05/13/2024
Have you been to Beacon Food Forest? It’s magic, especially this time of year. What used to be a 7-acre hillside of intractable grass is now a verdant, climate change-mitigating ecosystem with a diverse pollinator habitat, rich, healthy soil, and more than 300 edible plants. Its a demonstration site and a learning community that reimagines what urban green spaces can offer. It’s public food on public land.
On this episode of the Umami Podcast, we talk to Elise Evans, Core Volunteer and former Board President of Beacon Food Forest. We’ll dig into how this grassroots organization, powered by volunteers, has managed to create a unique, thriving, sustainable solution to food insecurity, land access, and food and ecology education.
The produce that grows on Beacon Food Forest land is available to anyone to harvest. Show up to volunteer for a third Saturday work party and you’ll learn about soil, indigenous plants, and garden care (you might even get a free lunch!). Take a class to learn about everything from cultivating mushrooms, to attracting pollinators, to growing natural remedies.
Elise talks to us about how it got started, how it has evolved over the 15 years since it began, and how community keeps it thriving. She illustrates how Beacon Food Forest offers a blueprint for any community looking to create opportunities for its citizens to participate in creating local food ecosystems.
