Corrine Gordon’s path to her current job — as urban farm manager at Capital City Farm on North Clinton Avenue — started with a law degree and hinged on an interest in draft horses.
Gordon did her undergraduate studies in the classics at Tufts University in Massachusetts and earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C.
She has also worked previously at a museum and historic site and was managing a living history farm in Bowling Green, Ohio — where she gained a working knowledge of growing and canning vegetables — before coming to her current post as urban farm manager at Capital City Farm.
“I have only been in New Jersey since May of this year,” Gordon explains during a recent interview.
“A few years ago a mutual friend put me in touch with Pete Watson [at Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell Township,] and I came out here to get more experience working with draft horses. This past year I was looking for a new job, and I heard about this position,” says Gordon.
Working closely with farm foreman Walter Roberts, a former volunteer then staffer who has been at Capital City for six years, she is already helping to shape special events and formulating on-farm classes and seminars to be held over the winter and into next spring and summer.
“The land here is owned by the city of Trenton and the Mercer County Park commission operates it,” she says of the 2.3 acre farm at 301 North Clinton Avenue.
The land was acquired by the city of Trenton in 2014, and through collaborative efforts from a number of local organizations including the D&R Greenway Land Trust and the Mercer County Parks Commission, the parks commission took over operations at the farm in 2021.
About her path through classics, law, and farming, Gordon, the New Hampshire-raised daughter of two dentists, says, “I studied classics at Tufts, and I became concerned about the looting of antiquities and the loss of knowledge that it causes. So, I wanted to do cultural property law and help poor countries preserve their historic spaces.”
She adds that she also was interested in working with Native American tribes and tribal grounds, and historic pieces of land in countries like Greece and Italy.
“By the time I got here, Walt Roberts and a now former employee had done most of the planting of what we were growing by way of spring and summer crops,” says Gordon.
“What many people do not know is that all of Capital City Farm’s produce is free,” she continues. “There are no income limits for patrons and visitors to the farm. Like any nonprofit, donations are always encouraged.
“This year we’ve grown collard greens that were used for a Juneteenth celebration, Aji Dulce peppers that were used at a Puerto Rican festival, and we’ve grown lots of Hungarian peppers as well. Just this past weekend, some Hungarian women gave a demonstration and handed out some samples. So, between the farm staff and some volunteers, we’re able to grow all our own produce.”
The Capital City Farm is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There are also the occasional events, such as the Saturday, October 28, Fall Harvest Festival with local artists, musicians, a scavenger hunt, scarecrow contest, chicken bingo, and more. The event will also involve Mercer County Parks Commission, Mercer County 4-H, Mercer County Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agents, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, and ISLES.
But highlighted mostly will be the farm’s main purpose: growing crops.
Regard that, Gordon says, “We have tons of different types of tomatoes and peppers and grow lots of Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, and Egyptian spinach, which is not one that many people are familiar with, but the couple of people who do know what it is were very excited to find Egyptian spinach here.”
Additionally, she says, staffers also grow traditional spinach, Kohlrabi, and many different types of beans and ethnic crops, such as sesame, bok choy, and black-eyed peas.
While crops are for sale to the public, unused produce is also of value and sent the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, located adjacent to the farm property, or to local nonprofits.
To produce the crops, the small farm has greenhouses, high tunnels or hoop houses, and nine vegetable and one flower bed. Each growing area or bed is 35 feet wide by 100 feet long. Flowers grown here include zinnias, snap dragons, and marigolds, and again, the flowers are offered free to patrons. About a half-acre of ground is used as an orchard, so apple, peach, and cherry trees are growing and producing fruit there. Finger fruits grown here include strawberries, raspberries, gooseberry, and Huckleberry. Many of the farms grade B or grade C apples are used to produce apple juice.
Gordon has ambitious plans to continue outreach, educational seminars, and growth.
“For instance, we now have a large chicken coop with about five laying hens and a beehive as well on the site,” she says. Chicken manure, as most backyard growers and farmers know, makes for low cost fertilizer and — when used properly as a soil amendment —- it can boost yields.
“At this point we are preparing the fields for fall crops,” Gordon says, and seedlings started in the greenhouse were planted in mid-September. Fall crops include kale, collard greens, more peas, carrots, beets, beans, radishes and more cilantro.
“Earlier in the summer we started popcorn, so that will be ready to harvest this fall along with more Swiss chard and more spinach.”
Aside from the October 28 event, Gordon is working to set up some seminars for later in the fall and the winter months at the farm.
She says, “In my last job, I actually ran many different canning classes, so I think it will be something fun to do next year when we have much more cabbage. We can do a program where we make both sauerkraut and kimchi and you can see the differences.
“We’ll be incorporating more of these programs where we actually work with the food as opposed to just sending it home with people who maybe don’t know what to do with it, so there are all kinds of programs and classes I’d like to be doing more of next year. Canning and pickling are very useful skills to have.”
Capital City Farm, 301 North Clinton Avenue, Trenton. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. www.facebook.com/CapitalCityFarmTNJ.
Fall Harvest Festival, Saturday, October 28, noon to 4 p.m. Games, face painting, lunch, free produce, live art by Leon Rainbow, and more.
