Greg Anderson, 47, moved to New York with his family in 2001 and has since been involved with his community garden in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Twelve members take care of the garden, growing any vegetable in season, from carrots to tomatoes. A year ago, Anderson, the president of the Dean Street Community garden, a two-building wide lot of land between a row of apartments, decided to add a unique twist to this urban garden: chickens. The community garden has about seven chickens that lay anywhere from one to over 20 eggs a day. Anderson and four others take care of the chickens. The eggs are distributed throughout the community and among the garden members. Anderson works with the youth at Queens Community House, a non-profit that provides services to Queen’s diverse population.

How did this community garden begin?

The garden has been here since the late ’80s. There were two houses here that burnt down here. The city leveled everything down, so the community started a green thumb garden.  Probably, like most communities, [the garden] started because it was an empty space [where] trash was building up and people were starting to hang out. So that’s the best way to save the area, to bring in a community garden.

And when did the chickens come?

The chickens came last year. It was me and my wife’s idea.

How did you come up with this idea?

I grew up with chickens. I grew up in Selma, Alabama, and as you get older, you start missing things that you had in an early life. So I started missing being on a farm. We were going to do it first in our backyard. But after researching and seeing how much work is involved and seeing the different benefits of having chickens, and since we were part of the [community] garden, we thought it would be better to do it in the garden. That way, we could use the chickens to educate the community about food source and about the benefits of having chickens.

How is the economy affecting what you’re doing here?

We do spend less time in the garden off-season. But last year we didn’t have as many members as we do now. I’ve seen a lot more members interested in the garden.

Why is this?

Food is more expensive. People are more conscious of their health now and understand that the less processed your food is and the more whole foods that you consume, the better off health-wise you are and even mentally.

Do you think there’s a trend towards community supported agriculture, farmer’s markets and community gardens?

Huge trend, huge trend. I’ve seen it grow in the past five years. We would go to conferences where it would be a few 50-60 people there. But this year going to conferences, they were packed. There were a lot of people interested in working together to do more local growing, that way the food doesn’t have to travel as much. That equals less pollution. People also are looking for a different type of lifestyle, a lifestyle that’s not as busy. Money comes and goes, but when you create a sustainable lifestyle, you find that you don’t need as much money because you can barter for whatever you need; you can grow your own food. Just because you live in an urban area, doesn’t mean you can’t grow your own food or raise your own livestock.

Are these eggs better than what you get at the grocery store?

To me they’re even better than the organic eggs you can get in the store. These are local; these are fresh. My omelets were made with eggs that were laid fresh this morning, you can’t top that. From the chicken to the table, you can’t beat that.