Gardens are springing up all over the plac -rooftop gardens in New York City and large urban gardens in \cities such as Chicago and Portland. Growing your own fresh veggies has become a national pastime. Now baseball has jumped into the act.
The San Francisco Giants now have a 4,320 square-foot vegetable garden behind the outfield wall in center field in AT&T Park, their professional baseball stadium. This is a first for baseball.
The space where The Garden is located , known as “batter’s eyes”, is normally kept empty to prevent a pitched ball from being lost in the midst of people sitting in the outfield bleachers. Wanting to further their reputation for sustainability in sports, the Giants created this conspicuous urban farm.
With a mild enough climate to generate produce throughout the year, during the baseball season – and perhaps the World Series? – fans can enjoy a variety of fruits and veggies during the games like blueberries, avocados, tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuces, lemons, watercress, kale and lemongrass. Sausages and meat sandwiches are available alongside a juice and smoothie bar. Produce is picked mere steps from where it’s prepared and sold as healthy snacks.Hopefully this is the first of many such innovative sustainable projects we’ll see in the sports world for years to come.