forest farming: seeing the forest for more than just the trees - presented by steve gabriel

Farming the Woods:

Seeing the Forest for More than Just the Trees

Permaculture Voices March 7, 2015

Books available through the book vendor!

or online at: FarmingtheWoods.com

For slides: /2015conference

WellspringForestFarm.com

Water in the Landscape May 2 & 3

Building Living Soil June 27

Forestry & Agroforestry Short Course July 24 - 28

Through: FingerLakesPermaculture.org

Wellspring Forest Farm Mecklenburg, NY

Mushrooms & Maple Syrup Pastured Ducks & Sheep Homestead Production Water Catchment Off-Grid

1620 1850

1920 Today

PA 58% NY 62% MA 63% VT 78% NH 89% ME 90%

2: Historical Context

Forests are a living library, a story of a place over Cme

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Anas Nin , others

Tree Sap drinking in Korea

gorosoe, or tree good for the bones.

Mushrooms as a surplus of forest health

Wine Cap Stropharia Stropharia-rugoso-annulata

Oyster

1. Substrate Harvest 2. Inoculation

3. Colonization 4. Harvesting

Forcing Shiitake

VALUE ADDED

PRODUCTS =

ZERO CROP LOSS

Shiitake Economics Costs including labor = about $5/log

Profits = $5/year or $15 20 per log over lifeCme

An opera>on that inoculated around 100 logs per year un>l reaching 500 logs could be expected to make a profit in year two, and $4,000/year profit in year five.

Total profit over the five years = $9,000

Permaculture + Academia

CornellMushrooms.org

A perfect union?: Why permaculture and academia need each other Permaculture Activist, XX 2014

Current Trends About 60 growers and 18,000 logs in producCon in Northeast US

Average of $5,637 income per grower/year These growers project to triple their produc>on over next three years

89% report far more demand than supply

3 year Goal: 250 growers X $5k = $1,250,00

The real gem: Stacking Agroforestry Systems

Hickory Nut Milk

MacDaniels Nut Grove Forest Farm at Cornell University

Black Walnut


Black Walnut

Pawpaw

Paw Paw, Asimina triloba

h[p://www.ohiofoodshed.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pulp.jpg


Black Walnut

Pawpaw

Elderberry

Elderberry

Juicing

$2 5 /oz

Aronia chokeberry


Black Walnut

Pawpaw

Stropharia

Elderberry


Black Walnut

Pawpaw

Stropharia

Willow

Elderberry

Riparian Buffers

Calcium

Silvopasture

Shade benefits

Multiple income streams

Fertility Cycling

Doing work you dont want to!

Very appropriate on much of NE lands

Angus Glen Farm, Watkins Glen NY

25 years old and has now been thinned 3x for about $1500/acre of fence posts (using value of $5/post)

MulCple Income Streams

Doing the work you dont want to!

Badgersett Research Farm, Canton MN

Integration Acres, Athens OH

LOGS LOGS

DUCKS DUCKS

Portable Electronet Fence Ducks visit in May, July, Sept

7 12 day rotation

Overall population reduction, not picking slugs off logs

Also rotated in pasture before sheep, gardens, cover

cropped areas

And eggs, too!

Maple Syrup, Shiitake Mushrooms, Ducks, and Ginseng $7,000 grossed on 1 acre in 2014

www.wellspringforestfarm.com

FarmingTheWoods.com CornellMushrooms.org






Design AcJvity:

Stacked Agroforestry

for your ecotype

Wellspring Forest Farm Mecklenburg, NY

1. Identify Ecotype

2. Determine Marketable Species

3. Mimic in structure + function

Get into groups of 3 4 people.

Propose a feasible agroforestry system of 3 - 5 species for an ecotype in

your climate

FarmingTheWoods.com CornellMushrooms.org






forest farming: seeing the forest for more than just the trees - presented by steve gabriel

Science