Geoff goes to Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bate's 1/10th acre urban food forest in Massachusetts and tours the amazing perennial food forest they've created over the past 10 years. Even though temps can get down to -20 F, they have subtropical and tropical microclimates on site. This is truly an amazing testament to the permaculture principles of "stacking functions" and "obtaining a yield". Inspiring!

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I love seeing new footage of Eric and Jonathan's place. It is absolutely incredible what they have done in such a short time. Eric gets my personal nomination for outstanding permaculture innovator for his book on perennial vegetables. The story of how he and Jonathan took on the challenge on their abused property and transformed it into such lush abundance is truly inspiring for anyone with less-than-ideal land. If you haven't yet read Paradise Lot, find a copy and read it this weekend. A joyful read in every possible way.

It is inspirational and also embarrassing at the same time. I have so much more to work with.
At least in terms of weather and space I have a good many advantages. If they can grow 200 species
if they want to then I could perhaps double that. This is an eye opener on what is possible and my favorite
of these recent videos.

Don't beat yourself up, Alex. They were trying to prove a point and build a demo site. As they say in the video, thirty productive perennial species is plenty for us mere mortals.

Heidi Hoff wrote:Don't beat yourself up, Alex. They were trying to prove a point and build a demo site. As they say in the video, thirty productive perennial species is plenty for us mere mortals.

Well I would need help identifying 30 productive perennials. I have mulberries, blueberries, echinacea, st. john's wort, bunching onions, garlic chives, onion chives, garlic, day lilies, thyme
oregano, rosemary, fig. I have various annuals that re-seed for me. If I added some berries, nut and fruit trees I would just about be there. The Paw Paws look good but they may not like
the heat down here. It was a fun video and very thought provoking.