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On the rooftop of Palo Santo Restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, one of the city’s best salads is made.

"[We grow] probably about two-dozen different types of greens. They all have a distinct flavor,” says Jacques Gautier of Palo Santo Restaurant. “You can see we have purslane. This is actually fennel, micro fennel, so we planted the fennel seeds and just let them grow about this big. Radish greens. Chrysanthemum greens. A few different types of mustard greens. This is red mustard green, green mustard greens. This is an interesting one – this is called oracle green. Here's some very small arugula. Sorrel, which sort of has a lemony flavor. A very simple salad, where the leaves themselves have so much flavor that it really doesn't need a whole lot of dressing. We always are looking for new seeds and adding new seeds, and I actually brought these back from Japan when I traveled there last year. The first batch that I grew with the seeds I brought back, we saved the seeds, and so this is actually the second generation. From the time of planting to the time they're cut takes at least a couple of weeks, so we have to continuously plant so that we never actually run out."

There are other challenges to rooftop gardening, like intense heat from the sun and too much weight on the roof. That's why Gautier decided to plant in the Styrofoam shipping boxes that come with his fresh fish.

"I thought, 'What a great idea. It helps to insulate the roots and it's also just a great way to make use of something that would otherwise go in the garbage,’” he says.

It's a lot of work, but it pays off. Gautier gets the city's best greens, and New Yorkers get to eat them.

To learn more about celebrating Gotham's food culture season by season, go to ediblemanhattan.com.