FOODSCAPING IDEA

This is called "Foodscaping "...and it is what everyone should be doing in every neighborhood in the US and around the world.  

Geneva,Switzerland. Each yard is a vegetable garden and neighbors consult and plan what each will grow so they can trade. Imagine if we did this in the US. Our commute to get groceries would be 24 feet and we would be certain it would be organic ...

FOODSCAPPING : HERE About 12,200 results (0.33 seconds) 

HTYP is the HyperText Yellow Pages, a non-commercial wiki-based online directory of practical information.

Foodscaping, sometimes referred to as backyard farming, is the act of repurposing land which would otherwise be purely decorative or recreational into agricultural production, typically on a small scale. A foodscaping service is like a landscaping service, except with the emphasis on food production rather than appearance. HERE

Foodscapes

Tuesday 10. May 2011 at 8:00 - Friday 13. May 2011 at 16:00

Within the past ten years, the concept ‘foodscapes’ have become a pivotal point for research in food, food chains, food production, food ethics, food policy and other fields related to food studies. But even if the term is now familiar to groups of researchers, it has not yet found its way into dictionaries (Freidberg, 2010). As of yet, foodscapes have been defined as a multiplicity of sites where food is found and/or consumed (Winson, 2004), as structures in society forming the food environment (Burgoine et al, 2009), in a design approach exploring the meaning of the space, place and attributes used for eating (Sobal and Wansik, 2007) or as the interacting process of what is eaten, where and by whom (Dolphijn, 2005). Hence, mono-disciplinary as well as multidisciplinary studies are being carried out.  

The course will be constructed as a combination of a study trip and a theoretical course and the base will be Paris, France. Trips will be arranged to unfold the Foodscape in different French settings (Rungis Marché, ….) 

The Foodscapes approach in the Food research group in Ballerup is also discussed and elaborated with the interdisciplinary focus on combining three research traditions to one new approach towards food related research issues and this understanding is extended to the institutional dynamic approach from Dolphijn (2005).  

The course is a combination of lectures and group development work in order to develop the Foodscape understanding and relate it to the attending Ph.d. students projects. The course will also consist of excursion to relevant food related persons or places. 

Participants must send in a paper (4000-5000 words) with a description of their working field and the relation to food (and Foodscapes) in order to obtain 5 ECTS. This paper will be discussed and developed during the course. 

The papers will be read and commented and participants are expected to presented and discus their approach in a common session with focus on the relation to Foodscapes. 

A second version of the paper must be made after the study trip (august) elaborating the Foodscapes in relation to each Ph.d. project.

June 01, 2012 9:56 AM 

Tired Of Mowing Your Lawn? Try Foodscaping It Instead

by BLAKE FARMER | HERE 

When the economy began its steep decline in 2008, almost everything related to housing hit the skids, including the lawn and garden industry. But one sector escaped the pinch: food gardening.

In fact, food gardening sales nationwide have spiked 20 percent since then, and they've stayed there. While many households started growing food to be more budget-conscious, some are deciding vegetables and fruits can be beautiful, too.

In the extreme, edible landscaping or foodscaping can even mean replacing grass with something edible. For Jeremy Lekich of Nashville Foodscapes, the world is already his salad bar.

"It's called lambsquarter," he says, chomping into what laymen would consider a garden-variety weed. "Most people know it. It grows everywhere in disturbed soils, and it's actually the wild ancestor of quinoa."

Lekich and his foodscaping company specialize in unconventional projects, like planting an entire yard in buckwheat, a nutrient-packed grain that's experienced a renaissance. People make hearty, nutty-tasting pancakes and noodles with the flour.

That's what Nashville yoga instructor James Alvarez wanted. His mother, however, is not a fan of her son's knee-high lawn.

"She's like, 'You get that Bermuda grass and you blend in,'" he says, laughing.

Edible landscaping isn't for everyone. But close to a third of American households now do some kind of food gardening, even if they're not willing to sacrifice their entire lawn. And some folks are turning to professionals to plant their food.

