(light airy music)
- David has a question here.
Should we aim to have food producing elements
in all layers of, of the food forest?
Won't the higher layers of shade out
the lower layers and make this difference.
Once the food price gets to a certain level of maturity
I get the idea of succession, but why then
do we say a food forest mimics a natural forest?
If all the layers are formed by edible and support
for edible species and we, and we intervening so much.
In tropical climates it's well known that some species
like coffee and cacao like the shade,
but in other climates I'm not so sure.
I can find edible perennial species for every layer
of a forest in the Mediterranean climate.
But my doubt is whether they can co-exist
and be productive at the same time.
Well, the answer is yes and no, David.
Some areas, some things do shade out
and they go to the edge of a forest
to the edge of a forest clearing.
Some things particularly like the shade in a cooler climate,
there are a lot of berries that grow in the lower area.
And by the way, it's not all food.
Some of it's timber, some of its fiber,
some of its craft, some of its dyes,
some of it forage, some of it's fungi food.
There's all kinds of stuff in a food forest.
It's not just food.
So there's many different elements,
and yes, some things change.
Canopy does take over, but it's entirely up to you.
You can keep the canopy lower if you like,
you can pollard your canopy trees.
You can let it all layer itself.
We do have coffee here as an understory.
It's coming through pretty well, takes up the gap.
Definitely wasn't here in full sun when it was all
herbaceous, cover crop annuals which are all mostly gone.
And now are our shrubs are going,
we're speeding up succession and by sort of
tuning and fiddling with it.
It's not much work, over a year.
It's very little work.
We can make it more work if you like.
We can open up clearings,
Small clearings depends on your climate.
You can definitely have larger clearings
in a colder climate and smaller clearings in topics.
And the very smallest of clearings
in the deserts and arid zones.
Trees start to excel in the understory.
Tamarillo there, can see our tamarillos come,
starting to come ripe, tree tomato.
It loves, it, loves a damp shade.
I'm falling in a drainage ditch there,
mind that Mr. Cameraman.
So this one, this one booms in the last few years
we've had massive tamarillo years,
make a lot of chutney and in those years.
So it, it's definitely an understory
that wasn't here before.
It's it's round-a-bouts and swings
to the advantage of energy efficiency,
in relation to energy in to energy out.
The least amount of work for the maximum amount
of product over time.
So, and things evolve and change over time.
You're definitely leaning away from annuals.
There are a lot more perennials out here.
And remember Eric Tones-Myer,
mate of mine Eric, he's in Holyoke, Massachusetts,
which gets two feet of snow every single year.
Now Eric trialed 400 perennial vegetables on his quarter
of an acre and settled on the best 300.
I think he settled, on the best 200 in the end.
That's a large selection of perennials,
a very large selection of perennials
considering the cold climate.
Only because generally we don't think of it like that.
We think, oh, tropics have all this diversity.
Ah, no, no, no, no, no.
There's plenty of diversity in the cold climates.
It's just not generally sold.
No, there's no difference that and tropics either.
There's a lot that we grow that don't get sold in the shops.
We get the privilege of eating this massive diversity.
I try and eat 20 different leaves a year, if I can.
Sorry, sorry not a year, 20 different leaves a day.
Right? So every day I try and
get a diversity of 20 different leaves.
Of course, I could get all precious here and start going.
I can also grow avocados,
(Geoff laughing)
but then this is where I live.
I can't grow apples.
I love to grow cherries, but I can't, you know,
but I can grow avocados.
Right? Like, doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
The most precious fruit you can buy in Bali is an apple.
Comes on a silk cushion, you know
but you know, they've got jackfruit,
and durians, and ranbutans, and you know
lychee's, and all that stuff.
They haven't got apples, you know, like everybody
wants something they haven't got, but you just
got to realize how much you can have in diversity.
And there's no limit to climate.
It's just a matter of working it out
and you can have your little edgy systems.
And you can, remember you can really extend edge.
So get plenty of it.
So carry on and carry on discovering
and enjoying that journey of design.
(light airy music)