Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by Phuein, Nov 25, 2008.

  1. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Hello there ^_^ First time posting on the forums here.

    I've been looking around everywhere after seeing all the video documentation about Permaculture and reading as well, and I haven't been able to actually find clear examples and statistics showing people living off of Food Forests, their size and functions in each case, and even making some economy from it and explaining their product in numbers and use. Is there still no actual proof that people can live off of Food Forests? Am I missing something?

    I fell in-love with Permaculture, due to it reflecting so many principles I've always wanted to implement in my life - and even more so when I learned of Food Forests :+D It's really becoming a goal in life for me.

    Thanks for helping. Cheers.
     
  2. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Hi Phuein

    Depends on inputs, what you put in you get back. I put loads of work and development into my garden's and food forest and I get heaps of great food back.

    Permaculture design works and can be developed as a full system or by just taking bits of the design you want to use. Well that's what I do and it works for me.

    Buy Geoff's DVD's on swale and food forests or even better do a PDC and this will help put you on a solid path right from the start.

    Baz
     
  3. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    What I'm looking for is visible examples/documentations, or even the person himself describing his success, with living off a Food Forest. I'm just wondering if it's become quite common, and somehow the examples themselves are sitting quietly with little documentation :S

    I'm planning to soon join a farm in Israel (where I live) and volunteer and take the course there, hopefully get more experience and make progress. I'm still scouting information about this.

    Pictures, videos, and self-told stories with detailed information will be well appreciated for my motivation and knowledge :+D
     
  4. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Have alook at 1491
    it worked for them.
     
  5. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    You mean this?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491_(book)
    I don't have the book, but as far as I know about the subject we don't know which methods they used really.

    I'm talking about the methods used in modern day Permaculture here and it's own specific results. I know that Permaculture is flexible - but it still uses very specific methods and ideas. It's a new "technology" based on older and simple ideas :+D And as such, I inspect it first as it's own item, and only then inspecting each part consisting of it. If Permaculture, the methods consisting of it, work only part of the time - then there's lots of progress to gain until it become, at the very least, a rather solid guide to achieving the goals wanted by it's users.

    After all - I want a Forest Garden :p I don't want random failing attempts. It's important to be able to trust your methods.
     
  6. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Yes but I ment to direct you to the thread on the book here

    It details how most Amerindians practised Forest Farming.
     
  7. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Thanks ^_^ I should fetch the book really if I ever get the chance.

    How about some current existing examples and proofs? I still have no doubt that the situation we are in today is different than the situation the native americans had back then those thousands of years ago. Different methods and knowledge.
     
  8. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Not thousands of years ago 517 years ago- read the book.
     
  9. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    If I could get it for free I will :p Promise!

    In the meanwhile, does nobody have perma' examples to showcase?
     
  10. ave a go

    ave a go Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Hi,

    The Food Forest DVD includes a couple:

    Bonus features include:
    30 Year Old Food Forest
    300 Year Old Food Forest
    2000 Year Old Food Forest


    You can check out https://permaculture.org.au/store/food_forest_dvd.htm which has a preview of the DVD.
     
  11. thepoolroom

    thepoolroom Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Do a search for Robert Hart from the UK - there's a good video about him on YouTube. He lived from his food forest for many years.

    Perhaps you could explain exactly what you're looking for? I'm not real clear.

    If you want actual figures (number of apples picked, kg of berries grown, tonnes of firewood cut, $$$s from sale of produce, etc) then I'm not sure you'll find them. You probably wouldn't find those kinds of figures for very many businesses, so it's not a problem with the food forest concept as such. It's more that people don't tend to record and share in that kind of detail.

    You can look at books by people like Jackie French and others who have a high level of self-sufficiency, but I'm not sure if that's what you're after.
     
  12. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Thanks for the info guys :+D I've already seen the DVD, but those are either Food Forests not done specifically in a Permaculture way, or ones that nobody seems to live off from or at least record doing so (the 30 years one).

    I'll check out Robert Hart, although I bet i've already seen him as well :D

    It's a real shame that there isn't more specific documentation around. I find it very interesting - and if positive, ever more encouraging for those who want to go into this field or maybe even compare farms and see what methods proved which results and to what extent. Statistics together with proper documentation can really go a long way :D
     
  13. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    I would suggest most people will take away from this thread that there arent many (or perhaps any) examples. Comon people we need to see some!
     