"Those who can afford to hire a landscape contractor and have the truck and crew, they're seeing it as being a cool thing to do," says Bruce Butterfield, researcher for the National Gardening Association.

Even nursing homes and hotels have been asking their landscapers to mix in more edible greens. One of the nation's largest landscaping companies, The Brickman Group, reports an uptick in request for herbs and vegetables.

For single-family homes, practical planting usually increases during a recession, Butterfield says. It's significant, though, that the millions who've gotten into food gardening don't appear to be getting out. That's what historically happens when the economy begins to come back.

"I think it's fundamentally different this time," Butterfield says. It's gotten trendy to grow your own food, he says.

Amy Pierce is a busy mother who runs a public relations firm in Nashville. She's convinced that if she's going to pay for plants, they might as well make a meal.

"That whole notion that I could have a raspberry bush alongside blueberry bushes, and I could make a fruit salad out of my backyard was just very novel and very new to me," she says. "It's almost embarrassing to admit it."

That's just what she planted, and then she went back for seconds, asking Lekich to return to plant even more fruit trees in her yard.

Lekich says he lives for such "ah-ha" moments. He's got big plans for edible landscaping, like using it to combat food deserts in low-income areas, where it's tough just to find fresh produce to buy. But so far, his clients have been people of means.

"Really it's been something that I've thought a lot about," he says. "When I first started, I said we're going to work on a sliding scale, and we do."

But Lekich says his foodscaping business still has some growing to do before he can afford to help those who could really use it.

Foodscaping [1]

Our services include design, implementation, and maintenance of a variety of foodscapes, from a garden bed to grow your favorite veggies to an integrated forest garden with fruit trees, fruit shrubs, vegetables, herbs, edible flowers and mushrooms, and more! Our designs integrate a wide variety of edible, medicinal, and useful plants that work together to feed our clients and the earth.

We believe that our practices and labor go beyond “sustainable” and “organic”. Instead of creating spaces that just sustain, we strive to create systems that are regenerative to the earth, the community, and the individual person. We use absolutely nothing with the word “-cide” in it (pesticide, herbicide, etc.), and our fertilizers are about as natural as they get. We source our materials and plants from local, regenerative businesses to provide the best possible service to our clients and the earth.

Our greater vision is to work with communities that live in food deserts. We take as much of our profit as possible to build foodscapes in under-served areas of Nashville. We do this with the belief that everyone should have easy access to healthy, fresh, affordable, beautiful food.

Why Foodscaping?

On average, food travels 2,000 miles from farm to plate [1]. Because of this, food has been selected for a long shelf life, sacrificing taste and nutrition. 

1. Foodscaping provides healthy, fresh food that is incredibly nutritious and tasty and exceeds “organic” standards. Instead of traveling 2,000 miles, food travels 2,000 inches (or less!).
2. Foodscapes reduce fuel, energy, chemical use, and pollution by creating a landscape that works with nature and not against it.
3. Foodscaping can reduce mowing needs by replacing grass with no mow, low maintenance areas.
4. Foodscaping blends growing food with artistic design. This allows food plants to escape from the limitations of a garden or farm and join all areas of the yard.
5. Foodscaping helps to preserve native species of plants that have the potential to disappear due to the destruction of native forests.
6. Foodscaping can build community… neighbors will take notice and it can become a great spark for conversation. When more people in your neighborhood create foodscapes, the neighborhood will become more abundant in food, beauty, and community.

[1] Hill, H. (2008). Food miles: background and marketing. ATTRA..

June 11, 2012

Foodscaping: Reap What You Sow

Courses/Workshops, General, Society — by Matthew Lynch  

I thought you might be interested in this short news segment which recently aired nationally on the ‘America Now’ news network in the USA, featuring yours truly:

Watch : HERE

Check out the lengthy disclaimer given by the TV hosts at the end of the segment (morbidly fascinating), though I especially like the permaculture plugs given by the reporter "look up your local permaculturist in the White Pages" and "or with a quick Google search, you can join the global Permablitz movement"….

