Food Forest

I volunteer with a local group called Hidden Harvest. It works to harvest unwanted fruit and share it with local food banks and shelters. It has been quiet thanks to the pandemic, but today there was a little event at the home of Jeff, another volunteer. Jeff has been developing a bit of a food forest; his half acre property is home to a variety of fruit and nut trees and shrubs, with a few annual plants. The trees and shrubs I remember seeing: apples, a pear tree with four varieties grafted on, Asian pear, red mulberries (native and endangered), Italian plum, Canadian plum, currants, serviceberry, red and black raspberries, pawpaws, grapes, hawthorn, sea buckthorns, black walnuts, heartnuts, one I can’t remember (maybe quince?) and one I had never heard of so the name didn’t register. Down the road, a neighbour has given him to plant more seedlings, so he now has some 100 apple and pear trees growing from suckers out of the trees at his house. We learned a bit about grafting and pruning, harvested the Italian plum, and took away some seedlings he had to give away. I now have an Italian plum seedling in my backyard. It is incentive to dig back the raspberries that are taking over my garden, and I have long wanted a fruit tree of my own.