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The Floating Forest Of Food Is Returning To NYC This Spring

The Floating Forest Of Food Is Returning To NYC This Spring

New York City’s floating food forest is a public service slash food education initiative by the City of New York. Open for the first time in June last year, Swale is designed to take us back to our foraging routes.

Swale sits at the intersection of public art and public service and provides sculpted gardens filled with edible, organically grown fruit and vegetables that you can pick and take home. It floats on a 40 by 12 metre barge and is completely free. The end game? Encourage New York citizens to appreciate the importance of shared community, food and sustainability.

According to Swale’s website: “Food forests are arguably the oldest form of gardening, generated through companion planting methods. But their importance is so much more than their history.

The theory goes that by diversifying plant life through “supportive planting,” each plant becomes an integral part of the created ecosystem with a naturally fertile soil system.

“However, food forests on New York City’s public land have been off-limits for almost a century for fear that a glut of foragers may destroy an ecosystem.”

This is why Swale exists out on the water. Clever New Yorkers.

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Swale will be docking at select piers around the city during spring, with exact dates soon to be confirmed. Check out more info on the initiative here.

(Lead image: Swale)

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