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[LIBERTYNY]

"Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600s


We are being told to eat local and seasonal food, either because other crops have been tranported over long distances, or because they are grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. But it wasn't always like that. From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.

These crops were grown surrounded by massive "fruit walls", which stored the heat from the sun and released it at night, creating a microclimate that could increase the temperature by more than 10°C (18°F). Later, greenhouses built against the fruit walls further improved yields from solar energy alone.

It was only at the very end of the nineteenth century that the greenhouse turned into a fully glazed and artificially heated building where heat is lost almost instantaneously -- the complete opposite of the technology it evolved from. "

  article --- http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming.html


 I came across this article and was very impressed by it and the concepts, Otherwise I dont have much to say about it I just thought I would share

5 Likes TBM, Greentoe, Roze, plantlight and danzick like this.

[plantlight]

This makes so much sense.  Adds to security of an area as well.

2 Likes danzick and LIBERTYNY like this.

[Chicsa]

thank you for this! this is great information for me. I did not know this. Can't wait to impliment this in my urban design

2 Likes plantlight and LIBERTYNY like this.