Beacon Food Forest
A pioneering public food forest on Seattle's Beacon Hill, where anyone can wander in and harvest for free.
Born from a 2009 permaculture design course, Beacon Food Forest turned a slope of public utility land into one of the largest and best-known public food forests in the United States. The first trees went in the ground in 2012, and the site has been tended by volunteers — and open to all — ever since.
The radical idea at its centre is generosity: there are no fences and no price. Neighbours pick fruit, herbs, and greens freely, and in doing so a piece of city infrastructure became a commons. It has inspired a wave of public food forests across North America.