Food Forest

Norway, Maine

Food Forest Plants, Functionality and Future

October 27th, 2014, 6pm–8pm

 

How do we want our Community Food Forest to function and what are some potential pitfalls and challenges?

• f(x)=Providing, as a planned system, food as efficiently as possible
• Demonstration/Education
• Well labeled/signage
• Seed Library
• Serves as a model
• Shelter for humans and wild animals
• Place for sharing information
• Outdoor classroom for local schools
• Harvest meals
• Scavenger hunts
• Place for activities/workshops
• Privacy/wild space
• Clear paths – distinct choice
• Clear caretakers (roles defined)
• Provide a natural backdrop screen for garden
• Plan for early succession/yield
• Natural museum
• ID Guide
• Different sections managed by different groups
• Nursery
• Outdoor art space
• Yoga/meditation space
• Longevity
• Many methods for sharing info
• Fills a void, balances out end of garden season
• Specific volunteer days for kids
• Used for healing
• Collaborations and using community markets (?), kitchen, storage

 

Pitfalls/Challenges

• Reaching different socio-economic levels
• Reaching out to neighbors; getting them aware, involved, increasing personal stake and community ownership
• Mitigation of natural disasters: fires, etc.
• Garnering resources to get labor done/sustaining energy to pull off the project
• Where is this food going? Clear plan
• Well-defined vision/purpose
• Theft
• Scale?
• Awareness of what’s already present; may not have to start from scratch
• Actual shape of property; clear boundaries (fence perimeter?)
• Small scale (?) democracy: abutters

 

Solutions

• Sponsor a guild
• Signage – posted info regarding harvest times
• Allow succession to happen
• Fencing “living"? – need neighborhood meetings !
• Give notice to neighbors of boundary line – give permission (certified letter)
• Where is food going
• Part of educational model – harvesting and processing – Kids

 

What does a community food forest look like 15 years after its implementation?

• Educational Center for CFF – Demonstrate all that can grow together
• Marshland crops
• Perennial Fruit Production System in place
• All local fruit, harvested through summer
• Within 15 years, the model will spread to other areas around the community
• Kids will be able to roam free, eating whatever they want and need
• Plant ID
• Provide seedlings and grafts (thinning in process); Revenue stream
• Lush and abundant
• Self-Sustaining
• New plants could now grow that couldn’t before – we’d be surprised
• Chestnuts, oaks, 20 feet. Need sun.
• Trees are trellises
• Co-op with local school
• Evolving education as kids grow up with it
• Add new info, new energy
• Forward thinking with climate
• New microclimates may/will appear
• Look to south and prepare for problems
• Evolving mgt of forest system (shading, cutting, fire, worms)
• Managing natural succession (timing)
• Observation will be key
• Comprehensive, evolving plan handed off year to year
• CFF Kids
• Should be very resilient
• Invasives Management (plant, animal)
• Fencing? Mulching? kudzo?
• Labor needs always because it is a demo
• Pond?
• CFF spreads so no hard boundary in community – neighbors are engaged and choose or are given plants to grow
• Inputs of nutrients will be required over time – depletion will happen – direct apps (nitrogen) animals
• Community Planning – Town will lose lawns and gain forests
• More vulnerable population around garden will be engaged and have a voice about what happens
• Gentrification?
• Easements?