Why aren’t there more edible parks?
Ripe persimmon
Last year during my foraging immersive course I found out about an edible park in the middle of the city. I planned to go visit it, but it never actually happened, until today.
The park was pretty small, but it was packed with fruit and nut producing trees and other edible plants, and it was well maintained. I saw (and ate) ripe persimmons, and there were chestnuts and violet leaves in season — and a ton of other plants and trees that were out of season.
It had me thinking about all our local parks, and their lack of food producing plants and trees. I mean, if you know what you're looking for, you can always find food to forage, but nothing is ever planted intentionally to produce food for the community.
We have these sky rocketing food prices in stores nowadays and a ton of open, public land where people already congregate — why not put some of that land to use producing healthy, clean food for the community?
I've heard the excuse that fruit trees are messy and attract flies and other bugs, but if there was a team of people (and working animals) to manage the trees, then that problem wouldn't be a problem anymore.
We're in a time where we need to start thinking differently about things.
Having our food shipped in from across the country, or from other countries, just isn't sustainable and it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I know not everyone has access to land, but we have all this public land that's already been cleared, that could be used to help feed the community.
This kind of stuff gets me fired up.
There are a handful of parks that I go to with little Maggie, with huge open grassy areas. I see some of it getting used by groups gathering, or dogs chasing balls, but most of it is just there, taking up space.
Wouldn't it be cool if some of that grassy area was used to create community gardens? And then rather than planting more ornamental trees, if the park service staff started planting fruit and nut trees?
Unfortunately I think it's going to take some crazy shifts in our society and world to implement an idea like that. Humans are creatures of habit and it's become an easy habit to simply go to a store and buy what is needed, regardless of where it comes from. And if it works, why change it, right?
While that system has worked for quite a while now, I think it's in danger of no longer working anymore and maybe sooner than we might think.
Hi, I’m Kristen!
I envision a world where you and I rediscover what it is to be human, through connection with ourselves, each other and the natural world around us.