Food Forest
This type of system benefits plants, insects, soil, humans, water, and whole-ecosystem health!
The Food Forest explained
How did it begin?
For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have been creating, and continue to create, groupings of plants that help both the people and the land flourish. This practice replicates natural patterns of plants and is sometimes known as a food forest or a perennial polyculture. In 2015, we started the food forest at ADCG, which is a mix of perennial plants such as vegetables, medicinals, as well as fruit-bearing vines, shrubs, and trees. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the food forest every day from dawn to dusk.
What is it
In 2015, we planted the first seeds of the Alan Day Community Garden (ADCG) Food Forest. In collaboration with the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE) and with support from Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and Maine Today Media, we created a perennial polyculture that today is home to bees, apples, pears, raspberries, hazelnuts, peaches, plums, blackberries, kiwi berries and more. Visitors are welcome in the Food Forest every day from sunrise to sunset.
What is a perennial polyculture?
An agricultural ecosystem where many types of plants are grown together in undisturbed soil. This type of system benefits plants, insects, soil, humans, water, and whole-ecosystem health!
Learn more - in partnership with ReTreeUS
We are thrilled to partner with ReTreeUS to offer hands-on educational opportunities in the Food Forest. Each spring and fall, experts from ReTreeUS and other nearby orchards, apiaries, and fungi farms lead free workshops covering topics ranging from edible perennial shrubs and beekeeping, to cultivating mushrooms and fruit tree grafting and pruning. Participants build the skills necessary to plant and tend Food Forests at their own homes.
