The Incredible Edible Forest

This seems obvious and incredible at the same time! Seven acres of city land dedicated to growing food that everyone is free to harvest - and mostly a perennial, self-sustaining landscape. Yea, Seattle!

You’ve heard of farm to table. Coming soon: park to table. This spring, in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, seven acres of underused land will be transformed into the nation’s largest urban “food forest”—a community park planted with a cornucopia of produce that visitors are encouraged to harvest and eat, for free.

....Built around the concept of permaculture, it will be a perennial, self-sustaining landscape, much like a woodland ecosystem in the wild. Companion plants included for natural soil-enhancement and pest-control will help lower the amount of maintenance needed.

“The idea of planting perennials as part of a self-sustaining, holistic system is old hat to many accomplished gardeners,” writes Claire Thompson for Grist, and groups like San Francisco’s Guerrilla Grafters have already dazzled us with novel ways to promote urban agriculture. “But,” continues Thompson, “creating a system on public land that combines the concepts of urban farms, orchards, and natural forest, and depending on collaborative community effort to keep it going, represents uncharted territory for the now-flourishing urban-farming movement.”

reply to post by soficrow


That is so awesome. Governments could do so more stuff like this. I have read that Seattle has many living in tent cities and homeless. This would be something that could help these people empower themselves.

I hope honesty prevails, and they don't have people raiding it to sell at farmer's markets, and local stores.

It sounds like a great concept. One would think more urban gardens would crop up on unused city-owned land.

reply to post by Destinyone


I'm sure that is easily prevenable. Anyway, this is a great idea and it should be done it more places world wide.

What a great idea and about time unused city lots were put to good use. I would love to see the list of plants they intend to establish. I've read on permaculture but choosing the right plants for the environment and soil type are crucial.
I wish them all the luck with this project. and It will hopefully spur similar efforts worldwide. We know Los Angeles doesn't care for the concept as they destroyed a city garden that was using empty lots to produce free food for poor local residents.
If the SHTF these kinds of resources could make the difference between life and death for hungry people.
Thanks Sofi

ETA: After reading the article I found a short list:

apples and blueberries, herbs and vegetables, chestnuts and walnuts, persimmons and Asian pears. Read more: www.utne.com...

reply to post by soficrow


Don't worry some people will abuse this and end up selling all the crops, it will either have to be supervised or sign out sheets or something......Mark my words

One idiot person will ruin it for everyone....Guaranteed!!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


yeah i was thinking that too, sucks we cant trust people.

or people are going to try and grow some good ol mary jane. lol

What a field day for people who want free lunch. .

For free...
... until the FDA gets involved.

OMG! For free? EVIL commies, how dare you give people free food!~!

/sarcasm

More free food less corporate office buildings! I'm all for it, let's hope it doesn't just degrade into a bum breeding ground.

Monsanto going to shut that down real soon.

This is in my city! Wow. S+F for a great article!

We already have a multitude of Pea patch gardens here in Seattle, in every major community and neighborhood. They are popping up faster than ever these days. We also have several very strong, successful farmer's markets too. This is the green NW and the hippies are everywhere, thankfully.

I doubt this will get shut down, this city is different than most assume. Our grass roots motivation can almost get overwhelming (esp with liberals, no offense liberals). We already have a nonprofit organization that is using undeveloped city land (with permission) to grow food to feed the homeless. We have tons of rain catchment systems and regular family gardens.

What a great idea and about time unused city lots were put to good use. I would love to see the list of plants they intend to establish. I've read on permaculture but choosing the right plants for the environment and soil type are crucial.

They are doing huge lots of farming in Detroit now too from what Ive heard. And yeah the permaculture trick is always to find the symbiotic balance between plants (such a cool way of farming). I think it might be easier to simply observe the native environment, and just find a natural edible that deters what's not edible (or animals and/or insects). Or just do more research and find the uses for what you "thought" was useless.

We have nettles galore here, but they are a great expectorant when you have a cold, and edible. We have dandelions too, they are really healthy too, same with fiddlehead ferns. Blackberries, blueberries, apples, cherries, plums, chestnuts, we have all those native here also.

This idea needs to spread to more cities.

Originally posted by theubermensch
reply to post by soficrow

 

That is so awesome. Governments could do so more stuff like this. I have read that Seattle has many living in tent cities and homeless. This would be something that could help these people empower themselves.

Our mayor is a jerk and keeps forcing the tent cities to move. Most are broken up in church parking lots now.

In my neighborhood it's all people living out of their cars and RVs

I actually came up with an idea to use unused public lands to develop heirloom gardening to feed homeless shelters. I wanted to then train the willing members of the shelter to farm and raise chickens and goats. Give the homeless training, and once they got to a point where they met all the shelter's food needs they could sell the extra for profit at local farmers markets. I was even wondering about how I could then purchase the land or at least make sure the people farming it wouldn't get evicted. This was way back when I didn't know enough about farming, and thankfully some awesome guy came along and used part of this format to start using public lands to feed shelters.

Free food for the community? Communal Farming?! BURN IT ALL DOWN!

We cannot tolerate COMMUNISM!

Besides, a free lunch is a handout and we cant have this. Except if it's a corporation or rich bankers. Then and only then shall billions of tax payers' dollars shall be gifted to the elite. Capitalism was created to conserve the elite at the top and the middle/poor classes as the pillars to sustain the system. Mega welfare is ok but only for the wealthy. The rest of you deserves NOTHING.

No change! Conserve the status quo! Burn this marxist hippie idea down!

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


"One idiot person will ruin it for everyone....Guaranteed!! "

agree! - Fact of life and it will alwyas be the same there is always a knob head to come ruin it

Originally posted by AnotherHumanBeing
reply to post by Chrisfishenstein

 

"One idiot person will ruin it for everyone....Guaranteed!! "
agree! - Fact of life and it will alwyas be the same

there is always a knob head to come ruin it

And thank the Goddess that there's always some visionary around to start again, do it all over, and push that ridiculous boulder back up the mountain. Yin/yang, balance, pendulums and all that.

Wonder how often this has happened in the past?

CaptChaos posted this video above - it's about a 700 year-old edible forest in Vietnam!



........Amazing, dontcha think?

reply to post by soficrow


yeh definitly

reply to post by AnotherHumanBeing


Wouldn't it be ...interesting if ALL the world's forests and rainforests were planted and tended as foods and medicines by an ancient knowledgable culture that left nothing else behind as evidence of their existence?