Beacon Food Forest, 7 times the size of a football field and located 2.5 miles from downtown Seattle, is the first big edible forest of the United States.
What was in 2009 the final project for a permaculture* design course of 4 students could produce 5 % of the food consumed by the 634 535inhabitants of Seattle.
This summer, everybody can freely harvest anything they please; so was the choice of the project designers. This very open system already exists in Seattle gardens.
More than one hundred inhabitants participate in this bounty. All the communities in the neighborhood are involved -Africans, Chinese, Filipinos, Vietnamese- and have planted species of their original countries. The mayor has financed the purchase of thousands of plants.
“Help the neighbors to get to know each other, cultivate our fruit and vegies by ourselves to have affordable and healthy food, rehabilitate our local ecosystem as well as teaching city gardeners how to grow their own garden”.
So are the motivations of this new generation of urban gardeners. Congratulations for this beautiful and inspiring initiative!
* Permaculture is an eco-friendly way of producing food
Don’t miss the video, visit the Beacon Food Forest web site and keep up with their page on Facebook !