Forestiere Underground Gardens
The Forestiere Underground Gardens, situated at 5021 West Shaw Avenue, in Fresno, California, are an extraordinary series of underground constructions built by Baldassare Forestiere, an immigrant from Sicily, during forty years from 1906 to his untimely death in February of 1946. For the landscaper, architect, and botanist, these structures serve as home to hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of different species of plants and animals. Each month, for as long as ten years, these plants and animals reproduce on a large scale, laying hundreds of millions of eggs that must be transported to a fertilized oasis where they will be nourished and protected until the new blooms rise above ground level, ready to emerge as fully grown plants. This blooming cycle makes the Underground Garden an exquisite example of natural harmony. If nature is so important to us in our everyday lives, how can we allow this beautiful Garden to be wasted?
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The story of the Garden begins with Baldassiere’s son, Antonio, who has been born with a deformed right eye. The family doctor prescribes him to wear a metallic contact lens. Upon retiring from the hospital years later, Baldassiere sets out on a trip to see if he can find a similar condition among the local populace. He is amazed to find that the eye problem is widespread among the local people. He finally realizes that some sort of biological warfare operation may have afflicted the family. Armed with this new knowledge, Baldassiere determines that it would be a simple matter to create underground facilities to protect the public from biological warfare. As he writes in his book, “After creating a laboratory on a small patch of land, we had no trouble in concealing the biological warfare facilities.”
At first, these underground facilities were linked up through tunnels that connected four different buildings, each housing a plant or animal species. The Forestiere family has expanded the system to twenty-six underground chambers, each containing an array of animals, plants, and fungi. Baldassarre states, “We are still not done; presently, we are employing our systems to look for more species of the animals that we need to feed the rest of the world.” So far, we have discovered twenty-one species of animals in the various chambers. The animals have been divided into two categories: the subterranean organisms and the faunal.
All the recorded information on the Garden of Eden is preserved in the various manuscripts that comprise the Garden of Eden, a fictional Bible based on the Bible. Baldassarre and other scientists believe that this Garden of Eden did exist. They maintain that these underground chambers were the original home of Adam and Eve before they ventured out of the Garden of Eden and into the actual world. They further believe that Adam and Eve’s descendants, today’s humans, were able to take shelter beneath the layers of rock and soil below the earth’s surface because of this original Garden of Eden. The idea of creating a “Garden of Eden” beneath the surface of the planet is not a new one.
The idea has its roots in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. According to this book, God created certain plants and animals and placed them in the Garden of Eden. Some of the most popular Garden of Eden vegetables are cucumbers, onions, garlic, bananas, and watermelons.
According to legend, King Solomon also had a massive underground cave, complete with a water supply, where he kept all his gold, silver, and jewels. This may not be the Garden of Eden. Most likely, however, it was a place where animals such as sheep, cattle, camels, and donkeys lived. Baldassarre believes that we are still capable of experiencing the benefits of these ancient underground plant cultures. Through his studies, he has discovered a great deal about these plants’ gifts to our health. This is why he advocates for more people to seek out his services and learn about the benefits of his underground gardens.