The Amazing Nature of Food Forests

 

By: Bryce Murph'Ariens

 

The first time I heard the term 'food forest' I had a vivid daydream in my mind—of frolicking through a Candyland-like world, with fruit hanging from every branch around me, and as far as I could see. Picture it! As you walk down a green pathway in a public park, you reach out and grasp a peach and take a bite. You gather mushrooms, greens and herbs for an omelette, and walk home through this verdant setting to prepare lunch with the produce you gathered. With this kind of image in mind, I just had to find out exactly what a food forest was. To my delight and astonishment, the image in my head turned out to be pretty accurate! Food forest designs are based on observations of natural systems in forests. Food forests are comprised of groupings of mostly perennial and self seeding plants, which enhance and benefit the other plants around them. In Permaculture, these groups are called guilds. A guild is usually based upon, and centred around a tree. Other plants are then selected to assist that tree and to produce additional beneficial products such as food, fuel and fibre. As well, there are positives for the entire guild in the cumulative effect of the interspersed plants. This means one plant can provide mulch or nutrients, another can deter pests, and attract pollinators, yet another can provide water retention, and so on. Each individual plant occupies one level in an integrated 3D relationship just like in a wild forest setting, except with each plant intentionally selected for the role they play and their benefit to people. By linking multiple guilds together, you create a food forest. There can be as many as 11 layers to a food forest, including the canopy tree layer, the tall tree layer, short tree layer, tall shrub and short shrub layer, tall growing and short growing plants, ground cover plants and root crops, as well as vining or climbing plants and the all important mycelium or mushroom layer. Mushrooms are responsible for a large part of the decomposition cycles which return nutrients to the rest of the guild. Not all guilds are that complex, nor do they require that every layer be used, but you can see how much potential there is for large yields from a small space. Tree guilds can take from 2 to 10 years to become fully established, though they do produce many benefits even in the early years of growth. This technique has been utilized by indigenous cultures for millennia. There are even food forests around desert oasis more than 10,000 years old. It has recently gained in popularity around the world due to the Permaculture movement and the work of its founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, and their students. As a logical response to the needs of a culture in fossil fuel decline, Permaculture was created academically, but has evolved through grassroots efforts and application. Tree guilds have many benefits, ranging from herbal medicine and butterfly habitat, to erosion control and water retention in dry climates. My favourite benefit is food. Many people around the world do not have food available in their local environment, making them vulnerable in cases of supply failure. With an edible-based tree guild, you eat from your local foodshed (100 mile diet concept), without the necessity of fossil fuels for transport or fertilization. Tree guilds can be planted in marginal areas, meaning they don't need prime farmland. Once established, the food in these systems is free and abundant so there is the potential for profit by selling the surplus produce, adding to the household and local economy. Food in the local economy leads to food security. These benefits are especially noticeable in developing nations where food forestry has been applied, leading to greater social, environmental and economic justice. I'll give a simple example of an Ontario tree guild by describing an apple guild focused on maximum food production. Wild apple guilds can be observed locally if you look at hedgerows between farm fields. Of course it all starts with a tree. Choose a good hardy apple that you like the flavour of, or even better, build a guild around an apple tree that is already established. The apple tree is (#1) in the illustration. Most trees don't like having grass grow up to their trunks and in a guild you can prevent this by planting chives all around the base of the tree to a width of about 2 feet on all sides (#2). These prevent grasses from growing near the tree, and are great for drawing in beneficial pollinators and predatory insects as well. From there, moving outward, we need to consider how we will harvest the apples when the season comes, and therefore, the path (#3). Just because we'll occasionally walk here doesn't mean we can't grow something here. There are several edibles that enjoy being walked on once established, like perennial chamomile, creeping thyme, and wild strawberries. Let's use them all! We'll sprinkle a little white clover around too, for nitrogen fixing, and pollinator attracting. From there, the next area out is where we'll put the low growing herbaceous plants (#4). Pretty much anything we would normally grow in a food or decorative garden can be grown here. As we want to maximize edibles for this planting, we'll sow Swiss chard, Lima beans, onions, carrots, radishes, and a slow bolting lettuce, like Buttercrunch or a speckled type. A combination like this has a diverse spread of growth types. Each plant allows for the growth of those beside it. For example, the carrots, onion and radish grow mostly below ground, and the carrots like a little shade while they develop. The lettuce will cover a lot of the area at first, but many will be harvested, whole plant, while young, clearing room for the plants around them. The Lima beans and chard are taller growers. Both will yield a harvest later in the season. The Lima beans are nitrogen fixing, enhancing the growth of the plants around them. Swiss chard is a perennial and will yield late into the fall, usually even into the winter. Perhaps most important from a decorative perspective, the red colour of the chard and speckled lettuce give this garden a nice visual impact. We'll also put New Zealand spinach, another perennial, around the outside edges so we don't disturb it while picking out the other plants. It is a creeping plant, perfect for borders. The final area to address (#5) is the shrub area. Here, we put bushes or shrubs, again looking to concentrate on edibles. Good choices here include haskap (or honeyberry), elderberry, jostaberry, hazelnut, gooseberry, thornless blackberry, everbearing raspberry, highbush cranberry, sea buckthorn or Russian olive. Those last two are also nitrogen fixers. The choice is up to you here, based on your preferences, just remember to pair up, in general, for cross-pollination. My illustration shows 11 shrubs. This number can go up or down, based on your garden. Just space the shrubs to allow them to grow out, and to centre just under the eventual drip line of the mature tree. About 8 feet out, give or take. In essence, you want to be able to access the entire guild for harvesting easily from the outside, and from the path. This double reach length is exactly the right measurement for you. The final outcome will depend on your project and property, and how you will use it. The spring after learning about food forests, my wife and I set out to begin one on our property. We planted pear, apple, cherry and plum trees. Sea buckthorns, hazelnuts, rhubarb, jostaberry, lovage and grape vines, as well as asparagus, all in interlocked guilds. That was 5 summers ago, and we have had some good successes, good eating, and learned a lot about what natural systems look like, and what perennials can be substituted for annual vegetable plants as the guild matures. Year 5 is the traditional 'pop' year for a food forest guild, as the fruit trees start to produce fruit, and established perennials provide most of the food for you without planting. Fertility is captured within garden cycles. Worm populations thrive. Tilth and carbon collection in the soil is self increasing. Most importantly, you gain food freedom. You gain the ability to provide yourself and your family with more abundant, healthy and nutritious food than you need for now and forevermore. You sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and improve the soil while doing it. It doesn't get more win-win than that. This is why I'm so glad to dream of a world covered with food forests. I hope we can all live to see this dream come true.