The Community Food Forest Handbook

Collaboration and leadership strategies for long-term success Fueled by the popularity of permaculture and agroecology, community food forests are capturing the imaginations of people in neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the United States. Along with community gardens and farmers markets, community food forests are an avenue toward creating access to nutritious food and promoting environmental sustainability where we live. Interest in installing them in public spaces is on the rise. People are the most vital component of community food forests, but while we know more than ever about how to design food forests, the ways in which to best organize and lead groups of people involved with these projects has received relatively little attention. In The Community Food Forest Handbook, Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell dive into the civic aspects of community food forests, drawing on observations, group meetings, and interviews at over 20 projects across the country and their own experience creating and managing a food forest. They combine the stories and strategies gathered during their research with concepts of community development and project management to outline steps for creating lasting public food forests that positively impact communities. Rather than rehash food forest design, which classic books such as Forest Gardening and Edible Forest Gardens address in great detail, The Community Food Forest Handbook uses systems thinking and draws on social change theory to focus on how to work with diverse groups of people when conceiving of, designing, and implementing a community food forest. To find practical ground, the authors use management phases to highlight the ebb and flow of community capitals from a project's inception to its completion. They also explore examples of positive feedbacks that are often unexpected but offer avenues for enhancing the success of a community food forest. The Community Food Forest Handbook provides readers with helpful ideas for building and sustaining momentum, working with diverse public and private stakeholders, integrating assorted civic interests and visions within one project, creating safe and attractive sites, navigating community policies, positively affecting public perception, and managing site evolution and adaptation. Its concepts and examples showcase the complexities of community food forests, highlighting the human resilience of those who learn and experience what is possible when they collaborate on a shared vision for their community.

Learn how to mix and match plants in unique combinations to establish bountiful landscapes and create genuine self-reliance in years to come. A food forest is a productive landscape developed around a mix of trees and perennials. Rooted in permaculture principles, this integrated approach to gardening incorporates a variety of plants such as fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines, and perennial herbs and vegetables. Food forests can help increase biodiversity, protect valuable habitat for beneficial insects, and promote food security and resilience, all while providing an abundant harvest. The Food Forest Handbook is a practical manual for the design and management of a home-scale perennial polyculture garden. Simple, straightforward instructions guide the reader through: Getting started—site assessment and planning Tending the forest garden—maintaining soil health, succession planning, mulching, pruning and more The fruits of your labor—crop profiles, harvest, storage, nutrition and recipes This timely book makes the concept of food forests accessible to everyone, offering a unique approach to low-maintenance, high-yield, sustainable food production. “What happens if we were to drop the boundary between the built environment and nature? Wouldn’t we all be much better off? The Food Forest Handbook guides our first steps along that path.” —Albert Bates, author of The Biochar Solution “Through this in-depth practical book you will learn the strategies for effective planning, design, establishment and management of perennial polycultures . . . I recommend this book to all those who are bringing diversity to their planting schemes.” —Jude Hobbs, permaculture land-use consultant, designer, and educator, Cascadia Permaculture

Recommended by the American Community Gardening Association Community gardening enhances the fabric of towns and cities through social interactions and accessibility to fresh food, creating an enormously positive effect in the lives of everyone it touches. LaManda Joy, the founder of Chicago’s Peterson Garden Project and a board member of the American Community Gardening Association, has worked in the community gardening trenches for years and brings her knowledge to the wider world in Start a Community Food Garden. This hardworking guide covers every step of the process: fundraising, community organizing, site sourcing, garden design and planning, finding and managing volunteers, and managing the garden through all four seasons. A section dedicated to the basics of growing was designed to be used by community garden leaders as an educational tool for teaching new members how to successfully garden.

