Floating Food Forest Prepares for Debut Voyage in New York 

That garden is Swale, a food forest that sits atop a 120-by-35-foot barge. All of the food grown on Swale will be free and available to anyone who wants to hop on board. Patrons will be able to forage for dozens of perennial plants, such as persimmons, Swiss chard, strawberries, and asparagus.

While Swale will serve the community as a free food service, it will also be an artistic space. Biome Arts, a collective of artists and ecologists, is hosting its EcoSummit 2016 aboard Swale in the summer, with plans to build an installation, host performances, and offer free skill-sharing workshops.

Food produced on Swale will be free to the public.

Source: All Aboard: Floating Food Forest

Hospital Greenhouse in New Jersey

The greenhouse is hydroponic, and officials say it’ll produce the same amount of fresh vegetables that five acres of farmland would. The about 10,000 pounds of food that will come out of the Beth Greenhouse each year will be available to residents at “affordable prices” at a weekly farmer’s market, according to Barbara Mintz, the hospital’s Vice President of Community Engagement and Healthy Living…

…We will lose money off of this greenhouse, that’s the point,” said Darrell K. Terry, the President and CEO of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and The Children’s Hospital of New Jersey….

The greenhouse is the latest step in what Newark Beth Israel officials say is the hospital’s transition from focusing on treating illnesses to preventing them. It will work in tandem with the hospital’s other major wellness efforts – KidsFit, a school-based curriculum to prevent a treat childhood obesity, and The Beth Challenge, a community weight loss and fitness program. The greenhouse builds on the indoor farm and farmers market the hospital started in 2011, and will double the farm’s previous production.

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/05/teaching_a_man_to_garden_hospital_opens_urban_gree.html