Farmer John Chang harvested his first crop of sunflowers.

John Chang had been chewing at the bit for so long he couldn’t hold back from tearing into his new field despite an early morning rain.

“It felt great when I got the land,” said Chang, who harvested his first crop on the city-owned Morales Farm on Lovgreen Road last week. “I was there at 5:30 on a Saturday morning, ready to till the land. It was rainy, in the first week of June, and I just transplanted all day.

“I was freezing and filthy, but I’d been waiting so long for this.”

Chang, after three years’ worth of talks with the city, joined fellow grower Brian MacWhorter in returning about a half-acre of the 4.7 acre farm to agricultural use.

While a total of 61 acres of agricultural land, including the Morales Farm, are under public ownership, the city has struggled to craft management policies to administer the land.

The Morales Farm has sat fallow ever since it was purchased three years ago for $210,000.

While the Trust for Working Landscapes, which the city appointed to manage the properties, is still crafting a final plan, some TWL members felt farmers had waited long enough.

“Brian and John Chang were really eager to get out there,” said TWL president Ryan Vancil. “So we decided to have a short-term agreement that would let them jump-start farming at Morales again.”

TWL negotiated the extension of a year-long management plan with the city that adds allowances for limited use by farmers.

“It’s very ‘stop-gap’ right now, but it’s good for the city because (the farmers) are doing good things out there,” Vancil said. “They’re adding value to the land. They cleared the land of Scotch broom, they’ve amended the soil and they’re growing things for the island.”

MacWhor­ter has planted vegetables he sells as part of his Butler Green Farms.

Chang is growing onions, leeks, basil, tomatoes, corn, beans and squash. A harvest of sunflowers – cut last week – was sold at the Bainbridge Farmers Market.

Other city-owned farm parcels await cultivation, including the 14.5-acre Johnson Farm on Fletcher Bay Road and the former M&M tree farm on Lovgreen.

Vancil is hoping to see renewed progress in linking farmers with the properties.

He is working with the mayor to possibly establish an ad-hoc agricultural advisory committee to help implement recommended action in a recent study on island farming.

The study, conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based American Farmland Trust, suggests the city relinquish much of the farmland’s management to a nonprofit organization, such as TWL

“The form of management (AFT) recommended would (have) the city not directly involved,” Vancil said. “The city is too bureaucratic and doesn’t necessarily have the right resources or skills.

“The city’s not in the business of farming.”

In the meantime, Chang said his temporary hold on a humble quarter-acre has given him renewed hope he’ll have a successful harvest this year.

“I’m not in the black yet (but) I feel like I’m doing something useful and positive and creating something that’s good for the island,” he said.