Community gardens are "cropping" up all over, allowing neighbors to work together, grow together, and reap the delicious rewards of their labor together. As more and more people become interested in getting back to nature and growing their own food, the community-gardening movement is exploding in popularity, giving city and suburban dwellers an opportunity to try out their green thumbs. This colorfully illustrated guide to community gardening offers comprehensive planning and planting advice to those looking to start a community garden as well as to those interested in joining an existing garden. Inside The Community Garden Handbook: -Profiles of different types of community gardens around the world, such as community-supported agriculture, shared plots and individual plots, orchards, rooftop gardens, movable gardens, and more -Getting the whole family involved in the community's gardening efforts -Starting a community garden from scratch, including gathering a team, navigating the legalities, and securing funds -Organizing fun community events, such as seed swaps and workshops, to raise awareness of and draw participants to community gardens -Selecting a site, Planning the garden's layout, irrigation system, and division of plots -A season-by-season schedule of tasks to maximize growing and harvesting and maintain the garden in the off-season -A plant directory featuring detailed descriptions of close to 50 flowers, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and more that will thrive in a community-garden setting

These days, food comes out frozen. Factories create processed meals and moms will just need to put them together or put them in the microwave. But where does food come? This is an interesting book that will lead your child to the true origins of food. Expect to hear requests to plant soon!

Jerome Osentowski, one of North America's most accomplished permaculture designers, presents a wholly new approach to a very old horticultural subject, showing how bringing the forest garden indoors is not only possible, but doable on unlikely terrain and in cold climates, using near net-zero technology. Different from other books on greenhouse design and management, this manual advocates for indoor agriculture using permaculture design concepts - integration, multi-functions, perennials and polycultures - that take season extension into new and important territory

“This well-illustrated case study . . . will help students of permaculture, of sustainability, of earth regeneration and of integrated eco-social design.” —Prof. Declan Kennedy, Chairman, Advisory Board, gaiauniversity.org To ensure food security and restore the health of the planet, we need to move beyond industrial agriculture and return to the practice of small-scale, local farming. The Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm describes the creation of a sustainable food system through a detailed case study of the successful year-round organic market garden and permaculture design at Pennsylvania’s Three Sisters Farm. At the heart of Three Sisters is its bioshelter—a solar greenhouse which integrates growing facilities, poultry housing, a potting room, storage, kitchen facilities, compost bins, a reference library and classroom area. The Bioshelter Market Garden examines how the bioshelter promotes greater biodiversity and is an energy efficient method of extending crop production through Pennsylvania’s cold winter months. Both visionary and practical, this fully illustrated book contains a wealth of information on the application of permaculture principles. Some of the topics covered include: Design and management of an intensive market garden farm Energy systems and bio-thermal resources Ecological soil management and pest control Wetlands usage Solar greenhouse design and management Whatever your gardening experience and ambitions, this comprehensive manual is sure to inform and inspire. “Darrell Frey’s inspirational book gives you all you need to know to create an energy-saving, food-producing bioshelter . . . [It] covers everything you need to understand, build, or simply admire these important tools for sustainability.” —Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden

Permanent agriculture - abundance by design "The wealth of practical knowledge in The Permaculture Handbook is a welcome addition to North America's canon of books on permaculture design, and will serve other regions as well. Peter Bane's broad and well-tested experience in ecological living will guide homeowners, gardeners, and small farmers toward designing and living in lushly productive and harmonious landscapes." ― Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of three successful farmsteads and market gardens. This comprehensive manual casts garden farming as both an economic opportunity and a strategy for living well with less money. It shows how, by mimicking the intelligence of nature and applying appropriate technologies such as solar and environmental design, permaculture can: Create an abundance of fresh, nourishing local produce Reduce dependence on expensive, polluting fossil fuels Drought-proof our cities and countryside Convert waste into wealth Permaculture is about working with the earth and with each other to repair the damage of industrial overreach and to enrich the living world that sustains us. The Permaculture Handbook is the definitive, practical North American guide to this revolutionary practice, and is a must-read for anyone concerned about creating food security, resilience and a legacy of abundance rather than depletion.