FOOD FORESTS

A Food Forest is a gardening technique or land management system that mimics a woodland ecosystem but substitutes in perennial edible trees, shrubs, plants, vines and ground covers. Guild building plants are included as insectaries, pest confusers, dynamic accumulators, nitrogen fixers, and mulch plants. Together they create relationships to form a forest garden ecosystem able to produce high yields of food with minimal maintenance. Food forests can play a significant role in cultivating community food security and reconnecting people with nature.

Why Grow a Food Forest?

Many of us have such abundance and live in areas where neighbors appear to be doing fine, but looks can be deceiving. According to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, 1 in 8 of your neighbors face hunger. Loaves and Fishes, a Naperville based food pantry, reports that 10.3% of DuPage County residents (nearly 100,000 people) are food insecure and has seen a 780% increase in groceries distributed from 2008 to 2013. The Resiliency Institute wants to do more than grow food to donate to food banks and pantries. We want to grow food security using permaculture design. Replacing resource intensive lawns with edible forest gardens and installing food forests in public parks and along public pathways, makes fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables abundant and available for everyone.

Benefits of Food Forests:

• Provides fresh local food to the community
• Demonstrates a commitment to food security and ecological restoration
• Reduces or eliminates lawn maintenance costs
• Creates a community park
• Serves as an outdoor classroom or educational resource
• Connects people to food and nature
• Inspires the growth of individual edible forest gardens

“As Masanobu Fukuoka once said, ‘The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.’ How we garden reflects our worldview. The ultimate goal of forest gardening is not only the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of new ways of seeing, of thinking, and of acting in the world. Forest gardening gives us a visceral experience of ecology in action, teaching us how the planet works and changing our self-perceptions. Forest gardening helps us take our rightful place as part of nature doing nature’s work, rather than as separate entities intervening in and dominating the natural world.” ~Dave Jacke, Edible Forest Gardens

DESIGN & INSTALLATION

The Resiliency Institute offers food forest design and installation to non-profit and private businesses with land and public access. It is critical to the success of food forests to learn and understand permaculture ethics and principles and to create a sustainable management system for the long term maintenance of the food forest. Designing a food forest is unlike any other landscape service and involves goal creation, community building, and a commitment to creating and maintaining an enduring, productive, ecosystem.

Contact us to schedule a design consultation appointment.

The Resiliency Institute is in the process of designing and installing a demonstration edible forest garden at our site on McDonald Farm. Please visit our Get Involved page to learn how you can participate.

EXPERIENCE

Permaculture Design Certificate
Jodi and Michelle both received their Permaculture Design Certificate from Midwest Permaculture.

6th Ward Edible Forest Garden
In July 2013, we participated in a week long design charette for the 6th Ward Edible Forest Garden in Helena, MT led by Dave Jacke, author of Edible Forest Gardens Vol 1 & 2. This experience honed our site assessment and design skills while fostering collaboration, leadership, and community.

Amma Center Food Forest
In April 2013 we volunteered our labor to install a section of food forest at the Amma Center under the tutelage of John Scheffy, a permaculture farmer and consultant. We learned about managing a large volume of water through the use of swales and hugelkultur beds, plus bare root planting and proper use of inoculants.

Mark Shepard Restoration Agriculture 101 - Keyline Farm Design
In August 2013 we participated in an instructional hands-on experience with Mark Shepard, author of Restoration Agriculture and manager of New Forest Farm, a permaculture farmstead. On Versaland Farm in Iowa City, we practiced site evaluation and assessment, implemented keyline design using laser levels and a Yeomans-style subsoil ripper, determined proper pond site selection, and learned about silvopasture layout.

McDonald Farm Edible Forest GardenWe have designed a demonstration forest garden on The Conservation Foundation McDonald Farm to demonstrate suburban scale edible forest gardening to the over 8,000 annual visitors. The forest garden is currently in phase 2 of implementation. Visit here to learn more about this project.