When you buy produce at the supermarket, chances are you don’t have a clue where it came from. Neighbors in the West Hill area of Albany can’t say the same.

A big urban garden is flourishing there, transforming vacant lots into beautiful green spaces and bringing neighbors together in a unique way.

Surrounded by a sea of green, rake in hand, and still dressed from his day job as a chef, most days Mitchell Keyes can be found working in his fruit and vegetable garden. It’s a long-standing labor of love that grew out of necessity.

“It was hard for us to get food, so we had to do it,” says Keyes. “My father and mother, they even had chickens down here on Swan Street.”

In the city’s West Hill Neighborhood, consider Keyes’ tiny backyard garden the seed to what would become the abundant, thriving, communal Albany Victory Gardens. Keyes serves as the president.

“We started out with one plot,” says Keyes. “Now we’ve got 36 acres somewhere else and over here we’ve got 30 something plots.”

Each is cared for by someone who lives nearby. The plots are bordered by brick buildings, busy streets, vacant homes marked as safety hazards, and sidewalk memorials dedicated to friends taken by violence.

“The people who were out here for this (the memorial) now they come over here and have a good time at the garden,” says Keyes.

Fresh flowers feed their hives of honey bees and the farmers say all that buzzing around has doubled their crops.

“We got so much food we could feed this whole neighborhood about seven or eight times,” says Keyes.

The fresh produce not only provides for the local growers, it’s now being sold at their weekly farmers market. For Keyes, the garden is so much more than a physical transformation of his neighborhood.

“It’s coming to a better change and I never thought that I would see the change,” says Keyes.

With each belly full of healthy, homegrown food, he’s nourishing the heart of West Hill, too.

“That makes me really happy,” says Keyes. “The tears are happy not sad that’s the good thing about them.”

The Albany Victory Gardens will be hosting their new farmer’s market every Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. through October. Follow their Facebook page for more information on the locations.