Edible Forest Gardens: More Edibles Available Than Your Grocery Store

Palm seed, (image courtesy of Apolonio Mai, wildbze.com),

Palm Seed, avocado, calendula (left to right)

The World Health Organization reports that malnutrition and hunger are the gravest threats to the world’s public health and wellbeing.  Social and economic factors such as unemployment, unfair wages, unstable, fluctuating food prices, unequal food distribution, and other threats to food security all contribute to malnutrition.  Growing our own food addresses each of these threats and empowers people to provide food and other agricultural products for their families that are grown naturally, are not subject to international market forces, and benefit the natural environment.  When communities have many people who are growing their own food, gardening becomes an agent for change; if everyone in the world had a small garden we would have a world food system that was suddenly more secure, meaningful, self-reliant, and sustainable.

Edible forest gardens mimic natural forest ecosystems by utilizing multi-layered, perennial polycultures of plants arranged to maximize the mutually beneficially relationships between plants.  These gardens can be created in small or large spaces, e.g. back yards or community gardens, using plants that are most important to you such as edibles, medicinals, and other useful products. 

There are somewhere around 15,000 edible plants that we currently know of.[1]  Typical grocery stores offer only a small fraction of these, and 4 crops dominate worldwide agricultural production: corn, wheat, rice and potatoes. In fact, 60% of the plant calories that humans consume come from just three: corn, wheat, and rice.[2] People who eat diverse diets are healthier, experience lower instances of diseases, and enjoy longer lives. With 15,000 edibles to choose from, we are wildly curious about how each of these fruits and veggies taste, what each of them has to offer nutritiously, and the best conditions each are likely to grow in.  Our garden projects enable us to test, perfect, and share all of the currently available best practices for growing an exciting variety of nutritional edibles in a variety of ecosystems.

TEST GARDENS AT WILD EARTH STEWARDSHIP CENTER

Gardening is a high intervention land use; it is most successful when done close to home, along the paths we walk ever day, on front stoops, or on our kitchen windowsills.  The closer it is to the places we occupy daily, the more interaction we are able to provide, and the more bountiful and healthy our plants grow from our efforts. 

Our onsite garden test plots enables us to creatively test the growing ability of thousands of different varieties and combinations of edibles.  To design these gardening plots, we have incorporated information and techniques from hundreds of pioneers who have shared their data, wisdom, and gardening experiences.  These garden plots enable us to determine the best companion plantings for different soil consistencies, and other unique environmental situations that people living in tropical regions most commonly experience. These plots also allow us to test the success of different natural fertilizers and natural methods for dealing with common pests.

We have selected species to maximize an incredibly diverse, year-round diet at the center. We have incorporated a mix of crops that are capable of producing in wet or dry, as well as cold or hot climates to bolster our system against climate change and seasonal variability from year to year.  Edibles have been chosen because they are disease resistant, are hardy against climate change, and complement other edible choices to increase the stability in the system by maximizing the number of beneficial connections between the components. We will share all of the excess fruits and veggies we produce with our community members at local farmer’s markets.

We strive to balance what we grow on site with what our local community produces in order to support our community members, encourage small enterprises focused on growing and selling, and minimize unnecessary use of wild areas for food production.  Once fully established, our gardens at Wild Earth Stewardship will help us further serve the community as we will be able to use the garden plots and our nurseries for teaching, demonstration plots, and other hands-on gardening opportunities for visiting school groups and community members interested in starting their own gardens.

COMMUNITY GARDENS

According to the amazing superstars over at Sustainable Harvest International who work in Belize’s southern Toledo District (among other countries), over 75% of the families in the villages they work have never had access to garden vegetables such as carrots or tomatoes, which are considered items that only wealthy people can afford. Belizeans who are struggling to make ends meet face problems that families all over the world face.

Image courtesy of Ohio State University Extension Urban Programs

Community gardens help low income communities meet their food needs, create opportunities for communities members to connect with each other and rejuvenate the local environment in the process.  Community gardening projects help families increase the nutritious bounty available to them, dramatically increase the diversity of available crop varieties and contribute to creating regional food systems that provide locally grown foods for the communities closest to them.

Once we have established our successful test plots and model gardens on site at the Center, we will begin hosting our community garden outreach projects so as to encourage and provide support for community members interested in starting up their own individual home gardens, or community gardens maintained by a group of people.  Through these projects, we will share a wide range of proven techniques with community members for growing an abundance of food.  Community gardens can be set up according to the needs and desires of the group interested in forming them.

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE (CSA)

CSAs are cooperatively owned farms where community members invest money at the beginning of the season to become the shareholders of the farm in return for a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables every week, bi-weekly or monthly, depending on the needs of the community.  This creates a mutually beneficial relationship for the growers and members where everyone shares the risks and rewards of the season.  Participating in a CSA provides support for local farmers by creating a secure market for their crops, and ensures a stable food supply, insulated from world price fluctuations and changeable trade agreements.  Consumers benefit by receiving fresh, high quality, local, seasonal, chemical free produce without having to grow it themselves and by knowing where and how their food is being grown.

Some CSAs host events throughout the season for members to connect with each other and the farmers and learn about growing food sustainably, and others allow shareholders to give feedback about their ideas, including crop selection. For low-income shareholders CSAs can offer a sliding scale, work-trade, or allow monthly payments instead of paying the entire membership fee at the beginning of the season.  Excess produce can be donated to local programs for those with less means.