Food Forest #2

A forest doesn't require fertilizer, it doesn't require additional water, it doesn't require any form of human intervention. Plants cluster where they fit and create their own planting zones. They naturally cluster with other plants that keep critters away. They build the perfect environment for OTHER plants and protect each other in a symbiotic fashion.

Forests exist all over the world, except in the worst cold and the worst deserts. They thrive where human thought says they should die. I think part of that is the human expectation that everything NEEDS them. Nope. Sorry. Here's your sign.

A forest naturally has seven layers.

Canopy
Under Canopy
Undergrowth
ground layer (creepers and such)
Climbing (vines)
fungus
Tubers

All niches are filled. You seldom see bare ground in nature. It's always covered by something. The forest goes down just as far as it goes up, and that area is also full of life.

In creating my food forest I wanted to cover those same bases. My canopy isn't 30 or 50 or 100 feet over the ground, so I cut out the under canopy. My canopy is the trees that would be an under canopy in a normal forest.

Canopy: Three dwarf fruit trees
undergrowth: Aronia, gooseberry, currant, elderberry
ground layer: tarragon, rue, dill, potatoes, tansy, fennel, herbs, grasses, sage, yarrow
vining: honeysuckle, luffa
root: potatoes, horseradish
fungus: winecaps (planting this year)

I'll be planting melons and nasturtiums up there as groundcover. This year is to see how everything gets established. Next spring the real fun begins.

Food sensitivities

Last week I discovered that one of my sisters is lactose intolerant. She hadn't told any of us, so of course Thanksgiving was heavy with cheese and cream and butter.

Food sensitivities are rampant, especially as people get older. Stomacheaches, heartburn, etc, are pretty much ignored except to pump pharmaceuticals and other chemicals into an already overstressed system.

If you have food alergies or sensitivities, the best thing you can do is tell other people about it. Other people can help you (or snipe and warn) and adjust their foods to accomodate. Mashed potatoes may not taste the same with margarine, or without the heavy cream, but they're still good.

Avoidance may be the best option, but some people lack self control and sometimes you simply don't know what is in the food you're eating. Once in a while you may slip and unknowingly eat something you shouldn't simply because it's related to something you're sensitive to.

If you do slip up there are a number of herbs that will help with digestive problems (many of the mints, dill (carrot familly) as well as turmeric and ginger). But herbs, by their nature, are related to other herbs and people will often have the same sensitivities to their relatives (rather like your sister-in-law's mother).

That being the case, I'm going through all the old posts here and putting up plant family information. I've started but not finished, so look back later for additional information.