PHILADELPHIA — Now when some of the city’s best restaurants boast locally sourced food, they mean really local: a garden in the heart of downtown.

Bounded by two skyscrapers and another pair of high-rises, the Pops Up Garden has filled a long-vacant lot with plots of peppers, corn, quinoa and other crops, promising fresh produce for Philadelphia residents for the next few months.

Open since mid-June, the C\v-acre parcel cultivated by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society aims to grow urbanites’ expanding appetite for healthy eating and local farming. The garden is also designed to get people thinking about what’s possible for green thumbs, even in a concrete jungle.

“This can really kind of inspire people to do something on their own,” said Sharat Somashekara, a food crop specialist with the Horticultural Society.

The American Restaurant Association named locally sourced meats and produce the top trends for 2011. Even first lady Michelle Obama planted a garden at the White House to promote sustainable, nutritious eating.

The Pops Up Garden, just blocks from City Hall, is Philadelphia’s latest and perhaps most visible statement of support for urban agriculture.

The city founded by William Penn as a “green country town” had nine farms in 2002, compared with 17 in 2007, according to the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture. That land produced about $487,000 worth of goods in 2007, up 34 percent over five years.

The fervor for farming appears to be growing, with city dwellers selling out agriculture classes offered by Penn State Extension in Philadelphia, said Doris Stahl, a horticulture educator at the agency.

Stahl said the extension is investing more time and energy in equipment, programs and curriculum to accommodate young entrepreneurs eager to learn how to supply fresh, local food to urban residents at every income level.

The crops at the Pops Up Garden will be used by chefs at six local restaurants, and proceeds from those dishes will go to City Harvest, which provides fresh produce to underserved residents. City Harvest also will directly receive some garden produce to supply local food pantries.

But not for long. The garden, which sits on land borrowed from a major commercial real estate developer, will be dismantled in October after the growing season. It will “pop up” again next spring in another location.