Sort of public gardens

October 21, 2005

The urban garden is thriving in Istanbul. Walking around the Biennale’s parallel programme locations in Karaköy, I spied some ad hoc agriculture in ‘public’ planters. These images show vegetables being grown amidst ‘ornamental’ city landscaping. Chapeau to the hacker-farmers growing squash, bell peppers, tomatoes and aubergines in their urban gardens. Look, they have even contructed a BBQ on which to do the grilling!

Smack dab in the middle of the Üskudar ferry terminal, ad hoc growers have cultivated tomatoes in all of the planters.

Images documenting beets being grown within public landscaping at a student housing complex in Nanjing in PRChina (April 2004).

And in Montpellier this summer, PRChinese artist Song Dong’s salad installation.

technorati tags: public domain, urban gardening, food security, farming, food-related art, hacking, public space agricultural diversification, agricultural policy
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debra at 16:04 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

Amphora types according to culiblog

October 20, 2005

In one of the artist-in-residence gardens of the future Santral Istanbul, we found a plastic amphora, looking not dissimilar to the amphorae of old.

technorati tags: Turkey, amphora, Istanbul, Santral

debra at 16:19 | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us

Hairy dairy

October 19, 2005

Turkish goat cheese packaged and sold in an animal skin, just the way it was originally produced. Shepherds discovered that animal milk carried in animal skins curdles, (especially the skins of baby animals) and the rest is culinary history. This tube of tulum cheese was being portioned at the Egyptian Spice Market in Istanbul. For some reason the practice of preserving and selling cheese in an animal skin is not echoed by the producers of cow’s milk cheeses.

debra at 13:25 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us