Marta Lynch

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

Farm manager

What 3-4 professional and/or personal accomplishments are you most proud of?

• Professional: Leading the creation of the PHS Green Resource Center at Norristown Farm Park, a teaching and production farm which grows and distributes over 20,000 pounds of free produce to address inequities in our communities’ social determinants of health.
• Being able to mentor the amazing staff, interns and apprentices who have been vital to the success of the farm projects I’ve had the privilege to lead. 
• Personal: Building a life, career and community that I love and am grateful for every day.
• My athletic career. I was a high-level women’s soccer player — I trained with Sydney FC, a professional women’s soccer team in Australia, played semi-professional soccer in New Jersey, as well as played NCAA D1 women’s soccer at Purdue University.

What led you to work in the horticulture industry? 

• After leaving the athletic world, I wanted to find something that I was as passionate about as soccer.
• Horticulture fit the bill — it allowed me to be outside, continue to be physically active, work within a team and contribute to my community. It connects different cultures to each other, allows me to be closer to the natural world, is challenging and is a field where I will never stop learning.
• I’ve found that plant people are my type of people!

What’s the best thing about your job? 

• Company environment
• Co-workers
• I get to do what I love, every day.
• It is challenging.
• Problem solving

Describe to a 6-year-old what you do in life? 

• I grow fruits and vegetables for people that don’t get to eat fruits and vegetables as much as they want to and need to.

What are your favorite hobbies? 

• Ultimate frisbee
• Backpacking
• Swimming
• Playing board games
• Cooking
• Reading
• Speaking French
• Cross country skiing

When you’re not working, what could we find you doing? 

• Playing ultimate frisbee
• Swimming in natural bodies of water
• Playing board games with friends
• Reading science fiction and/or Japanese literature
• Watching Jeopardy

Do you have any unusual talents, or can you tell us something interesting about yourself that other people may be surprised to find out? 

• I lived on a small French island off the coast of Madagascar called La Réunion island.

One thing you can’t live without? 

• My cat, Martha

What are you (un)secretly good at? 

• Identifying and locating tree frogs by their call, and then catching them

What are your top three bucket list items? 

• Go on a hut-to-hut cross country ski trip 
• Become an Adirondack 46er 
• Buy a fixer-upper house to renovate it exactly the way I want including creating an incredible perennials garden

What’s your favorite plant variety and why? 

• Narcissus, because they are an ephemeral beacon of springtime.
• They are sparkly, smell delicious and each week there is a new variety emerging for you to enjoy.

You’re buying a vacation package to anywhere in the world without a budget, where are you going?

• One month in Corsica
• Spend two weeks backpacking the GR20, which crosses the entire island, then two weeks relaxing on Corsican beaches and attending the Festa di u Ficu — the annual festival that celebrates the fig harvest.