Join Geoff as he takes us on a journey through his favorite part of the food forest at Zaytuna Farm, Australia.

Geoff walks us through one of the older sections of Zaytuna’s food forests. As the property transitions into an eco-community, it has changed how maintenance is done, and this bit of forest has been left to its own devices. Nothing dies, and nothing goes wrong, but the forest has become much more like a productive wildland. Geoff has been coming lately to gather goat forage by slowly chopping and dropping the larger nitrogen fixers.

As we meander through, Geoff points out a variety of useful plants such as guava, khat, mugwort, black locust, bunya pines, mango, jackfruit, coffee, mulberry, tipuana tipu, lemons, loquat, custard apple, bamboo, casuarina (with climbing yams growing up them), coco yam, dragon fruit, Kei apple, arrowroot, feijoa, and Mexican tree fern… the list just goes and goes. There is plenty to eat growing wild in a forest Geoff describes as being controlled by rampancy.

To illustrate another food forest option, we visit the camping area for students. Filled with the same types of plants Geoff has already pointed out as well as pecan trees and Brazilian cherries, the food forest here has been maintained to keep it comfortable as living space. Much of the groundcover has been cut back. The large legume trees have been pollarded to let in plenty of light for the fruit trees.

One of the pleasures of fiddling in a food forest is the many options at our disposal. They can be high maintenance and high production if we choose, or we can allow them to be low maintenance with casual production. It’s really up to us as stewards, and it’s important to understand this element of growing a food forest.

Key Takeaways

- Unmaintained food forests will get much wilder, but nothing really dies or goes wrong. It just gets very rampant.
- We can keep food forest very tame if we want them to be comfortable places to live in.
- A food forest with a high maintenance schedule will provide high production. A food forest with a low maintenance schedule will provide casual production. Either, or anything in between, is fine.

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About Geoff: Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth and each other and return the surplus.

About Permaculture: Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial connections – imitating the no waste, closed-loop systems seen in natural systems. Permaculture applies solutions in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.

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