Permaculture goin’ mainstream, one small news story at a time.

Since I have your attention, if you’re looking to take a PDC on Oahu’s North Shore this August, be sure to check out our upcoming course! (July 30 — August 12, 2012.)

 DECEMBER 28, 2012 

What is Foodscaping, Waterscaping, and Solarscaping?

by JOHN ROBB  

First off, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

It’s been great fun here at the Robb household.  A great chance to recharge the mental batteries before tackling the challenges of the new year.   And what a great year 2013 will be.

To get you started on the right track, here’s a bit of thinking that you should find useful.  It’s a rethink of a commonly used term.

When we think about caring for a home’s yard or community’s public land, we typically think in terms of landscaping.

That won’t do.

Technically, landscaping is actively modifying the visual aesthetics of an area of land.  It doesn’t concern itself with the productivity of the land.  As a result, when we imagine a professionally maintained landscape, we think in terms of its decorative or ornamental value and not its productive value.

To fix this we need new slang to describe the processes we use to improve the productivity of the land.  Terms like:

• Foodscaping.
• Waterscaping.
• Solarscaping.

We’d define these terms as any activity that modifies an area of land’s ability to produce food, retain/manage/use water, and retain/reflect/utilize solar energy respectively.

We’re going to be using these terms a lot.

Here’s why.

Every square inch of inhabited space, starting with your yard and your community’s public spaces, is going to made more productive.   It’s a massive project.   It’s a project so large, it’s going to transform the underlying fabric of the global economy.

So, jump in.  Get started.

To demonstrate how simple and beneficial this could be, here’s an example of foodscaping a public commons of St. James — a village located in Suffolk, UK.

They planted 100 fruit trees – apple, pear, quince, plum, cherry, damson, medlar - in a section of the public commons a couple of years ago.   Here’s the map (click through to enlarge):

So, how does the town benefit from the trees?

Lots of ways.   The good fruit can be harvested and given away to residents that would benefit from it.  The bruised fruit can be made into chutney and sauces for resale, to support the maintenance of the orchard.  Here’s an example of an “abundance” project inNorwich that’s doing exactly that:

The new year looks amazing.  Let’s make the most of it.

Sincerely,

JOHN ROBB

PS:  The classic objection to community foodscaping is:  ”people will just go in and pick the fruit/vegetables/nuts/etc.”  The answer is: “that’s the idea.”   Of course, there has to be reasonable limits on this.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Joanne Palmer: Foodscaping your way to eating bliss

By Joanne Palmer

Steamboat Springs — Say goodbye to your lawnmower and weed whacker, my friends. Having a lawn is passe, old news, so ’60s suburbia.

#It’s time to give up on mowing, aerating and fertilizing. Instead, lay down some love by transforming your backyard into a salad bar. You heard me: Plant a salad bar in your backyard. Out with the grass, in with the veggies! Out with high food bills! In with good health!

#Yup.

#I’m talking red cabbage, kale, fancy lettuces and Swiss chard, strawberry plants and raspberry bushes. Heck, you even can grow edible flowers like nasturtiums, pansies and day lilies.

#Who wants to listen to lawn mowers roaring to life at 7 a.m. on a Saturday? Aren’t you tired of trimming, edging and pruning? Set yourself free. I’m not talking about a raised bed or a neat little plot. I’m talking about foodscaping.

#Yes, foodscaping.

#There’s a small but growing trend for people to turn their entire yard into a salad bar. People are going gaga for vegetable gardening. According to an article on NPR’s website, “close to one-third of American households now do some kind of food gardening.” Thanks to Michelle Obama, even the White House has an L-shaped vegetable garden on the South Lawn complete with a beehive.

#Imagine the possibilities. An edible landscape saves you trips to the grocery store, relieves you of the guilt of buying food that might travel more than 2,000 miles to appear on your dining room table — and you benefit from good, fresh, safe food.

