Mr. Estrada grows so many peppers, eggplants and squash that he sends the extras to his relatives in Puerto Rico.

His bounty sprouts from the unlikeliest of settings: a patch of green wedged among the public housing projects of the South Bronx, in a community garden where he is one of dozens of urban farmers, cultivating the things he used to grow with his father on a farm in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Estrada is able to carry on his family’s agrarian tradition in a metropolis thanks to New York City’s network of community gardens, which is being expanded at a time when an onslaught of development has made these public green spaces more valuable than ever: the community gardens are a refuge for immigrants and those without farms or country houses to escape to in the summer, as well as a homegrown source of fruits and vegetables in food deserts like the South Bronx.

Last summer, the Parks Department’s 'GreenThumb' program — the US' largest community garden program — has grown to 553 gardens, most of which sit on city-owned or other public property, and are maintained by community groups and a dedicated corps of 20,000 volunteer gardeners.

More info on https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/nyregion/food-from-around-the-world-homegrown-in-new-york.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FUrban%20Agriculture

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