[Santa_Cruz_Permaculture] MON April 6 Food Forest Across America on Visionary Culture Radio!

Mon Apr 6 06:15:23 PDT 2009

Food Forests Across America!

on Visionary Culture Radio!

Monday April 6th, 8:00 pm PST

Call In :: 646-649-1957

Or Log In or Listen :: 
<http://www.visionarycultureradio.com/>www.visionarycultureradio.com

Greetings friends and permaculture enthusiasts -

I am writing to invite your participation in a nation-wide campaign 
called Food Forests Across America! - initiated by Erik Ohlsen. (See 
his article posted on Permaculture 
Research Institute's site. <http://permaculture.org.au/2009/01/26/food-forests-across-america>http://permaculture.org.au/2009/01/26/food-forests-across-america.

Join the campaign for local food security and learn how you can help 
to transform gardens, lawns, parks, and empty spaces into thriving 
edible landscapes that are beautiful, regenerative, and produce an 
abundance of delicious, locally grown food!  We can create 
intentional systems that provide for our needs and the needs of the 
earth by mirroring natural ecologies in our designs.  

What is a Food Forest Garden?

A Food Forest describes an intentionally cultivated forest that 
mimics the native ecosystem.  In designing a food forest, we observe 
the community of plants in the forest.  The home Food Forest reflects 
these observations by applying plants that function similar to the 
native plants but have a higher yield, are more palatable, or useful 
in some way to the designer.  Food Forests can offer an incredible 
abundance while stewarding the landscape in a good way. 

Imagine a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh 
fruits and ripening nuts. Every shrub is packed with delicious 
berries, and every other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, 
or beautiful edible flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant 
underfoot, gourmet mushroom logs sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi 
vines climb back up through the layers of this multi-functional 
forest of food. 

Food forests are diverse gardens modeled after natural ecosystems 
designed to mimic the way a forest thrives and regenerates. A forest 
continuously nourishing all elements in the system and produce a vast 
diversity of outputs, but requires little or no inputs to sustain 
itself. By recognizing the self-supporting, mutually beneficial 
relationships of the elements in a forest - from tall trees, smaller 
trees, shrubs, herbs, ground covers, vines, nitrogen fixers, 
insectaries, fungi, animals, and more, the food forest garden designs 
a similar system but replaces the components that are in a common 
forest with species that are preferred edibles and more useful for 
humans. The forest then becomes a Garden of Eden, in which edible or 
useful plants are found from head to toe, where something in season 
is always ready to eat, and the system requires little or no 
maintenance to sustain and regenerate. As a food forest mimics the 
ecology found in native forests, they are fantastic examples of good 
soil and land stewardship.

Food Forests Across America!\

on Visionary Culture Radio!

Monday April 6th, 8:00 pm PST

Call In :: 646-649-1957

Or Log In or Listen :: 
<http://www.visionarycultureradio.com/>www.visionarycultureradio.com

Tune into Visionary Culture Radio with Laura Fox on Monday for a show 
on Food Forests Across America with special guest permaculture 
teachers from the east to west coasts of the U.S.

Special Guests Include:

Erik Ohlsen - Founder & Director 
- <http://www.permacultureartisans.com/>Permaculture Earth Artisans

Ethan Roland - Founder & Director 
- <http://www.appleseedpermaculture.com/>AppleSeed Permaculture

Marisha Auerbach - Founder & Director 
- <http://www.herbnwisdom.com/>Herb 'n Wisdom

Max Meyers - Director - <http://www.melc.us/>Mendocino Ecological 
Learning Center

Jay Ma - Co-Founder, Director of Programs & 
Development - <http://www.livingmandala.com/>Living Mandala

John Valenzuela - Veteran Permaculture Designer, Educator & Consultant

Where Can I Learn About Forest Gardens?

We recommend the books-

Edible Forest Gardens, by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, 
<http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/>http://www.edibleforestgardens.com

Forest Gardening by Robert Hart

How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield

Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik

Roots Demystified by Robert Kourik

- Food Forests Across America posted at the Permaculture Research 
Institute: .<http://permaculture.org.au/2009/01/26/food-forests-across-america>http://permaculture.org.au/2009/01/26/food-forests-across-america

- Forest Gardening Blog - started by Ethan 
Roland: <http://forestgardenimmersion.blogspot.com/> <http://forestgardenimmersion.blogspot.com/>http://forestgardenimmersion.blogspot.com/

- Garden	of Eden: Permaculture Revolution published in 
Greenlifestyles by	Jay Ma

- 300 year Old Food Forest in Vietnam: 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ZgzwoQ-ao>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ZgzwoQ-ao

as well as Permaculture resources, practices, and philosophies.

The best way is to learn how to design and install a Food Forest 
Garden is by taking a hands-on course.

To learn more about such offerings, check out 
<http://www.livingmandala.com/>www.livingmandala.com

or catalyse a Food Forest workshop in your own bioregion!

In the local Olympia area, Terra Commons has many opportunities to 
learn about and work in forest gardens, check out: 
<http://www.oly-wa.us/Terra/>http://www.oly-wa.us/Terra/

All are invite to join in the Food Forest at the Wild Thyme Farm. 
Please contact Marisha Auerbach to schedule: 
<mailto:queenbee at herbnwisdom.com>queenbee at herbnwisdom.com or (360) 
273-7117

--
Herb'n Wisdom
Queen Bee Flower Essences
<http://www.herbnwisdom.com>www.herbnwisdom.com
<http://www.wildthymefarm.com>www.wildthymefarm.com

"...the greatest change we need to make is from consumption to
production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of
us do this, there is enough for everyone.

Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on
the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food
and shelter." - Bill Mollison
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