  14. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Yup. As for today, there isn't even one example of a Forest Garden that proves it's usefulness in bringing food to the table regularly. That must include proof through numbers of course / Or personal experience throughout a long period of time (year+).

    Even the common gossip talks about mixing Permaculture with buying food in other places :S
     
  15. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    Here is another example of Indigenous Permaculture

    https://www.unu.edu/Unupress/food/8F073e ... 20Tanzania
     
  16. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    It's even written in your own quote mate :S
    "But although the Chagga home gardens are often cited as an example of model land use [1, 8], the system has not been described in any detail."

    Their "system" might sustain them, but it's hardly a proper proof of the viability of Forest Gardening. I would like to see an example of a recent (100 hundred years? 50? It's said that after 4 years the Forest Garden gets pretty viable after all) and intently made Forest Garden that sustains it's users for how much of their nutrition (100%? 90%?), and specifically describing how much of any food product it gives out in average per year or any other logical time period to measure it.

    Just because "it's said" that groups of humans produced similar results to a Forest Garden, and are living off of it, doesn't prove well enough that if a group of people went ahead to grow a Forest Garden as known today, and live off of it, would succeed and have the numbers and pictures/video to show exactly how they do, even describing their daily diet from it.

    If it does work, then how come there's no official report of any person living off of it exclusively and detailing the experience? o-O That would seem like a basic move towards realizing this concept.

    A reply by an anonymous user:
    The reason is that many aboriginal land use practices were destroyed by the European conquests and therefore broad acre monoculture.
    Read 1491
    Look at the way Australian Aborigines worked the land before the white invasion and genocide.


    I just edited my post, but didn't remove the reply ;+)
     
  17. elmejor

    elmejor Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    well phuen why dont you contact the below give address and all your food forest related queries will be solved

    Annemarie and Graham Brookman
    PO Box 859,
    Gawler, South Australia 5118
    ph/fax 08 85 226450
    website https://www.foodforest.com.au
     
  18. Phuein

    Phuein Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    elmejor, are you related to that website in any way? I've seen that website before. I would rather not e-mail random permaculture related people that don't bother with forums for any reason. There are many websites that I could contact, but rather not. Also, their website doesn't supply any of the information I'm talking about - so it's pretty safe to assume they don't measure their Forest Gardening project in the ways mentioned in this thread. They might be successful, but we don't really know what's going on there without the proper documentation.

    Let me settle an issue here. I'm not clear enough. This thread does not take any interest in any groups of people at any time and any place that ever lived off of nature in any way, unless it was declared specifically as a Forest Garden project, and the results and progress of the project are well documented with numbers. :D Thank you.

    I do thank you for responding Mr. Unknown, but why inside my post? My last post was changed into a quote, and someone responded right after it. That may confuse some people :S Please don't do that, and if possible revert it back.

    This thread isn't very successful at it's cause :S I hope I'll start gaining more permaculture experience soon and have good chances at seeing live examples that will give me the answers I want. Which are mainly just to reassure me that permaculture actually works :p
     
  19. elmejor

    elmejor Junior Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    no i am not related to it in any ways, they had few months back sent me report on food forest, i found them to be okay. i am sorry if it is not allowed here to posted, i will be extra careful from now on!
     
  20. milifestyle

    milifestyle New Member

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    Re: Food Forest Gardening - Does it work?

    The actual question is what confuses me :?

    Some logical figures....

    Feeding a community of say 50 people from a back yard "vegie patch"... nah probably wouldn't work.

    Feeding same community with a 5 acre property... highly likely when set up correctly.

    Feeding family of 4 on a half acre property... very likely to be successful.

    Did you know...

    - A New Zealand White rabbit is typically around 8 - 10 weeks old when dressed for Sundays Dinner ?

    - The average Hen can lay around 260 eggs per year.

    - Worms can eat their own body weight in scraps each day.

    - The average time from seed to harvest for most vegetable crops is 3 months.

    - Undersowing can greatly increase crop production.

    - Goats are great for eating old food crop waste and converting it into milk and fertilizer.
     

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