Discovering and developing a Food Forest
The Beginner’s simplified guide
This year, we’ve had the opportunity to discover our property from end to end and everything in between. The most exciting discovery this year was the 100 + edible nut trees strewn through the woods.
Checkin’ out the Canopy to Define Which Term to Use: Forest and Woodlands
Let’s talk about the word “woods” often used in the English language to describe everything from patches of trees to sprawling thousand acres of trees – according to my new favorite book, Farming the Woods by Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel, naming the type of “woods” is dependent on the canopy. If the canopy of the woods is nearly 100% covered by the tree canopy with few openings, the “woods” is defined as a forest. A majority of the canopy being covered by trees but still has open spots of sunlight coming through is considered woodlands.
The Farmstead’s Forest was Full of Black Walnuts and Shagbark Hickory Trees
On our property there are several acres of forest and several acres of woodlands – I’m excited to develop both of these areas into both forest farming and forest gardening. Forest farming will come naturally as the mostly young Black Walnut and Shagbark Hickory trees are dropping their nuts to the ground. The few mature trees around (this property was selectively logged long before us, about 25 years ago) have a huge bounty that I’m waiting patiently to fall to the ground to harvest.
The discovery of these edible nut trees is exciting for both farmsteading purposes and also in our farm business operations. The discovery has led to a host of learning experiences for every age in the family and the discovery has led to a new low-input and low-overhead bumper crop that we can count on every Fall (as much as one can depend on Mother nature).
I want to leave you with this article, as I want to spread the excitement of discovering your own food forest (or woodlands).
The Steps to Discover Your Own Food Forest
Take walks along animal paths
Photograph each different tree – Take photos of bark, leaves, leaf structure, limb structure and ground litter
Check the ground for litter – old leaves, old nut shells, companion plants growing
Go to Google or your favorite search engine and find a starting place – start with your specific country/state/providence/etc and type in something like, “natural forests in XYZ area”
Narrow down your searches after you’ve gathered what type of trees grow naturally in your area – one might try “MYstate DNR tree ID” or “what does thistreeleaf look like”
Document what trees match your photos
Go back out on your walk, mark the trees to be used in your own food forest with impermanent means (flags, stakes, paint) so that you can practice finding them easily
On this walk, be sure to count the trees and guesstimate their ages to determine if or when they may start producing foods
Now that I’ve walked through the above process, I have moved to the next step which is planning on how to develop this food forest and woodland areas best.
Development Plans for Forest and Woodland Cultivation
Fall 2020
Young Honey Locust trees (the trees with crazy thorns bunched together on the truck and limbs), were competing in the canopy with young Black Walnut trees. The Honey Locust trees will be Coppiced or a variation of that.
Young saplings are competing with sunlight amongst multi-floral rose bushes and other non-edible weeds such as Poison Ivy and the Virginia Creeper Vine. These non-edibles will be removed and piled into hügelkultur mounds in the woodland areas.
All non-edible weeds will be removed from the creek bank and will be marked for Sedge and Rush seedings for a light Riparian buffer.
Hügelkultur mounds will be initiated with all dead brush that is cleared out.
Winter 2020
Continuation of Fall 2020 projects
Spring 2021
Mark with flags all young Black Walnut and Shagbark Hickory saplings
Finish hügelkultur mounds and begin planting edible bush plants
Seed Sedges and Rushes along the creek bank for a Riparian buffer
Plant several edible producing bushes and trees in selected spots
The Farmstead’s Plans to Intergrate the Food Forest into Business Operations
All in all, exploring and discovering our own food forest had a wonderful outcome – existing trees ready to have their produce harvested was an added bonus to our business operations and our own personal table. The planning and developing to further our food forest and woodlands will be one of the lowest overhead costs to produce bumper crops. Black Walnuts and Shagbark Hickory will pair wonderfully with the additional selected bushes and trees we will be planting in the Spring of 2021. I’m excited.
Please reach out to us if you’d like some help with your own food forest discovery and development!