Up ahead, you’ll spot the Beacon Food Forest by looking for a big, grassy hillside bustling with people, wheelbarrows, and gardening action right at the edge of Jefferson Park, near where the land dips down with trees and city views off to your left.
Alright, welcome to the Beacon Food Forest-one of Seattle’s quirkiest and tastiest hidden gems! If you take a deep breath, you might just catch a whiff of earth and fresh woodchips, and maybe even the laughter of volunteers hard at work. Imagine back in 2009, a small group of dreamers-students, gardeners, and activists-standing on this very patch of grass, huddled over sketches for a "food forest" they hoped would become something much bigger than just a neighborhood garden.
At that time, their ideas sounded as wild as planting apple and hazelnut trees on the moon. But with a bit of Seattle’s famous determination (and coffee), plus a $20,000 city grant, the adventure started digging roots. Picture them hatching their plans over at OmCulture in Wallingford and running permaculture classes at a raw vegan farm, all while gathering support from local gardeners and curious neighbors. By 2012, the first 1.75 acres of this food jungle were planted, with apples, pears, plums-you name it!
But here’s where it gets really interesting: the land you’re standing on belongs to Seattle Public Utilities-not exactly the neighbor you’d expect when you’re planting edible forests. Even so, the city cheered them on, tossing in a juicy $100,000 in support and letting these garden pioneers turn this stretch into, reportedly, America’s largest food forest on public land.
Wander through, and you’ll see it’s not just fruit and veggies. Off to one side is the "sust̓əlǰixʷali" Traditional Indian Medicine garden-a living tribute to Indigenous plants, crafted for both medicine and sovereignty, its very name meaning “a place where medicine is created” in the Lushootseed language.
There are P-Patch plots just like you’d see in other city gardens, and nearly everything here is open to harvest-yep, you can just pick lunch right from a tree, though you should leave the special food bank plot be. During the pandemic, the forest pumped up veggie production to help food banks. And did you know this spot has even been the punchline on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”? Apparently, L.A. wanted a food forest, but instead of apples, you’d be hand-feeding Kardashians!
So look around, listen for that buzzing energy-would you believe all this started as a wild idea and a few shovels? You’re now standing in a living story, one delicious bite at a time.
