A few years ago I made a presentation\u00a0at an educational conference at a college in Maine. I rented a car after the conference and drove to the coast where I found a B &\u00a0B to stay in for a few days. Nearby, an establishment struck me and has stuck.<\/p>\n
It is hard to say what it was as a genre. It was on about an half-acre. They grew ornamental and vegetable plants and trees. There was an old building that housed a book store, a botanical store selling essential oils and creams made from the plants they grew. In another small space they sold baked goods. There was a small kitchen and serving area with two pots of homemade soup, bread and two salads from the gardens. They served coffee and herbal teas grown in\u00a0the gardens and dried in a shelter.<\/p>\n
When\u00a0you purchased food, you could eat\u00a0it inside, where there were 3 small tables and chairs, or take it outside. Among the plants there were open patio areas and rough shelters sprinkled\u00a0here and there on narrow brick paths among the nursery plants. Each shelter had a small eating area and at least one table.\u00a0They\u00a0also served as spaces to\u00a0maintain and propagate the planting areas. Did I mention that they used organic methods of growing?<\/p>\n
As I carried my soup and tea out to the gardens, it started to rain. I ducked into a shelter where\u00a0twig furniture\u00a0(table and chairs,\u00a0for sale) invited me into a\u00a0rough structure made of a few stripped\u00a0boughs overhead, and covered with a big sheet of plastic. I was able to sit and enjoy\u00a0the garden\u00a0in a downpour, perfectly dry except for a few times when a gust of wind carried a light spray my way.\u00a0It was peaceful, green, beautiful, economical in price for me, and a cunning way of presenting outdoor furniture for sale. Had I lived in Maine, it would be hard to leave without buying a chair or wooden basket.<\/p>\n
From my\u00a0perspective I saw that none of the structures were complete. There were workshops where furniture’s\u00a0built. There were plastic hoop houses – low tunnels filled with seedlings and small plants (for sale). Some shelters roughly constructed with this and that. Others old outbuildings with parts missing,\u00a0scraped bare, reinforced, and used as they were – open and perfectly functional. The stark clarity of the structures left the impression of sculpture, not poverty.<\/p>\n
I walked\u00a0back into the “house” to find a book. Then I realized that instead of having been rehabilitated and returned to its original state (an expensive proposition) it was scoured, reinforced, some interior walls removed, wired for electricity, a wood stove installed, and used as it was. Each room felt like\u00a0nook or cranny as\u00a0a small, focused sales area. The books were mostly about making your own, growing your own, and selling your own.<\/p>\n
I was in awe of people who had a vision, lived\u00a0among plants, used what they grew, honed all their skills, and created an environment that radiated integrity, focus, and aesthetics while reflecting\u00a0intelligently what is at hand.<\/p>\n
They constructed their own lives\u00a0with\u00a0an open structure. And let me tell you, Maine has lots of cold and snow for many months of the year. By studying the layout I could see its\u00a0design\u00a0to shrink back into the most sturdy spaces from\u00a0ice and snow, and then open up again when weather permits.<\/p>\n
It dawned on me\u00a0that this could be done anywhere. Using vertical agriculture and\u00a0hydroponics, it could even be reproduced in urban areas, in and around any boarded up building or factory.<\/p>\n
This memory embodies\u00a0my vision for Palimpsest, as a project of urban agriculture, artisan and craft preservation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few years ago I made a presentation\u00a0at an educational conference at a college in Maine. I rented a car after the conference and drove to the coast where I found a B &\u00a0B to stay in for a few days. Nearby, an establishment struck me and has stuck. It is hard to say what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-deepening","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27IaX-89","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harveststudioonline.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}