NYC’s floating food forest has departed for the South Bronx

Last summer, Technical.ly had the chance to embark upon Swale, a “floating food forest” full of plants that visitors can pick. In addition to taking home food to cook, this reporter got to witness an artificial-intelligence-based investigation into what songs bird enjoy — all upon Swale’s 130-foot barge. The project, founded by artist Mary Mattingly, won our 2016 Brooklyn Innovation Award for Artist/Creative Group of the Year.

But alas, for now, Swale is no longer in Brooklyn. Right now, it’s stationed at Concrete Plant Park in the South Bronx, where the project originally launched. Later this summer, it will move a bit closer to our neck of the woods, to Hudson River Park in Lower Manhattan. (Mattingly, for her part, will be splitting her time between New York and Giverny, France, where she has an artist’s residency at Monet’s Garden through the Versailles Foundation.) The Associated Press recently ran a nice writeup with all the details.

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Swale came to life through a Kickstarter campaign and a grant from the nonprofit A Blade of Grass. This year, it’s attracted another big sponsor: Strongbow, the hard cider manufacturer, is donating an orchard of eight apple trees.

“It aligns with our messaging because we’re about bringing nature into the city,” Reggie Gustave, Strongbow’s brand manager, told the AP.

Apple picking downtown on the river? Sounds good to us.