Food Forest Card Game - Game Forum

Here's a quick bit of video inspiration for anyone who wants to build a trellis this spring.

The Food Forest card game is all about edible landscaping. Edible landscapes are a passion of mine, and I feel that everyone would be happier, healthier, and safer if they were to replace their grass with food. Since we purchased our home 2.5 years ago, I've been replacing my entire front lawn with edible plants. This is the pole bean trellis that I constructed last year for one of several raised beds out front. Some people worry about what the neighbors will say if they deviate from the typical lawn and landscape plants. Well, if you design your edible landscape well, they'll say "Wow!" Every time I'm in my front gardens, someone stops to say how much they love seeing what's growing in my yard. Whether it's tomatoes, or strawberries, or garlic (like right now) somebody is always stopping to take a look. My gardens are becoming a local tourist attraction.

So, if you're concerned about what people will say, don't sweat it. Just do a nice job with it and they'll appreciate it as much as any ornamental garden. Don't be restrained by what you think people think. Just make cool stuff and they'll probably like it.



If you're into edible landscapes, join me on Instagram and YouTube to watch me turn our residential city lot into Permaculture-inspired gardens.
https://www.instagram.com/foodforestcardgame/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCideww6q_BBOABx84AfSyGQ

Hey friends,

I just posted a new blog entry about 21 Choice Perennials for 4-Season Climates: http://www.bit.ly/21PerennialVeggies

The especially helpful thing is that I researched the USDA Hardiness Zones of each, and put them in a handy grid! It's the list I wish I had a decade ago! I think this will be really helpful to people who are interested in food forests and Permaculture.

Enjoy!

20% off for you and your friends!

It's giving season again, and we are all looking for great gifts. So, to celebrate the END of 2020, I have created a special 20% discount, good through December 6, 2020, just for Permies visitors! Here's the deal: I am losing my day job at the end of the year. I would love to be able to focus on Permaculture (and these games), but can't yet support myself on this stuff! So I need your help! Please share a picture of the card game on social media with a link to FoodForestCardGame.com. In return, please feel free to use the discount code below as many times as you like before December 6. With your help, I can create more fun projects that delight and educate!

You can find images to share (and follow me) on Instagram (@foodforestcardgame) or Facebook, or simply copy the card game pic from below.

The discount code is GIFT2020. Here's a link that should apply it directly. If you have trouble with the link, just go to FoodForestCardGame.com and make sure to use the GIFT2020 coupon code before you pay!

And please, please, please... don't forget to share!



Thank you!

I can't wait to play with these, I've got to print it out first though :)

Karl Treen wrote:

Thank you so much for your support! Please make sure to note that these cards can be used to play many games, NOT just one. This is the most common point that people miss.

The cards are intended as an open-ended invitation to game creators and regenerative gardening enthusiasts. While I have developed several games for the cards, and will be working on more this fall, I really hope that a community or people will evolve to create more games for these cards.

So the idea is for them to be on a par with the traditional playing cards, with the four suits, Aces, Kings, etc. Those would not be nearly as well known if there was only one game that could be played with them. One kind of cards for poker, a completely different set for rummy, yet a third for bridge; I doubt there would be as much interest in card games if it was like that. I do find that idea to be in keeping with our values -- multipurpose as opposed to a separate thing for each single purpose.

I like this idea a lot better than the (Your-City's-Name)-opoly phenomenon. A game about predatory capitalism, with advertising incorporated into the game board. How many who buy those games are aware of the inherent propaganda?

I have an idea that occured to me while starting to research different types of housing; maybe have a part of the game with  the differing ways of building housing, storage sheds, barns, etc, and the ways they help /contribute to permaculture, and  the ways they are not so great in helping/contribute to  permaculture?

The Food Forest decks have been available since last September, and I'm mailing out packages almost every day now!  More ideas are in the pipeline but, as a one-man shop, I need to leverage every tool available to create and test new instructions.  Currently there are several that have been tested or that are still in testing mode.  I could definitely use feedback on those that are still being tested.  Beyond that, there are so many possibilities for these decks that a team of developers and testers could literally create hundreds of uses for them.  But I don't have a team.  So this forum is to provide space for folks (including me) to brainstorm new ways of playing, and teaching, with Food Forest.  I'll use this forum to announce new instructions as they are developed, and you can use it to describe ways that you use your own decks, or to brainstorm ideas that you think might be worth developing.

