Art, Farming and Sustainability: The Alaskan Way Hanging Gardens

Photo Credit: Sustainable Seattle

Sungold tomatoes, amaranth, salad burnet, broccoli and eggplant... did my tummy just grumble? No, this isn't a farmer’s market shopping list. These are just some of the vegetables found in plastic semitransparent milk jugs, attached together with twine, hanging five feet above a concrete sidewalk to a row of trees at the Seattle Waterfront, between Alaskan Way and Wall Street to be exact.

Last month, we posted on our Facebook page about this unexpected urban garden, named Alaskan Way Hanging Gardens. These sweet little plants, even equipped with a drip irrigation system, on a busy downtown street warmed our urban agriculture hearts. We just had to find out how this project came to be. Turns out, it took two city departments, one artist/urban gardener/chocolatier, and a couple sustainability minded concepts to build this garden that is actually, art.

Sustainable Seattle Annual Event Press Release

December 14, 2010

Sustainable Seattle Hosts Annual Event and Award Ceremony at Hidmo Restaurant

Sustainable Seattle

Phone: +1.206.622.3522
Email: laura@sustainableseattle.org, Andrew@sustainableseattle.org, nathan@sustainableseattle.org

SEATTLE -- Sustainable Seattle, in collaboration with Sustainable Central District and Pursuit of a Green Planet (POAGP), will hold its Annual Event at Hidmo on Dec. 16, 2010 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. The celebration marks the year’s achievements by Sustainable Seattle and its collaborators and will feature food, entertainment and a silent auction to benefit the organizations.

The evening will be a series of acts that include local calls to action, musical performances, film screenings of Sustainable Seattle videos, artistic displays and performances, awards program winners and a performance by local Hip-Hop act Young & Brave.

Hosting the Annual Event is Hidmo, a community-focused restaurant, lounge and meeting space located in the historic Central District. The venue was selected for its connection to the community it aspires to build and maintain and its wonderful food, service and ambiance. This is the second Sustainable Seattle event hosted at Hidmo.

Many organizations and individuals have donated goods and supplies toward Sustainable Seattle’s fundraising goals and they include: Grand Central Bakery, Macrina Bakery, Gelatiamo, Honest Tea, Columbia City Bakery, PCC Natural Markets and Starbucks. Local artists and visionaries also donated gifts and services to the silent auction benefiting Sustainable Seattle and its partner organizations.

For more information on the Annual Event and to reserve tickets, visit www.sustainableseattle.org.

###

Sustainable Seattle

Founded in 1991, Sustainable Seattle is a non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in the Central Puget Sound, nationally and internationally. Sustainable Seattle creates cutting edge products, processes and leadership that propel people and communities forward in reaching sustainability. Sustainable Seattle strives to create healthy communities, economies, and ecosystems by serving as an incubator for emerging people, projects, and ideas, as a convener of diverse citizens and practitioners, and as a catalyst for turning indicators into action

Sustainable Seattle’s mission is to be a positive catalyst and resource for positive change. We accomplish this mission by working with diverse individuals, communities, businesses and government agencies to build awareness, assess progress, and take action on collective sustainability goals.

Garden Planning Potluck

22nd & Union
Garden Planning Potluck & BBQ hosted by
Alleycat Acres
Grow Forth

SUnDAy MAy 16Th
2-4PM
@ 22nD & Union in The CenTRAl DiSTRiCT

Central District Residents and Community Members &
Alleycat Acres

Garden Planning Potluck and BBQ to discuss future
plans for 22nd and Union Site

The goal of Alleycat Acres is to convert empty spaces
in Seattle into sustainable urban farms. We need your
input for what to grow and how to distribute the crops
in the Central District.

Local Food and Urban Agriculture: An introduction

Alleycat Acres is a sustainable Urban Farming Collective and has been blazing a new trail into affordable, urban food growing. The organization is leading a trend to grow food in smaller areas, areas normally reduced to parking lots or vacant weeds and rubble.

The entire concept of urban agriculture is a relatively new idea that focuses on making affordable fresh fruits and vegetables in areas where many people would not reasonably be able to expect produce. Many areas in dense urban cities do not have a market or grocery store that has fresh fruits and vegetables. Many are stores that buy the lowest bid plants that are on the verge of spoiling or rot in order to save money. Some stores replace fresh fruits with sugary drinks and canned veggies that lose all their nutrients the minute one opens the can.