#If you foodscape your yard it transforms the way you entertain. Say goodbye to flipping through cookbooks, searching your recipe files or looking online for the perfect menu. You don’t have to clean the barbecue grill. No more polishing silver, setting the table or searching for a stray placemat. You can just invite people to come over and graze. The terms “garden party” and “moveable feast” take on new meanings. Kids can race around and pick strawberries, adults can lounge on a blanket beneath a shady tree and everyone can nibble to their heart’s content.

#For people like me who have a ravenous teen, you can turn them loose to forage in the foodscape anytime they wail, “I’m hungry, and there’s nothing to eat.”

#Of course, there will be seeds to start, some weeds to be pulled and watering to be done, but those activities are blissfully quiet. Clipping and snipping are nothing compared to the obnoxious sound of a gas-powered lawn mower.

#Still not convinced? Here’s an opportunity for a new wardrobe and marital bliss. Women have the perfect excuse to invest in a new foodscaping clothes like pink gardening gloves, cute overalls, a floppy hat and garden clogs.

#Your mate will be thrilled not to have to wrestle with the weed whacker, worry about the correct oil/gas mixture or travel to the gas pump for lawnmower fuel. Of course, if you are asking him to give up a ride-on mower, that could be a bit of a battle. Try taking him into building a scarecrow instead.

#Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to pull on my gardening gloves and get to work.

#Bon appetit!

Creating an Edible Foodscape

Enjoy abundance with edible ‘foodscaping’. Save on grocery bills and create a delightful garden, writes PAT FEATHERSTONE.

HAVE you ever considered a ‘foodscape’; turning your herbaceous borders and rolling lawns into a bountiful and beautiful food garden, a stroll through which provides the sustenance for body, mind and soul?

The conventional idea of a garden – weed-free, manicured lawns, a variety of ornamental and, very often, sculptured plants with a veggie patch in a corner, screened from sight and very often out of mind. Consider your options. Creating a landscape that feeds the family is the most practical solution to rising food prices, poor health, increasing stress levels and a whole lot of other troubles that are prevalent in modern society.

An edible landscape gives you the benefit of good, fresh, safe food every day of the year; it gives you the opportunity to experiment with new and exciting varieties of fruit and veggies that you seldom, if ever, see in the shops; it re-connects you with nature in all its glory, and your soul. The colours and smells attract a plethora of birds and butterflies, bees and beetles which in their turn bring the frogs and lizards, praying mantids and dragon flies.

Spend some time on research. There are many books available in book shops and libraries that will give you an insight into the exciting world of food plants. Don’t be tempted to stick with tried and tested varieties. Experiment with colours, textures, tastes and smells. Remember the greater the variety of different foods you consume each day, the more likely you are to obtain all the essential nutrients for optimum health.

Look at plants as visual and structural elements in your garden. Find out about their root systems – shallow, deep, spreading – how tall they grow and how large their canopies, whether they can tolerate partial shade, wind and frost, when they produce flowers and are likely to give you a colourful display, and when you can harvest the fruits of your labour. The more you know about their growth habits and needs before you start planting, the more likely you are to be a successful at turning your garden into a foodscape.

You will also need to decide whether you’re going to create an entirely edible garden or just incorporate food (and muti) plants into borders, among existing plants.

Here are a few ideas: • Plant a fruit or nut, not a shade tree; • Grow a pot of herbs on the stoep; • Grow grapes over your pergola; • Grow cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket or a window box; • Grow edible flowers (nasturtiums, calendulas, violets, pansies, day lilies); • Grow red cabbage, curly and ornamental kale, red Chinese mustard, fancy lettuces and chillies, and Bright Lights Swiss chard; and • Start a vertical garden on a wall.

Around the world, people benefit from foodscaping. In Shanghai there are over 600 000 food gardens, 66% of the families in Moscow grow food and in Havana, Cuba, over 80% of the produce in the city comes from urban gardens. Why can’t we do the same?

Pat Featherstone runs Soil for Life, a Cape Town-based NGO that teaches about growing one’s own food. Phone her on 021 794 4982.

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