Design
Should Seattle Really Be Growing Goji Berries and Jujubes?
The city embarks on an ambitious plan for an urban forest, with free food for all.
Even the name sounds impossibly idealistic: the Beacon Food Forest, an experiment in urban planting planned for land adjacent to a Seattle city park. There, at the top of a hill, the project’s organizers hope to create the country’s largest food forest on public land. If the effort succeeds, dozens of fruits and nuts will be available, free of charge and largely without conditions.
Two acres of the site will be planted later this year, thanks to a $100,000 city grant. The first phase of development will include an ‘edible arboretum’ of unusual fruit trees like persimmon and medlar, about 50 community garden plots, and a nut grove with six types of tree nuts.