(WSJ) The slice of land in the Bronx at first appears no different than many of the borough’s derelict empty lots, where any glimpse of green often resolves into a tangle of weeds.

But those who peered closer on a recent afternoon saw something unexpected: still-green tomatoes bulging from their vines. Tops of carrots, known as “shoulders,” poked up from the earth, while a young orchard sprouted against the weathered wall of the Major Deegan Expressway.

The 2.5-acre plot is actually a working farm in the heart of the Bronx called La Finca del Sur, yielding 30 pounds of produce a week at peak harvest. Wedged between Metro North tracks, the Major Deegan and the Grand Concourse, it is the largest of a growing network of farms across the Bronx that health and government officials say will soon rival Brooklyn and Manhattan’s more celebrated web of local food producers.