The non-public workshop took place on the 7th of June 2021. The main aim was to support the implementation of edible city solutions in Berlin’s social disadvantaged neighborhoods. This half-day event was aimed at the members of the neighborhood management program in Berlin.

The workshop benefitted from the inputs of Simone Antony (District administration Marzahn-Hellersdorf) and Annette Biernath (degewo AG).

The two speakers gave a quick overview and clarified questions about the implementation of different ECS in cooperation with the district administration or housing companies.

Afterwards, an exemplary ECS project was planned in small groups using the design thinking method. One group focused on “participation and integration through edible city solutions”, while the other group dealt with “strengthening resilience through edible city solutions”.

At the end, participants gave short descriptions of problems and challenges in implementing edible city solutions and citizen participation in their neighborhoods. These are valuable impulses for the upcoming workshop in August.

The EdiCitNet Awards aim to recognize, inspire and promote innovative ECS initiatives, processes and approaches with a demonstrated societal impact through the award of three prizes in the following categories:

–             Most innovative individual action

–             Most innovative social engagement process

–             Best overall Edible City approach

Find more information here: https://www.edicitnet.com/awards/

Awards are open to any individual, group or organization located in one of the EdiCitNet member cities (see here). Candidates can apply directly or nominate a “local hero” or initiative. The same application can be used to apply for each of the three categories. Different initiatives by the same individual or organization require separate applications.

Selection will be based on a two-stage process, consisting of peer-voting (by 15th of August) followed by expert selection (by 15th of September).

Evaluation criteria:

–             Innovation

–             Relevance

–             Inclusivity

–             Impact

–             Upscaling & replication

Prizes:

–             A promotional package, consisting of documentation and promotion via

the EdiCitNet social media and communication channels.

–             A travel grant to fund their participation in the EdiCitNet Awards

Ceremony (to be held in late September/early October). Please note: this prize is only available to those individuals and initiatives that are not already receiving direct funding from the EdiCitNet project

Timeframe:

–             Deadline for applications: 30th of July

–             Deadline for peer-voting: 15th of August

–             Notification of results: 15th of September

–             Announcement of Winners at the Annual EdiCitNet Conference: Late September/ Early October

WP2 team has shared several good news such as:

• The submission of second article of WP2 entitled “Tools for edible cities: A review of tools for planning and assessing edible nature-based solutions”.
• The increased collaboration between WP1,2,6 and 7 for the integration of the project network marketplace, and toolbox.
• EdiCitNet DATABASE has more than 20 different countries and more than 100 cities. These cities and countries are represented on the form of more the 300 PROFILES.
• The SEARCH TOOL brings the possibility of searching for interactive and non-interactive profiles and by location.
• A new version of the PERFORMANCE ASSESMENT TOOL brings two novelties. User can explore, compare and check out the top 10 Edible City Solutions per typology (e.g. community gardens) in terms of sustainability, urban challenges and ecosystem services.
• The EDIBLE CITY GAME. The urban model of SFL is built, tested and calibrated by SFL’s practitioners that are playing in single-player modality. Practioners have showed a great interest in the functionalities of the serious game.
• DESIGN AND PLANNING TOOL. The “Individual level” and “City level” options were replaced by, respectively, “Create your own ECS” and “Create a city plan of ECS”. The former option is intended for individual users, to discover resources requirements and expected yield. The latter is to be used by city planners, to investigate the impact of ECS on city’s food production, resources management and sustainability. “Create your own ECS” option is almost fully operational. We decided to remove the map on the entering page so that the user will only have to provide the plot area size and will not have to draw polygons (to be implemented very soon). “Create a city plan of ECS” option currently allows for the user to draw polygons or areas, corresponding to neighbourhoods, city districts, etc. which they want to analyse. For these areas, land uses are automatically generated based on the Urban Atlas.

On June 25th the Living Lab Members of Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin in Neukölln met to present and discuss the Edible Cities Solutions that were elaborated during the previous months.

ECS “Product Development”

In collaboration with the Berlin Living Lab Gutsgarten Hellersdorf the ECS aims to develop a product from locally grown ingredients with an independent brand that is to be developed. The focus here is on herbs from which tea and syrup are to be made. The herbs are grown, harvested (and processed) in the Living Lab Neukölln.

ECS “Cultural and Culinary Actions Days”

With this ECS, the numerous ideas and suggestions for including the intercultural neighborhood of the New St. Jacobi Cemetery are combined in a practical, flexible and easily accessible way. The chosen format are the action days, which are already well established on the grounds of the Jacobi cemetery. They take place during the season from March to November, once a month on Saturdays and are therefore well suited for neighborhood participation. Several activities can take place at the same time on a day of action, e.g. horticultural and craft activities or cultural and culinary activities.

ECS “Cemetery Conversion and Mourning Culture”

This ECS is intended to positively accompany and shape the fundamental and for some cemetery visitors certainly difficult change that is currently taking place on the cemetery area. Why are cemetery areas in Berlin closed? What does it mean when parts of a 150-year-old cemetery gradually become an urban garden? How can the uniqueness of the place be preserved? How much life and activity is actually conceivable in a cemetery? How can we go new ways together with those who grieve? Death and transience are omnipresent in a cemetery, but also in the vegetable patch and in the field. Can death and life be experienced as mutually dependent and complementary aspects? Can gardening with mourners be a way of gently coping with pain? From these and similar questions, the desire arises to deal more intensively with the topics of cemetery conversion and the culture of mourning within the framework of an ECS.

ECS “Research Center for Urban Environments”

This ECS deals with the possibilities of integrating neighborhood and research into an ecological and social cemetery conversion. This could be implemented in the form of an environmental education center on the topics of ecology and cemetery conversion.

On June 21st the new event stage at the Berlin Living Lab Gutsgarten Hellersdorf was officially opend during the annual music festival Fête de la Musique. The stage was constructed in the weeks before together with the active participants of the community garden and served a great performing space for the music acts of the evening.

Also at this event, our team was able to present the project to interested people.

On June 19th the 4th monthly actions day as part of the Edible Cities Solution “Cultural and Culinary Actions Days” in the Berlin Living Lab Neukölln took place. Despite the high temperatures volunteers joined the team to make the year’s first tea herb harvest of mint and lemon balm and prepared them for the drying process and tea production. Further the team produced some liters of summer savory syrup – a local homemade and delicious product that later can be purchased at the garden’s café.

In addition, the EdiCitNet communications team had a stand there in Berlin to inform the local community about the Living Lab and the work in the project. Visitors were introduced to the project in a playful way with Planting2Go (planting action with seeds to take home).