We are pleased to report that we are making steady progress on the Fox Field Food Forest Project and the primary ADA compliant pathway will be installed starting during Thanksgiving week. We will also get an “information kiosk” up to explain what is happening, since these initial steps might be confusing to someone who doesn’t know about the whole project!
Background: For those new to the project, the East Bayside Neighborhood Organization (EBNO) received funding in early 2014 to design and install a neighborhood food forest in keeping with increased urban agriculture happening around the city and to kick off the theme of “Edible East Bayside” (embedding food in the landscape in a variety of ways). The City, The Resilience Hub and staff from Wright-Pierce have been working with EBNO all along the way. It took some time to find the right spot (the eastern corner of Fox Field) and then more time to involve as many of the neighbors and neighborhood groups as possible. And there’s always more of that to do! But we have been committed to as robust of a participatory design of the Fox Field Food Forest as possible.
Highlights of our current status:
- Thorough soil testing was done and the site was found to be quite clean, with no remediation needed.
- First DRAFT drawing (FFFF ConceptualPlan 8.21), based on neighborhood design sessions, has been created
- Primary path and explanatory kiosk going in now
- This winter we will circle back with neighborhood groups for feedback on the DRAFT design
- Working with the City to develop the stewardship and maintenance plan
- Will create the final drawings at the end of winter
- Doing some additional fund-raising to install Phase 2 of the Food Forest in the 2nd half of 2016
- Start the installation of the rest of the Food Forest in the spring with neighborhood work parties, permablitzes and more!
- So far involved parties have included EBNO (residents & businesses), Resilience Hub, Wright-Pierce, City of Portland, Root Cellar, Mayo Street, Portland Police Dept, Parks Commission, Study Center in Kennedy Park, Portland Housing Authority and some early conversations with the Muslim Community Center. More of all of this to come….
Watch for more updates and the formation of a neighborhood stewardship team to help ensure maximum use and care of one of our new neighborhood assets!
Fox Field Food Forest: It’s more than just a garden! It will be a convening place with edible landscaping, learning and playing opportunities, a social space, an oasis of ecological health and beauty in East Bayside for all to enjoy!
There are five of us working at The Resilience Hub now, designing, teaching, organizing, etc. And with so many awesome designers around, I personally don’t get out to as many client consults as I used to. But I do love doing it and keeping my hand in. So today I had a fabulous treat of being able to get out on a gorgeous fall sunny day in Maine to walk around a client/friend/student’s property and brainstorm design ideas for her place. Without saying as much, we talked zones, sector influences, stacking functions, perennial edible ecosystems, rainwater collection, relative location and more.
A few of us attended the launch party for this new report last night at 
I experience such elation seeing a new group of folks accomplish all that is set before them in a permaculture design course. Over a six-month period, two dozen incredible people ranging from their 20s to their 70s bonded, learned, camped, ate, laughed, experienced so much. I hope that what transpired for them will linger and last in many ways. I know it does for me.
I recently attended the 
My husband and I recently figured out that we’re doing somewhere between 150 – 200 hours per year of unplanned tours for folks who drop by. We love doing it and sharing what’s happening here, but we’re also thinking about scheduling some standing “open days” to try to funnel some visitors into a bit fewer slots if possible. Then we might be able to finish implementing our design a little faster:)
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