A Forest and a ‘Food Forest’ What is the difference?

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A Forest and a ‘Food Forest’
What is the difference?

A forest is a wild place where trees and plants grow. However it is also a place where you can find food. For example, many people think of mushrooms but there are many other types of food to be found in the forest if you know what you are looking for. This topic will be the focus of our future adult learning conferences that are in development.

Just ask Gérald Le Gal and his daughter Ariane Pare-Le Gal about foraging wild food1. An old friend of theirs, Patrick Garcia, is a new friend of ours. He too is a specialist in indigenous plants and picking.

Finding food in the natural environment has been the mainstay of our existence for hundreds and thousands of years. Just ask indigenous communities and they will tell you all about it.

A “ food forest” is a man-made environment planted in a manner to imitate nature and produce a variety of edibles. Forests have creeks and rivers flowing through them. Food forests are watered and controlled by people.. 

In many countries of the world, forest gardens or food forests are common. They are probably one of the oldest forms of land use by humans seen along river banks and in the foothills of monsoon villages.  From the Kandyan forest gardens of Sri Lanka to the Huertos familiars in Mexico and the Pekarangan in Java, Indonesia, they can be best described as low maintenance landscapes with dense vegetation that mimic natural forests in their various stories.  They use less water than regular gardens and have better soil quality with fewer weeds.

One of the early proponents of food forestry in the more temperate climate of the western world was Robert Hart2. He started in 1960, when he saw that his farm was not working as well as he wanted and noticed the natural forest where plants were growing better than on his farm. He developed his methods and his theories over time. They were later explored by Martin Crawford2 and the Agroforestry Research Trust. Forest gardens have become increasingly popular as part of the whole permaculture scene. They can be found throughout the temperate world.

Food Forest strategy lies in the concept of layers. There are either 7 or 8 layers depending on the gardener’s choice.

  1. Overstory consisting of large mature trees
  2. Understory consisting of smaller fruit and nut trees
  3. Shrub layer filled with fruit bushes such as currants
  4. Herbaceous layer made with perennial vegetables that spread horizontally
  5. Ground cover layer consisting of edible plants that spread horizontally
  6. Root layer with plants grown for their roots and tubers
  7. Vine layer which is essentially vertical consisting of vines and climbers such as beans
See the illustration by Graham Burnett who is another great source of information and inspiration on this topic4

A well-managed food forest will yield fruits, nuts, herbs and vegetables at close proximity helping to reduce CO2 emissions. Once established it requires very little artificial energy, no chemical fertilisers or pesticides and minimal labour. However Robert Hart does suggest daily supervision and to cut back plants that try to encroach on each other. Mulching is also a key element in the health of the soil and the organisms within. Like a natural forest, the trees in a forest garden helped to store CO2. As the trees grow and the soil remains undisturbed, the amount of carbon locked up inside the earth increases.

Thanks to Mother Nature we are learning to copy her model and produce food in better growing conditions.  These gardens can be adapted for any amount of space be it in the country, a backyard or an urban setting. They are a way to incorporate edible and useful trees and bushes. The concept can be adapted even to small spaces such as balconies!

1 Gerald Le Gal et Ariance Paré-Le Gal, Forêt, Les Éditions Cardinal inc., Montréal, 2019. This book contains wonderful stories, photographs and recipes for wild food. For a quick story about the man behind the company Gourmet Sauvage watch the podcast https://acpfnl.ca/podcast-012/
2 Robert Hart describes Food Forests in this video. His book: Forest Gardening: Rediscovering Nature and Community in a Post-Industrial Age
3 Martin Crawford has written books including: Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops. His book is also available in French FORÊT-JARDIN (LA) : CRÉER UNE FORÊT COMESTIBLE EN PERMACULTURE POUR RETROUVER AUTONOMIE ABONDANCE Watch him on this video
4 A website created by Graham Burnett offering tips and explanations as well as products for sale. https://spiralseed.co.uk/making-forest-garden/