NEW YORK — Like many a farmer, Ben Flanner rises with the sun. Water and weeding are needed by his crops — tomatoes and basil, nasturtiums, melons, mustard greens, peas, beets, beans — about 30 fruits and vegetables in all.
But his 6,000-square-foot farm is three stories off the ground, with a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline, on a rooftop above a TV and film soundstage in Brooklyn. Flanner, 28, considered going to the country to farm — only to realize he didn’t want to leave the city.
City land is expensive, though from a bird’s- eye view, much of the city is flat rooftops that get direct sun. In recent years, enthusiasm has grown for green roofs, hailed for harnessing rainwater, and keeping buildings warmer in winter and cooler in summer, lowering electricity use.
The increasing interest in fresh, local food seems to have heralded the era of the rooftop farm. And a colony of entrepreneurs, residents, schoolteachers and restaurateurs set to work.
