The city has lots of rooftop farms and greenmarkets for feeding your crippling ramps addiction, but a Vermont farmer wants to add produce-via-sailboat to the mix. Rice farmer Erik Andrus has begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 to build a sailboat that would transport goods from the Green Mountain State down the Hudson River into New York City and the Lower Hudson. "We're looking to provide things into the urban marketplace that can't be officially produced there because they take up too much space," Andrus told WPTZ. "Here in rural New England, we have the space but we don't have the markets."
The 39 foot sailboat—named Ceres after the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain crops—is currently being built by an all volunteer crew of students and members of the community. When completed, the boat would be capable of transporting 12 tons of Vermont-produced goods down the river without using any gasoline. If they're able to get the funding, the Vermont Sail Freight Project would launch in Lake Champlain in July and would sail Ceres on her maiden voyage in September. This harkening back to older shipping methods was also implemented by Williamsburgs's Mast Brothers chocolate, who transported cocoa beans by schooner in 2011, the first time such a method had been used in NYC since 1939.
"Ceres will carry 24000 lbs of cargo and requires a working crew of two. She draws just 2 feet of water fully laden."
Ceres would deliver a bounty of produce and other foodstuffs, including apples, stone-ground flour, organic potatoes and other root veggies plus an assortment of pickled goods and other jarred products. Would-be shoppers can track the vessel by email and Twitter and will be able to buy their products directly from the boat when it docks in Manhattan. So far the campaign has pledges totaling $4,555 and they have until April 25th to raise to full 15k. Check out the perfect illustration of exactly how you picture Vermont farmers in the accompanying campaign video for further impetus to donate.
[via Inhabitat]
