Rooted marks 25 years of community farming at Madison’s Troy Farm
[MADISON, WISCONSIN, June 10, 2026–] This year, Rooted WI, Inc. is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Troy Farm, established in 2001, which has provided locally-grown produce to its Madison neighbors for a quarter of a century. The land that Troy Farm and Gardens occupies on the Northside of Madison is owned by the Madison Area Community Land Trust and collaboratively managed by Rooted. Troy Farm is Rooted’s largest urban agriculture site, and a keystone to the Northside community.
Troy Farm is a community farm, and that relationship with its neighbors has remained central over the 25 years of farming at Troy. In an age of stretching global supply chains, growing food right where we live is the path to long-term food security for communities. Troy Farm and Gardens has been an integral part of Madison’s Northside and beloved by the people who live and work there since the beginning, and that community support is poured into the soil and given back in the produce grown there.
Troy Farm and Gardens came to be through the dedication and collaborative efforts of the community, and this local support and care has been its sustaining force ever since. Neighborhood residents have been gardening at Troy since 1980, and formed the Troy Gardens Coalition in 1995 alongside other local organizations to legally preserve the land from development. The city accepted the coalition’s proposal for mixed gardening, farming, housing, and green space, and the site was purchased from the State by Madison Area Community Land Trust in 2001. Troy Farm was established in that same year, with the intention from its inception to grow food for the community. Troy Farm has been a working community farm ever since, managed first by the Friends of Troy Gardens, which later became Community GroundWorks, which then became Rooted, the nonprofit organization that farms and stewards the land at Troy today.
Troy Farm was conceived as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, the first located within the city of Madison, in which local community members sign up in advance for a share of the season’s produce. Rooted is proud to maintain that legacy at Troy Farm, where 25 years later they continue to operate the Troy Farm CSA program growing fresh, local, organic produce for their Madison neighbors. Troy Farm now grows for the community in other ways as well: In the last 25 years, Rooted has added programs to grow fresh produce for direct distribution to Northside neighborhood centers and make land available at Troy Farm to emerging farmers [1] seeking accessible growing space. The Purpose Grown Project and the Troy Farm Collaborative, respectively, further Rooted’s mission to foster community-led, long-term food security and Troy Farm’s original vision as a community farm.
The Purpose Grown Project began in 2020 in response to a growing need for fresh food access in our community. Since then, Rooted has expanded the program to serve more community center partners and refined what is grown and how it is distributed in response to the desires of participants. The Troy Farm Collaborative started in 2021 and consists of six small local growers on the land at Troy. This not only connects collaborative members with affordable growing space at the farm, but also provides the shared infrastructure and support of Rooted’s farm team that comes with farming alongside them at Troy.
Looking back at the first 25 years of Troy Farm, the purpose of being a community farm that is interconnected with the community that it feeds shines through. When neighborhood centers receive Purpose Grown Produce deliveries and CSA members pick up their shares, they’re not just eating local–they’re eating super duper local produce grown in their own city and harvested that morning. “Troy Farm and Gardens holds such a special place in my heart. I see neighbors coming together to grow and share food, and I have watched this land and community grow and change over the years,” said Ginny Hughes, Co-Executive Director of Rooted, who began her work for the organization as the Troy Kids’ Garden Manager in 2012, lived at Troy Cohousing from 2006–2015, and was a Troy community gardener and Troy Farm member. “I feel immense gratitude for everyone who has helped shape Troy Farm and Gardens into the vibrant community space it is today, especially those who came together so many years ago with a bold vision to save this land from development. As we celebrate this milestone, even more than nostalgia, I feel hope when I imagine the future that we continue to build together.”
Rooted WI, Inc. is a Madison-based 501c(3) organization committed to growing a community-led, sustainable food system through urban agriculture education, food production, and land access.
