Welcome to permies Mike!
The most economical way of starting a food forest is to begin from zones 0 and 1 and gradually expand yourself out to zones 4 and 5. While you are
actively developing zones 0 and 1 (the home and area surrounding the home), it is typically advised to sow zones 2, 3, 4, and 5 with your nitrogen fixers and bioaccumulators so that the soil is prepared and ready to go when you have the time and money to expand yourself into zones 2, 3, 4, and 5. The farther you go away from the home, the less managed the zones become because it takes more work to visit those areas.
For more information,
Jack Spirko of the Survival Podcast has a wonderful
YouTube Playlist about Permaculture,
Open Permaculture has a great free online permaculture lecture series, Bill Mollison has a nice
online lecture series, Paul Wheaton has tons of
podcasts and
YouTube videos, and if you look around on YouTube there are tons more gobs of information by other wonderful people out there!
If you choose to listen to some of Paul Wheaton's podcasts,
Podcast 057 talks about preparing a food forest;
podcast 070 is a review of Geoff Lawton's Establishing a Food Forest DVD;
podcast 195 is a discussion with Geoff Lawton about his Food Forests DVD.