Why Canadian Cities are planting Food Forests - CBC article

This was on the front page of the CBC this morning - https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/what-on-earth-food-forests-1.5660211



There are several public forest gardens and food forests in our city, but they didn't make it into the news story.

Yay!

This makes me think about planting a food forest in my tiny town of 650+ souls.  Many here have their own gardens, but fruit trees and bushes would help out.  I noticed that the Food Pantry here has a few vegetables growing out front.  (They have very little space for planting.)  People drop off their excess produce but you do see a lot of giant zucchini.

I admit I cannot grow Bay, so about once a year I pop down to the local public food forest and grab a few leaves.  In return, I leave some seed, either in packets or scattered.  I'm grateful for the resource.  

Reading this story, I confess that I raised a sceptical, curmudgeonly eyebrow.

The idea is excellent, of course, and I applaud it. Planting food is better than golf courses.

But they make it sound like this is a hip new human invention. In fact, these prairie river/creek valleys have been natural food forests for 10,000 years. It's all there, as long as humans leave it alone.

But you don't hear about it on social media or the evening news. Wise old timers won't tell you where the best berry patch is, any more than they will tell you where the best fishing hole is. But it's out there. Take a walk and you'll see.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: In fact, these prairie river/creek valleys have been natural food forests for 10,000 years. It's all there, as long as humans leave it alone.

Some researchers believe these natural food forests were managed by humans for thousands of years.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190521162443.htm

https://www.pastemagazine.com/science/superfoods/earthrxthe-amazon-is-not-a-wilderness-its-an-advan/

Good links. It's an interesting argument. Humans tend to modify the landscapes they live in.

Some of the species I was thinking of -- saskatoon, chockecherry, high bush cranberry, pin cherry, hazelnut -- are enthusiastically harvested and transported by birds and squirrels in my part of the world.

But humans harvested and stored these foods items too, and as they travelled they surely spread seeds. There may have been deliberate management; it's really hard to know.