I don't know if I'll ever actually grow an entire food forest. Maybe I can at the very least get a small patch of forest type growth started somewhere.
For now, the goal is to establish several cold-hardy perennial edibles. Currently living in a zone 3 or 4 climate. Extreme winters with long days in the summer.
Wild Strawberries
Difficult to sprout, but rewarding to grow.
For the past three to four years I've been staring different varieties of wild strawberries from seed. The Alpine Barron seems to get bigger berries than other varieties. At first, I was growing them in pots, but last year I put them in the ground and they all survived. They are the most delicious strawberries I've ever tasted. Tiny compared to commercial varieties, but they produce berries from mid-summer into the fall, which is a longer harvest season than the large varieties.
Asparagus
Easy to sprout and very hardy, mulch heavily in the fall.
I've also started asparagus, both from bare roots and seeds. The seed sprouting went much better than expected, and I didn't have enough space for all the new asparagus plants. I wound up tucking some away in random corners of the garden, and they've all survived, even after being forgotten! A few had to be excavated from weeds this summer because I forgot they were there.
Rhubarb
Also easy to sprout but difficult to harden off, hardy once established.
The newest addition to the perennials is the Rhubarb. Started from seed last year, it will be ready to pick next year. Both asparagus and rhubarb need two full seasons to establish their roots before being harvested, which means you can start pick in them in the third year. Slugs seem to like the leaves, but the plants are already too big to be bothered much.
Apples
Old trees require a different approach to pruning than new trees.
An apple tree was already here, it hadn't been pruned in a long time. The first time I went to work on it, I realized it was actually two apple trees twisted together! Which is a good thing because they usually need more than one tree for pollination. I still don't know what type of apple it is. Turns yellow in the fall but still a bit tart. There are loads of giant apples on the tree this year, I cut one-third of the top of because it was getting too tall. This made the branches grow out instead of the center of the tree growing up. In the spring the plan is to prune a little more off the top and then it should be good for awhile.
Wild Cherry and Native Plum
Sweet smelling blossoms and good stock for grafting other fruits.
Siberian bird cherry trees and wild plums were also growing here already. The blossoms of the cherry trees have a wonderful sweet smell in the spring. The wild plums are pretty tart, but they make a good jam. Siberian bird cherries are traditionally used to make a cake, but drying out the berries and grinding them into a flour, seed and all. I actually made this cake a few years ago and the flavor was unbelievable, real wild cherry taste!
Red Raspberries
Grows vigorously once established, favorite of birds and bugs!
I almost forgot to mention the raspberries - I bought a bareroot plant for $5 three years ago, the most cold hardy variety I could find (at Menards, this one is hardy to Zone 3 but I don't remember what it's called). It started growing leaves soon after I planted it, but rabbits ate it down to the ground that year. The next year it grew back and sent out more canes. It had a good number of red raspberries, but a gang of yellowjacket wasps started munching on them and I didn't get many for myself. This year I had so many raspberries that my neighbors came over to ask how I grew them so well! I'll write another article all about my raspberry plants, maybe share some recipes.
Wine Cap Mushrooms
Has been tricky with the extreme heat and extreme cold.
Every year I try to grow these, and every year something digs them up. It might be a squirrel or maybe a rabbit. I've also noticed that they don't like to get too hot, and not many will come back after the winter, even with heavy mulching. The trees around the yard need pruning every year, some varieties grow like weeds. I got a little mulcher from Home Depot a few years ago, and it's been great for mulching up the branches and adding to the garden. The wine cap mycelium really loves when fresh mulch is added, and it will produce mushrooms after heavy rain. Unfortunately, we don't get much heavy rain out here and it's difficult to emulate with the garden hose. They do pop up in unexpected places though, so I've been trying to add extra mulch in those spots. Some came up in my peppermint because mulch had been moved from the mushroom bed to the potato garden (which has peppermint as a border).
Herbs
These will need their own section, not all of them come back every year.
Peppermint has been coming back in a specific spot in the garden. Thyme was growing for a few years, but this year it did not come back. I brought a cinnamon basil indoors over the winter and it is doing great this summer, I keep cutting the flowers off and it gets bushier and bushier. I also put a rosemary in the raised garden bed in hopes that it will come back next year, but I'm pretty sure it gets too cold. I will mulch it really well and see how it goes.
Ultimately, the plan for this blog is to document my experience, and share what I learn about cold climate gardening.
