Farmer Assistance Team

Tracy Lerman
Farmer Assistance Director

Tracy Lerman is GrowNYC’s Assistant Director for Regional Agriculture. In this role, she heads up GrowNYC’s Farmer Assistance team, which provides training and technical assistance to growers who aspire to or currently sell at GrowNYC’s Greenmarkets, their network of more than 55 farmers markets around New York City. Prior to her work with GrowNYC, she was the Executive Director of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG), a 12-state, multi-sector network of farm and food practitioners working to strengthen the movement for a just and sustainable food system. She has a master’s degree in Community Development from the University of California Davis where her research examined the efficacy of various marketing strategies purported to help small and midsized sustainable growers be more profitable. She lives in Kingston, NY, with her husband, an organic farmer and beekeeper, young daughter, and dog.

You can reach Tracy at tlerman@grownyc.org


Nicole Yeo-Solano
Beginning Farmer Program Specialist - Farm Beginnings Lead
she/her

I am a 2nd generation Chinese American immigrant, Seattle-raised, and have been living in New York City for 8 years. After nearly a decade working in Product Design and Design Management, I adjusted my path to align my labor with my values of climate justice and social equity. Inspired by the food sovereignty movement led by peasant and BIPOC farmers, I focused on building my relationship with land and developing a discerning understanding of community resilience. I spent 2020 volunteering at urban farms (Battery, Earth Matter), supporting mutual aid in AAPI communities (Heart of Dinner), and educated myself on farming, food justice, and Chinese foodways. I spent 2021 as an Environmental Educator/Farmer at Randall’s Island Park Alliance and taught K-12 farm trips, led volunteers, and raised food for East Harlem food pantries. I spent 2022 co-founding and organizing Choy Commons (AAPI farmer and food justice collective) and production farming for Choy Division (1-acre diversified farm, Beginning Farmer Alum!) and Dig Acres (23-acre Organic and GAP certified farm) in New York’s Black Dirt Region. While I love farming, I was pulled toward building networks and relationships to support generations of farmers and resilient food systems. At home, I am a curious and avid cook/baker with a focus on Cantonese and Puerto Rican food. Learning Cantonese and Spanish.

You can reach Nicole Yeo-Solano at nyeo@grownyc.org


Emilyn Sosa
Beginning Farmer Program Specialist - La Nueva Siembra Lead
thye/she/elle

Before joining GrowNYC, Emilyn worked as a freelance researcher, conducting evaluation studies for food access programs, and served as an ambassador for the CSA is a SNAP program for Rock Steady Farm. They have a deep interest in Black diasporic foodways, spirituality and storytelling. Emilyn can be found facilitating community herbalism knowledge shares on accessible plant medicine for stress reduction and co-creating spaces for reconnection. Daydreaming is their superpower.

 

You can reach Emilyn Sosa at esosa@grownyc.org


 

Erin Enouen
Farm Business and Marketing Specialist

Erin Enouen (she/her/ella) joins GrowNYC after having spent the last decade building and managing Long Season Farm in Kerhonkson, NY. Long Season grows and harvests vegetables year round, with winter production and sales as a core focus. Erin has developed the farm plans, marketing strategies, and management systems that have made the farm successful, and frequently teaches workshops on various aspects of growing. Erin was born and raised in Oklahoma, and received her BA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in New Mexico. She moved to New York in 2008 to work on a diversified organic vegetable farm, and has continuously worked in agriculture ever since. In addition to farming, Erin has a background working on content management, e-commerce, and sales and marketing. Since settling in Kerhonkson, Erin has become an active part of the local community. She was elected to the Town of Rochester Town Board in 2020 and has worked on issues ranging from housing access to farmland preservation. In her free time, Erin loves baking and cooking, spending time with her dog Hank, and hiking with her husband, Sam.

You can reach Erin at enouen@grownyc.org


Every year, GrowNYC holds our Annual Spring Plant Sale in order to provide community groups with affordable perennial and annual flowering plants, herbs, ground covers, and vegetables grown by Greenmarket farmers and sold in wholesale quantities.