What if healthy and freshly produced food could be available for everyone? Well, the soon-to-be-launched New York project named Swale will make this possible. It is a mobile floating food forest built from repurposed shipping containers that will provide the public with free access to visit and to pick its freshly grown produce.
“The Swale farm is being installed on a 30 x 100-ft (9.1 x 30.5-m) flat deck barge”
Food forests are a naturally regenerating, resilient, and effective agro-ecosystems, which can, over time, provide free, fresh food. The project seeks not only to grow food for the public, but to encourage discussion about whether or not the provision of fresh food could be a free public service, rather than an expensive commodity.
Supported by A Blade of Grass, the Rolin Foundation, Food Forest Farm and individual donors, the farm is being installed on a 30 x 100-ft (9.1 x 30.5-m) flat deck barge, with input from a nautical engineer, landscape architects, gardeners, artists, educators, students and the US Coast Guard.
A wealth of produce-types will be grown on-board, using a “food forest” approach, where diverse planting benefits the ecosystem as a whole.
The produce will include raspberries, huckleberries, pawpaw, kales, beets, chard, arugula, leeks and artichokes
To grow its produce, Swale will primarily use rainwater, but it will also make use of river water. In order to use water from the Hudson, East and Bronx rivers, though, it will have first have to desalinate it and purify it of chemical and biological contaminants.
“To grow produce, rainwater and water from the river will be used”
This will partly be done using saltwater marsh plants, with the water also filtered through tanks, sand, and gravel. A second gravity-fed process will then filter it through sand, clay, silver and carbonated charcoal.
The project will be able to serve 300 people per day for four days a week
In addition, the barge will host community activities and artistic events, such as performances, tutorials and discussions.
“People will be able to choose from a variety of produce”
The plan is for Swale to launch in June and to dock at a number of piers in New York for a month at a time. Its current planned locations are New Rochelle in late June, Concrete Plant Park in July, Governor’s Island and Pier 36 in August, Brooklyn Bridge Park in September, Brooklyn Navy Terminal in October and Staten Island Homeport in November.
If you would like to support this project, you can donate to Swale New York at the New York Foundation for the Arts website.
“Layout for planned edibles”
“Planned Swale interior”
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