Michelle Cashen, or “Cashew,” as she is known fondly around the farm, came to Brooklyn Grange in 2014 with a budding drive to make her native New York a more sustainable city and to become more connected to the food she consumed. 

After dabbling in events, tours, markets and 2015's NYC Honey Week, she took the reigns as Farm Manager of our Brooklyn Navy Yard farm in the spring of 2016. For three years she refined her knowledge of edible plants and production farming, painstakingly tending to fields of salad greens, and battling the tomato plants, whose fruits she loved but neediness she tolerated. In early 2019 she transitioned to our Design/Build department as project manager with the goal of building more green space and rooftop farms across NYC. 

When Michelle is not at the farm, she can be found back home in Rockaway Beach, Queens surfing, playing basketball or distributing healthy groceries through her side hustle, the Rockaway Buying Club.