If you don't yet know about FF, you can learn more here: About Food Forest

So far I haven't created any rules that use the classification found near the bottom of the outer circle of each element.  This classification describes the element as either "root/tuber", "fungus", "groundcover", "herbaceous", "shrub", "climber", "understory", "canopy", "structure", "animal", "insect", "natural disaster", or nothing.  (See the Blueberry example below.  Its classification is "shrub")  As you can see, many of these classifications refer to where the element falls in the layers of a food forest.  It has long been my belief that these classifications might be used as "suits", if you will.  I have been meaning to build rules around this concept, but have not yet gotten around to it.

One idea that has floated around, half formed, in my mind is as follows: each player would be dealt several plants or other items, and there would be several dealt face up in the center.  Perhaps these would be dealt in rounds, with some going to each player and some to the center (I don't know how many for each).  Each player would add things to the central collection according to rules I haven't yet figured out.  The goal would be to build a multi-story "straight", if you will, using the classifications and Permaculture zones (labeled "pz" - see image below), but possibly with other requirements (like one element shouldn't shade other elements, or that the classifications have to exist with one logically following the last (root, then fungus, then groundcover, etc. )  



Maybe there would need to be some requirement for input and output matches, etc.  The objective could either be competitive, with one player taking the central "trick" under certain conditions, or it could be cooperative, with the objective being to create a food forest with a certain number of completed guilds.  Now remember, I haven't even tried this out, but I think it could be a lot of fun to play if we got the rules finalized.  There might even be two versions, one competitive and one cooperative.

The idea of a common pool of elements goes back to a brief flirtation I had with Texas Holdem several years back.  Maybe just starting with Texas Holdem rules, using the layers to build straights, and the inputs and outputs to create pairs, someone could invent something even better, and less complex, than my idea above.

You can find completed instructions, and some undergoing testing, here: Instructions for Food Forest

Beyond all this, do you have ideas of your own?  Have you found new ways of using the decks with different age groups?  Have you invented your own ways to play?  I use them in the classroom with elementary school kids where we play Picklet (found on the instructions page above) .  I am eager to hear how others are using them.  With such a creative group of people, there are probably some really interesting ideas just waiting to be tapped.

And remember, Paul Wheaton has his own Permaculture playing cards which are very cool, indeed.  You can see Paul's cards here: Permaculture Playing Cards

Hey friends!

I have been creating a TON of videos this spring, and I'd love to hear what you think!

If you want to make my day, click this link, then click the red "subscribe" button: [subscribe]

Here's one of my recent videos on the Homesteader's Kaleidoscopic Perennial Kale Grex from the Experimental Farm Network:

For the first time this week I went live on YouTube!

I was dividing a few precious, edible dahlia tubers and figured I'd add a bit more stress to the process! :)

If you know anything about dividing dahlias, let me know how I did!

Hey Friends!

I've learned a lot about the Perennial Kale Grex in the past 3 years. Here's what I learned:


Please subscribe to my channel!

Hello! I heard about this awesome card game at the PDC this year and was hoping to get a set, however, it seems that the shop is no longer taking order and all of the posts are several years old and there are lots of dead links. Is there a way to get these cards? Is everything alright with Karl?

Hal Schmidt wrote:Hello! I heard about this awesome card game at the PDC this year and was hoping to get a set, however, it seems that the shop is no longer taking order and all of the posts are several years old and there are lots of dead links. Is there a way to get these cards? Is everything alright with Karl?

I think Karl has moved on to other projects.  This project was not loved as much as he hoped.  I know of several awesome projects like this that are not getting enough love.

Hal Schmidt wrote:Hello! I heard about this awesome card game at the PDC this year and was hoping to get a set, however, it seems that the shop is no longer taking order and all of the posts are several years old and there are lots of dead links. Is there a way to get these cards? Is everything alright with Karl?

Hi Hal. Thanks for asking! I'm healthy and happy, and still into cultivating my own small landscape, guided by Permaculture. The card game is available on eBay now. I just wasn't able to break even with the more complicated finances of hosting and marketing it through my e-commerce website. It costs over $5 to even ship the darned thing these days. Life got busy with other things, and I never bothered cleaning up all the old links. Apologies!

Thank you Paul & Permies for all your support over the years! Maybe when I retire, in a decade or so, I'll revive this business and give it the attention it deserves. Running it part-time just didn't work out.

Warm wishes to everyone!
Karl

I think Karl has moved on to other projects.  This project was not loved as much as he hoped.  I know of several awesome projects like this that are not getting enough love.

Paul! Thanks so much for your kind words!!!
Yeah, so sorry I left everyone hanging here. Life just got busy, and I had to cut my losses, but no regrets. It's on eBay now, which reduces costs to the point that I can still afford to ship it. It's all good, though. I'm proud of the project. Everyone should create at least one pure thing in life, and this was mine. Hopefully I've spread enough seeds out there that something will grow from it!

Be well,
Karl