St. Louis Food Roof Farm

When I was growing up, my dad had a wonderful garden at our home in Pennsylvania, and we always had access to fresh vegetables in the summer. When I moved out of my parents house in the late 90s though, I chose to live in more urban areas, and while I would love to have a garden of my own, this is never possible. When I was in NYC I dreamed of having a rooftop garden, but that was never possible. When we moved to St. Louis I attempted some balcony farming, but never put the appropriate time or effort into it. Hey, it’s a balcony and I’m lazy. However, the folks at Urban Harvest STL are much more dedicated that I am to urban farming, and I was lucky enough to photograph their fabulous roof top farm located just a few blocks from my studio. 

Urban farms and rooftop farms have many benefits beyond the obvious of access to locally grown food and vegetables. The infrastructure of the food roof mitigates up to 17,000 gallons of stormwater per storm event which otherwise would be flowing through our storm drain systems. Rooftop gardens also help otherwise black tar roofs from absorbing heat from the sun with in aggregate contributes to overall warmer temperatures in cities during the winter. In this case, the STL Food Roof also doubles as a community center and event space, and is home to everything from popup dinners to yoga classes. For more info, check out the Urban Harvest STL website for more information about tours and to volunteer!

Client: Feast Magazine
Art Director: Alex Povis
Photographer: Jonathan Gayman
Food and Styling: Hiro Asian Kitchen