprouts in 2006. “The sprouts business is Troy Farm’s only year-round source of income,” says Garrett Peterson, director of food systems development for Community GroundWorks. “It’s significant in that it’s allowed us to increase staff and keep them employed year-round.”
The sprouts operation requires about 20 labor-hours a week. All the sprouts are grown to order. Community GroundWorks staff deliver the fresh harvest weekly to such clients as Metcalfe’s Market, HyVee and the Willy Street Co-op.
Sprouts are a nutrition powerhouse, rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Troy Farm’s three sprouted products are “beany sprouts” (legume), “leafy sprouts” (alfalfa and clover), and cat grass (wheatgrass grown in soil, and meant for cats).
The sprouts operation had been located on the grounds of the Mendota Mental Health Institute, along with Community GroundWork’s headquarters, until early 2019 when the Institute requested that Community GroundWorks relocate. The nonprofit secured office space near the airport, but the sprouts operation remained homeless.
“The logical first ask was the Badger Rock Center, because of our relationship with the Center for Resilient Cities,” says Sheena Tesch of Community GroundWorks. The answer was yes, and by the end of March the indoor growing operation was set up in its new home.
With the Center for Resilient Cities’ urban agriculture and environmental sustainability programs at Badger Rock (also home to Badger Rock Middle School), the neighborhood center was already a food production site, both outdoors and in greenhouses. The program is led by Badger Rock “farmer-in-residence” Sarah Karlson. Sales of Troy Farm sprouts help fund the farmer-in-residence program.
Karlson helps students at Badger Rock Middle School tend vegetable gardens, fruit trees, chickens and a beehive. “The kids do everything from prepping seeds to building beds to planting to prepping compost,” Karlson says. “I try to hook kids into as many ways to do urban farming as possible, so they might come back to it later in life.”
