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| Clear Sky Farm - Priyantha Muthugala photo |
The East Kootenay will soon have its first demonstration Food Forest at Clear Sky Centre in Bull River. Planting of this one acre system has begun this April, and will be combined with a residential training program for how to set up and develop your own food forest.
“At Clear Sky, we are so excited to be finally putting food forest agriculture into action, on the ground, here in the East Kootenay,” says Cara Conroy-Low, Farm Manager at Clear Sky Centre. “The food forest residential training workshop from April 20 to May 5, 2013, is a wonderful opportunity to get involved and to learn directly from food forest experts,” she adds. She also expresses that Clear Sky Centre is grateful for funding from the British Columbia Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AIDI ) to be able to implement the one acre demonstration project.
Clear Sky Centre came across the concept of ‘food forests’ and permaculture as an alternative to mainstream agriculture systems through a fortunate string of events. In 2008, while looking for a crop to grow on the agricultural portion of the centre’s land in Bull River, they met Richard Walker, one of Canada’s pioneers of food forest agriculture. Since then, Richard has taught two-day intensive food forest workshops at Clear Sky Centre every year. Leslie Lowe, a landscape architect and native plant specialist, is also collaborating on the food forest project.
A Food Forest is a dynamic, ecosystem approach to growing food, medicine and other yields. They are resilient, diverse systems that have the potential to produce harvests from snowmelt to snow fall each year.
Through the vertical stacking of multiple layers of useful plants, increased and more diverse food per square foot can be harvested, but in a thoroughly sustainable manner. The wide variety of mostly perennial plant species in a food forest provides greater overall stability and resilience to pests, diseases and climate than a mono crop system. Because soil is undisturbed by tillage and improved year after year through the leaf and root drop of plants in the system, the soil food web is also healthier, resulting in higher quality, more nourishing food.
Food Forests also invite community participation, learning and increased local food resilience. Michelle Heinz, Director of Operations at Clear Sky notes that “the opportunity for local growers and ranchers to contribute to sustainable local food security through creating food forest systems is clear, and food forest yields can also lead to the creation of local and innovative business opportunities.”
Every food forest is unique, and the yields of each food forest depends on its design and plant selections, which are ultimately based on the needs and wants of the individuals, families or groups that will be developing, caring for and harvesting from the food forest. Yields could include all sorts of hardy varieties of fresh fruit, nuts, herbs, vegetables, medicinals, which can also be turned into value added products including herbal tinctures and teas, fruit wines and preserves.
Join Clear Sky as they embark on this exciting project, breaking new ground and learning together starting April 20. For individuals or groups interested in participating or visiting for a morning educational session with Richard Walker in the field or to book a private consultation with him on your property, contact Michelle for more details.
