Food forests that incorporate woodlots.

How do you think this would be done, having a food forest that also has trees for the purpose of firewood, furniture.

Would it be better to have a woodlot and a food forest be two separate things, or is mixing of the two possible and effective?

I was planning a food forest on some extra acres I have here, and it just came to me, where would I get my firewood,

I would like everything to be uniform so creating a separate different woodlot would bother me a little bit but if it is a lot better than incorporating a woodlot and food forest into one I will do that. Maybe making the Canopy layer all trees that are suppose to be harvested for wood?

You could consider having Black Locust as a N-fixer for your woodlot, interspersed with your food-producing trees.  Are you converting an existing forest or grass-lands?  The only problem I can see with incorporating woodlot with food forest is that you could damage your food-producing trees when felling trees.  Maybe a coppiced/pollarded woodlot?

Sounds similar to what we are planning... Our idea is to have an area of coppice in the central part of the forest, and use the extra light let in when coppicing to grow light-demanding species (apples, potatoes and everything in between) that don't manage well in a closed forest. No idea yet if it will work, though. Would be nice to hear more about your project!

Chris,
Our tree field is gradually morphing into a foodforest!  We started out planting it mainly as coppice woodland, with bands of mixed windbreak trees and also patches of conifers.  I do the more intensive and experimental planting near the house and initially tried to mainly plant native (to UK) in the main woodland.  However I am gradually planting more edible shrubs, and I can see this extending into the herbacious understorey too.  In fact thinking about it, it already has, in the form of some ostrich fern (matteuccia struthiopteris).  I'm also going to plant more Monkey Puzzles (Auracaria auracana) since they are one of the few trees that really seem to thrive here.  The diversity in the planting is also increasing with a few more non native useful shrubs creeping in.  Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) fruited for me for the first time last year, and I have some Korean pine and Saskatoon as well (not yet fruiting).
I haven't worked out quite how coppicing will effect the understorey, I guess it will make a mess, but the extra light for a few years will help the bushes recover.
I'm also grafting more useful (to me) trees onto less improved rootstocks, large fruited haw onto hawthorne, apple cultivars onto crab apple and seedling apples for example.
The other factor I have been enjoying is learning about the existing vegetation that was invisible when it was a sheep paddock.  For example Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), pignut (Conopodium majus), heath pea (Lathyrus linifolius), marsh woundwort (Stachys palustris) and water avens (Geum rivale) all thrive here and all were invisible before the sheep were evicted.
Doing a large area in great detail would be difficult, but getting a framework of timber and working in clearings and edges is a pleasure.

I'd also vote for coppice wood, perhaps a woodlot ring that surrounds the food forest on some or all sides? I think for ease of harvesting I'd separate them but you could interplant them in the food forest. The coppiced trees stay small enough that way to avoid seriously damaging other trees or shrubs when felled. Normally you'd be cutting the trees down in winter, so as long as you miss the other trees and shrubs you'd be ok.

I tried planting 1-2 acres of black locust by seed, spacing them every 10 feet with the intent of coppicing in ~1/4 acre sections going east to west, and getting back to the first section after 6-8 years. The theory was that the smaller trunks would be 3-5" thick, not needing splitting and would fit into a RMH as-is. Sadly it was too dry to leave untended but may have survived with additional watering the first year to get roots established. I still think that could work and will hopefully have another go at it.  

For furniture you'd have to decide what wood you'd want, and then plan to wait the needed time, maybe 10-20 years if you need large boards. While black locust grows fast, I've heard others talk about the smell being bad or having a sap that causes a skin reaction. I'd want to grow larger trees for the high rot resistance as structural posts in buildings. Willow can be coppiced (and pollarded) to generate a lot of stems for use in smaller items, and you could be cutting it back yearly for small stems, or waiting longer for thicker branches. Pollard willow can grow thick wood every 2-3 years if it has the water.

I am fortunate that black locust is very common in my area and on my property. When I first came here I partially cleared some areas for firewood and building material. I also have a lot of wild grapes and wild blackberries. Over the the years I have added tame blackberries, raspberries and lots of tame grape varieties which just grow in the trees like the wild ones. I'd like to add still more perennial food plants but the are gets very dry, not much else I've tried has worked out. I did add rugosa roses to the back edge recently, among the worst of the thorny blackberries and they seem to be taking hold pretty good. That edge works pretty good for deterring deer movement from that direction. All in all it works pretty good and even though I don't get a really large harvest of anything I do generally get enough grapes and berries for a year's worth of jelly. Looking forward to harvesting enough rose hips to make some jelly too.

Admittedly I had a head start with the locust and berries already here and still it has taken twenty years to get it to where it continues to produce fire wood ad well as a little bit of food.  Damage to the food plants from occasional clearing paths and harvesting firewood heals in just one season, even it requires cutting down. The locust and grapes appear to be very happy together and are also the most tolerant of the dry conditions.