Hackney city farm

Pictures I took with a disposable camera when in London at the Hackney City Farm. This farm was established in 1984 by locals who wanted youngsters and the local community to experience farming. It is still supported by volunteers and their goal is to seed, nurture and harvest from the city and perform a metabolic function.

Green Inspirations: rooftop farming on Eagle Street

Some inspiring pictures taken by Todd Selby at Annie Novak's rooftop farm, Greenpoint New York.
The perfect prove that a city girl can live green and grow her own vegetables.
This is exactly what I would love to see more. Because a conscious way of living, stepping away from mass consumption and instant gratification is not only for hippies anymore.
She even has her own bees! It's a known fact that honey produced in cities have a richer flavor. The bees take honey from the flowers they find. In a city that's in parks and flower shops, where the variety is bigger. I wonder how Annie's homemade honey tastes.. :)

Find more pics on The Selby.

Eco friendly Micro Marché

Last week I went for a quick visit to Brussels, where I ended up having lunch in the ViaVia café of Micro Marché.

The purpose of Micro Marché is to introduce young creators and artist to the Brussel public in a cozy, friendly environment. A place where both authenticity and innovation find each other. It all started with the MicroMarchéMidi project. An open air market that took place on sundays (55 a year) on different locations. This monthly rendez-vous with 145 different creators who sell their work forms the base of what  Micro Marché is today.

The ViaVia café is the perfect place to enjoy a nice, bio lunch or have some coffee. But what I liked most about this place was the small, permaculture city garden! So happy to see this coming to our cities.

Also impressive, next to the permaculture garden, a cyclical kitchen. Designed by Intrastructures, a pragmatic utopian design studio that generates models, tools and products for social and environmental  restoration. The main goal is to develop a 'stomach' for the kitchen in which organic waste is transformed into biogas trough a digestive process. The biogas is then used for cooking and the digestate as a fertilizer for plants. A new way of thinking and rebuilding our kitchens and even our cities in order to be eco-friendly.

Green inspiration: Corazon De Raeymaecker

I already introduced Corazon on Ü, but she has to be on Coco Green too :) As a Belgian Model Corazon moved to New York for a while. Living in the city she was introduced to a community farm right outside the city centre called Winfall Farms. She learned that she really loved living and working on a farm and was particulary interested in the city farm concept. She now wants to start a simular project here in Antwerp. The whole idea is to start a farm outside the city, where people from the city can come to buy their vegetables. You pay one amount a season and for that money you can come and fill your basket once a week. Ofcourse there's much more to it. Not only do you know where your vegetables come from and that they were grown in a proper manner, you also become part of a community of people that want to step away from the mass consumption way of growing vegetables. I can't wait for Corazon to start with her farm! 

yes that's her driving a tractor =)