With urban agriculture plots of land or even smaller pieces such as flower beds or sides of drainage areas are converted into growing centers. Often times the food that is grown goes to local food banks, charities or the growers themselves in an effort to minimize transportation and maximize the payout of the project.

There are numerous groups who are recognizing the positive lessons taught by working the land and many of them are focused on urban youth. One such organization is Seattle Youth Garden Works which unfortunately has been running into financial difficulty due to the recession. They are still in existence, but need assistance.

Food that is locally grown not only is fresher, but it also accomplishes supporting the local economy, your friends and neighbors, and it is also environmentally better than shipping or flying food from the average 1500 mile distance.

For more ideas on how you can get involved visit:
Alleycat Acres

Sustainable Wallingford Events

The aim of Sustainable Wallingford is to build a more sustainable town in Wallingford.



Sustainable Seattle in collaboration with other sustainability groups will bring you news of events in the greater Seattle area.

What’s up this month with Sustainable Wallingford groups?
Next week is Wallingford Community Preparedness week with ham radio training Feb 18 and a SNAP workshop Feb 20.
Growing Food Growing Community is growing vegetable starts for food banks this year with 25, count em - 25!! volunteers (last year they grew and gave away more than 3000 baby plants with just 6 volunteers).
Community Kitchens are holding a delicious winter salads and chocolate dinner to celebrate Feb 26 (rsvp early)
Climate Dialogs continue to take political action to inform, educate, and lobby.
Wallingford Solar has a vision of putting solar panels on 1000 Wallingford houses and is making a presentation Feb 17 at Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell Energy Committee (getting local energy generation is part of the Sustainable Wallingford Energy Efficiency Team Plan - the SWEET Plan).
Meaningful Movies shows Food Inc Feb 13 and celebrates its 7th birthday, Meaningful Movies partners with us on a monthly Transition movie series starting March 13.

And check out our 2009 accomplishments!

Sustainable Wallingford is blessed with amazingly knowledgeable and dedicated people. Take a look at our member pages: we’ve got systems planners, communication consultants, toxicologists, nutritionists, gardeners, artists. (Make sure you update your page if you’ve got new interests and skills or a new address.) We still need more - writers, social media folks, painters, photographers, engineers, musicians, babies, cheesemakers, nurses, teachers, carpenters, tool bankers, businesspeople, students, yogis, chemists, biologists, plumbers, shoemakers, bakers, bikers, dancers, architects, computer scientists, ham radio operators, psychologists, pruners, electricians. We need you. We can build a better community and a better world with your unique skills and passions.

Journalism that Matters part three

On Saturday the conference was in full swing and the sessions that were offered were varied and relevant to journalism and to sustainability. The session I choose was not even a choice, but a directive. The session hosted by Michell Ferrier was on the connections and opportunities between local food and journalism. Anything that has food in the title sure is persuasive.

The group was diverse with journalists, professors, new media entrepreneurs, self described citizens, students and techies. The conversation veered from the local food industry into the heart of journalism and its connection to a well informed and healthy public.

The local food phenomenon has made many people aware of the positive benefits to eating local. The cost of transportation, inefficient packaging and the damage to the health and taste of food transported from all corners of the earth have brought the idea of sustainable living from the theoretical to the dinner plate. Local food not only benefits the minds and bodies of those who eat it, but also helps the local community become more strengthened as money stays in the community instead of flowing out of town, or out of state.

The session focused on the use of food and local producers of food and the concept of engagement in the community. Food as a gathering apparatus is well known, and no major human event takes place without someone snacking on pretzels in the background. The session touched upon the need for communities to have their stories told and the need for media to cover what is happening on the local level.

One suggestion that was given was to use Festivals that celebrated the local community's speciality. Festivals could be used as a gathering of social import as well as a celebration of all things local. One participant gave the idea of using Salmon as the focal point for Pacific Northwest Festivals.

After the session was over I stayed to talk about what Sustainable Seattle is planning for this year and I was even interviewed for the Journalism that Matters live stream about how journalism and healthy communities are inextricably linked. Sustainable Seattle also made some connections to local media sources and possible collaborative efforts may be the fruit of this labor.