How Do We Get the Hudson Valley its Own ‘Swale’?

  |  May 4, 2016
picking blueberries via wiki commons

Did you catch this piece making the rounds last week? In case you missed it, meet the Swale: A proposed urban food forest to be located in various places around NYC. Wait, what? How can an urban food forest be located in “various places?” When it’s floating in the Hudson River on a barge, that’s how. Part community garden, part art piece, part huuuuuuge upcycling project, part “Eff You” to the Man, the Swale will be hitting the various harbors around NYC this summer. The 80 x 30 garden barge will feature 80 species of trees and a cornucopia of fruits, berries, herbs, veggies, and other edible growable. It’s also is a clever loop-hole in a law that makes food forests illegal.

If you dig the idea, donate to its Kickstarter. Read more about it on the Swale website. So….when’s this happening in the mid and upper-Hudson Valley? Imagine a Swale sitting on Hudson’s waterfront, or near Beacon’s Long Dock. Anyone have a barge on blocks in their backyard for sale, cheap?

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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