Would you like to have food for your family now and into the future — food that is truly fresh and packed with flavour, and food that doesn’t cost the Earth? Would you like it to be grown in a way that not only doesn’t destroy soil, but builds it instead, so that people can be fed long after you’re gone? Would it be asking too much for this food to be grown in a way that cleans the air and the water as it passes through, and which contributes to climate restoration?

What you need is a food forest.

Once a rainforest, then cleared for timber and grazing land, a food forest now
grows around this old decaying stump from the original forest.

It has been known for a long time that wild forests provide ecosystem services of purifying air and water while building soil. These systems are capable of supporting large predatory and opportunistic species of animals with no substantial inputs from outside the system other than sunlight and the weather. (In reality the weather is more of a relationship between the forest and the sun than an input.)

This Black Sapote (sometimes called chocolate pudding fruit) sits in a pool of light coming through foliage of surrounding support species

If the residents of a forest can survive by relying on each other, then why not create a system that mimics this, but which is assembled of species that are of even greater direct use by us humans? Why not let the plants, animals, fungi and other elements do most of the maintenance work themselves, instead of their relying on us humans to help them survive and thrive?

The oldest food forest on the property across the dam from the classroom

Why not come and learn how to establish and maintain a food forest for yourself in a 3-day workshop at Zaytuna farm, starting on Wednesday, September 21, led by Permaculture designer, consultant and educator Gordon Williams.

The workshop presents a unique opportunity to experience all things food forest at a site with plantings over eight years of age. Don’t miss out! Book Now.

The first coffee berries coming on in the understory