Spencer,

I do not know of any education programs that test on the content of 'Edible Forest Gardens.'

Perhaps you could contact David Jacke directly and see if he is aware of any such educational programs. He lists his snail mailing address, email address, cell phone number and online comment area. As he is a busy guy, I would try all of them:

http://edibleforestgardens.com/contact

I think of these volumes (especially vol. 2) as the ultimate reference books for designing, implementing and managing forest gardens in the great hardwood forests of the North East US. Memorizing the content? Wow, that's great.

I suppose the real test is to see how productive and low input the edible forest gardens could be, which were created by the process outlined in the 'Edible Forest Gardens.'

The only addition to these exhaustive tomes I could think of would be to include something more on animal systems and aquaculture systems integrated with the forest systems.

Seeking out and trying to re-create Food Forests for decades now, I am very much interested in the best ways to create Forest Gardens. So, I am interested in not just trying to adopt the comprehensive and detailed theories and methods developed by Jacke in New Hampshire and Mass., but how to adapt them to our unique conditions in California, on the other side of the continent.

There are many differences between the ecosystems adapted to the icy winters and wet summers of the Northeast, and the ecosystems of the mild wet winters and bone dry summers of our Mediterranean climate in California.  In addition to 'Forest Gardens', perhaps we should also be contemplating more California style 'Edible Chaparral Gardens',  'Edible Savanna Gardens', and/or 'Edible Fire and Flood Gardens.'

Though the well developed theories and methods Jacke has shared may, or may not, be directly transferable to the way things are here in Califa, they are a fantastic template to begin with. We all need to add to, adjust, adapt, adopt, and re-create the theories, tables, work sheets, methods and techniques for our own use here on the West Coast.

We all have a lot of planting experiments to learn from. Let's share the successes and the unexpected outcomes with each other.

good luck

John


John Valenzuela Horticulturist- Educator California, Hawai'i  phone: (415) 246-8834 e-mail: johnvalenzuela@hotmail.com

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Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:48:43 -0800
From: spencer_r_allen@yahoo.com
To: lapg@arashi.com
Subject: [Lapg] The books "edible forest gardens" by David Jacke

As I am currently volunteering my time for different permaculture projects as well as establishing my own, I am currently reading my way through both volumes of David Jacke's edible forest gardens.  In an attempt to retain as much as possible from the book I am taking extensive notes on my reading, but am also interested in working to memorize the content in other ways. 

Before I go designing my own tests, I was wondering:

Does anyone know of any education programs that currently utilize this book in their curriculum that have test material drawn up? 

Thanks,
Spencer Allen


"The Real Arsenal Of Democracy Is A Fertile Soil, The Fresh Produce Of Which Is The Birthright Of The Nations"
~Sir Albert Howard~

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