Excursion to the "edible town" - Andernach

To create another exchange of sustainable and eco-friendly practices, GreenErasmus-RheinAhrCampus organized an excursion for students and teaching staff. The place we chose to visit was Andernach - a beautiful and, how it turned out, environmental-friendly town at the Rhein. 
The biggest highlight of Andernach is the concept of a multifunctional “edible town”, which is close to urban gardening. Green areas all over town are being used to grow edible plants that can be picked and eaten by any visitors of the town. Furthermore, citizens of Andernach are motivated to engage more and more in the green spaces of their hometown. Elsewhere it is “Keep off the grass” , but in Andernach it is “Picking is encouraged – help yourself”.
We were astonished how the concept of "edible town" can bring nature back into the cities. Furthermore, we have seen how biodiverse the urban garden can be: there were common plants but also some exotic ones, such as banana palms and pomegranates. 

Overall, it was a very sustainable day for our diverse group:

• we took the greenest transport - a train - to reach our destination
• we practiced some gardening with the locals who takes care of the garden
• we harvested some organic and local food 
• we had a healthy veggie picnic and a day outdoors

The idea of "edible town" is practical and promotes healthy living and it inspired us to think about the "edible university", which, who knows, will be the next GreenErasmus-RheinAhrCampus project!