Grumpy_Dude (@grumpy_dude)

Food Forest: In the permaculture world there is the concept of a bunch of plants in an area that produce food yearly. Many years ago I was fascinated with the concept and just started planting fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs, and the list goes on. Yes I read a lot of permaculture books but it really isn't that hard to do. It takes time to establish it over a few years where things are in balance but then it just produces food if you tend to it or not. Over the winter I knew I had some home renovation projects that were going to be stressful and take up pretty much all my time and made the decision to not plant a huge annual vegetable garden this year. It was not an easy decision but I knew it would have overloaded my little brain and body trying to do both. Even though I didn't plant annuals the food forest provided abundance and I found time here and there to make use of it. The plums are just coming in now (super sweet). The blueberry's I picked several pounds and I took 1-2 hours to make blueberry syrup (It's soooooo good) and the remaining blueberry mash is great for pancakes and baked goods. Then raspberries I'm drowning in. They grow like weeds if you don't keep them in check. I made rasberry jam for the year. Takes 1-2 hours to make the jam and water can it. that's the other beautiful thing most of the recipes for jams and syrups only require water canning which is quick and easy compared to pressure canning. I just shared a few pics and a video of making raspberry preserves. If you can plant a few things in your yard....start it this year. fruit trees go on sale end of season....shove them in the ground, water them, fence the trunk and you're ready for a fruit harvest in a couple years. The first year or two I pull off all the flowers so the tree can put all the energy into growing big and strong. Enjoy the day.