A drive down Norton Street in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood resembles many others — except for one house. Among the modest green, blue and yellow colonial homes rises a 4,600-square-foot glass greenhouse. The building is home to We Grow Microgreens, an urban farm transforming a once-vacant acre of city-owned land into a hub for locally-grown food, community education and sustainability.
Founded in 2019 by educators and entrepreneurs Lisa Evans and Tim Smith, We Grow Microgreens provides Boston restaurants, farmers markets and residents with nutrient-dense microgreens and an expanding range of tropical fruits and specialty produce. What began as a small operation in their Roslindale sunroom has grown into a distinctive example of how urban farming can enrich community connections while strengthening Boston’s food ecosystem.
From a backyard dream to a community landmark
We Grow Microgreens was born from a vision of nourishing the community, combined with practicality. Microgreens, are considered young vegetables, classified between sprouts and baby greens, with edible stems and leaves that bring flavor, color and rich nutrients to dishes.
“We began this project out of our 5,000-square-foot backyard in Roslindale, and we couldn’t grow your traditional crops,” Evans said. “Microgreens make the perfect urban crop because you can grow them in 10-inch by 20-inch trays.”
Their vision and operations quickly outgrew their Roslindale home. After four years of negotiating with the City of Boston, gaining the approval of 14 city and state departments and meeting with members of the community, they acquired the deed to the approximately one-acre of abandoned, trash-strewn Hyde Park land and began converting it into a microgreens sanctuary. The land now holds an agricultural restriction for urban farming.
“This land sat vacant for over 25 years, and it was neglected. It was a massive amount of cleanup,” Smith said.
Today, their operation has expanded beyond microgreens to grow tropical fruits, vegetables, edible flowers, and other subtropical plants to supply Boston’s local communities. Two temperature-regulated high tunnels, along with their high-tech greenhouse, allow them to sustain their operations year-round. Diversification, Smith said, is essential for a small, independent farm.
“Any farm has to evolve,” he said. “We grow a lot of subtropical and tropical plants, and we have a line of functional teas that are used for cultural healing purposes. We try to expand into new lines of business, because as a small farm, we can’t just scale up.” While microgreens still dominate most of their sales, their plant and tea business is growing.
Establishing roots in the community
We Grow Microgreens has also diversified its commercial operations. The farm operates a weekly farmstand at their Hyde Park location every Wednesday afternoon, participates in farmers markets across Mattapan, Natick, Newton and Roslindale and fulfills restaurant and online shipping orders.
Rifrullo Café in Brookline, a three-star Green Restaurant Association certified café, is a frequent customer of We Grow Microgreens’ kale, microgreens and other locally-grown products.
“Rifrullo has won Best of Boston two years in a row recently, and I like to think that we get some of the credit,” Evans said. “They care about buying local food and having fresh produce. Sadly, the majority of restaurants don’t.”
Other culinarians in the area also find value in shopping locally. For local private chef Carlos Asseph, who grew up in the Andes, We Grow Microgreens is a rare find in the commercialized, mass-produced nature of American food culture and a reminder of home.
“My grandmother, who was a chef, did everything farm-to-table,” Asseph said. “To elevate my food, it’s important to be able to talk to the farmers and know where it comes from. For me, that experience is irreplaceable.”
Asseph and his clients notice a clear difference in We Grow Microgreens’ products.
“The microgreens are so fresh, so vibrant and so colorful. People don’t know what to do with my plates — whether to photograph them or eat them. It’s like art; it lights up their faces,” he said.
Cultivating peace, paths and community
The farm’s mission extends beyond commerce into community engagement and education. With a City grant, We Grow Microgreens recently built a walking path on its property that provides a space for the community to connect with nature.
“The path allows the community to have a few minutes of peace and tranquility as they walk among the native plants and birds chirping,” Smith said. “It’s one way we engage the community. To have a place that’s peaceful for folks to come and escape the chaos.”
Chris Kenyon, whose home borders the farm, has experienced and witnessed the benefits the farm brings to the community.
“One of the coolest parts of We Grow Microgreens is the community of wonderful people they’ve been growing for years now,” Kenyon said. “Each week, the neighbors come and buy their vegetables at the farmstand, and we’ve had projects, like weeding, where we’ve invited the community to help. It’s a local project.”
Kenyon, a Northeastern University master's graduate, volunteers with upkeep and collaborates with the farm on scientific research. With a USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant, he began studying pesticide alternatives through his startup, Earthbarrier.
“We’re developing new ways to fight pests. We’re starting small with We Grow Microgreens, and we’ve made a lot of progress in the past two years. The goal is to eventually spread to full-scale agriculture,” Kenyon said.
An educational ecosystem
As former Boston Public School teachers, Evans and Smith have infused their work with a commitment to education. They have hosted workshops on growing microgreens and plant care and have mentored about 10 cohorts of Northeastern University co-op students — ranging in focus from horticulture to design and marketing.
“One of the things that keeps us going is working with a lot of young people, particularly from Northeastern," Smith said. “It’s always nice to have a new core of students that take an interest in learning about growing businesses or farming on a small scale.”
Ana Varela, the farm’s current horticulture co-op and a third-year Northeastern student, said her experience has not only helped her connect with local communities but also with her family.
“My abuelito used to own a farm in Colombia, so this is a nice opportunity to connect with him,” Varela said. “I also love going to farmers markets and getting to talk to people from all different backgrounds. I’ve learned a lot about what it’s like to be in a small business.”
Urban agriculture and Boston’s food future
We Grow Microgreens is one of several urban farms filling nutrition gaps in Boston, particularly in areas where access to affordable, fresh produce is limited.
"Massachusetts' Urban Agriculture Program supports farming organizations, such as We Grow Microgreens, to strengthen urban neighborhoods by leveraging opportunities through the production, processing, marketing and sale of fresh food at the local level," the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources’ (MDAR) former commissioner John Lebeaux said, according to a 2019 City of Boston press release announcing We Grow Microgreens' grand opening. "We are thrilled to support community partners invested in creating greater access to nutritious, fresh food."
We Grow Microgreens received Community Preservation funds from the City of Boston and grants from the USDA, State of Massachusetts and the MDAR Urban Farming Program to bring their mission to life. The land the farm occupies was obtained from Boston’s former Department of Neighborhood Development, now the Mayor’s Office of Housing, which owns dozens of undeveloped parcels across the city.
The conversion or designation of some of these plots to be turned into urban agriculture spaces could further enhance Boston’s food system.
"I am pleased the State [could] partner with the City of Boston and the Walsh Administration to provide community preservation as well as healthy, locally grown food options for our residents," State Senator Mike Rush (D-Norfolk & Suffolk District) said, according to the 2019 press release. "It is especially important to identify open space in our communities for such programs to occur."
While designated city farming spaces, like We Grow Microgreens’ Hyde Park lot, are important, Smith reminds that there are other ways to implement urban agriculture initiatives.
“There's a lot of empty space that [could be used for farming]. It doesn't necessarily have to be a vacant lot, but it can be integrated into the housing that’s also necessary,” Smith said. “There are also rooftops that can be used for urban farming, like at Boston Medical Center or Fenway Park.”
However, building an urban farm from scratch is expensive, time-consuming and bureaucratically complex. Many farms struggle in their early years.
“Farms, in general, are always struggling,” Smith said. “We had to start from scratch, raw land. Because we had to spend so much money on developing the farm, we’re sort of in the hole as far as revenue, but every year it gets better.”
Community support — especially consistent customer engagement — remains critical.
“Getting more people to see the value of supporting farms and other local businesses and farmers markets is part of what we have to do,” Smith said.
Education about the importance of local, urban farming remains paramount to We Grow Microgreens’ success.
“This is a place where people can be educated and can witness the growth of vegetables,” Evans said. “They can understand that vegetables don’t grow in Costco, that they actually grow in soil with sunshine.”
Part of the challenge, Evans added, is helping customers understand the value and versatility of their products.
“We’re marketing to a very niche customer base. When we have to educate people on what microgreens are or why they want to eat a guava, then they may not buy from us,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to sell a product that everyone knows and grew up eating.”
Still, the couple sees education as central to their mission.
“People generally are not thinking about their health; they’re thinking about their stomachs,” Evans said. “A lot of it is ... reminding people of the importance of eating healthy.”
We Grow Microgreens proves that change begins with seeds, soil and a vision. Whether it’s planting herbs on a windowsill or rooftop or reimagining unused land into a greenhouse, each step toward cultivating sustainability is a step closer to healthier, more resilient and connected food systems and communities.
“If we lived in a world where there were a hundred of these [farms] all across Boston, I think families would have better food, we would have cleaner communities and richer connections,” Kenyon said.
