FOOD FOREST PROJECT
INSPIRA Permaculture
One of our main projects is to build a Food Forest. If you are interested, next November 2025 we will run a 7-day hands-on workshop with Permaculture expert Marcus Pan in the lead. More details below.
So, what is a Food Forest? A Permaculture Food Forest is a small eco-system of food production that aims to mimic what nature mostly tries to do with a piece of land: build a forest. The idea is to create a self-sustaining, resilient, and diverse environment that is designed to provide us with food and resources, as well as provide habitats to a large number of creatures, plants and fungi. In the end, we will support biodiversity and soil health, while producing food for the most part of the year.
HOW?
IMITATING NATURE
The Food Forests’ goal is to emulate or mimic the structure and functions of a forest edge, with layers of trees, shrubs, ground cover, and vines, but to do so with mostly plants that provide us with food. By incorporating a wide variety of edible plants, such as fruit and nut trees, shrubs (e.g. berries), herbs, vines (e.g. grapes), and perennial vegetables (e.g. asparagus), we ensure a yearly yield of food with minimal maintenance.
MINIMAL MAINTENANCE
Once established, food forests require minimal maintenance, as the plants support each other and create a balanced ecosystem. We become stewards and help them in the first years until the ecosystem is established and self-sustaining. Because like most forests, they rely on natural cycles (nutrient cycling and pollination), rather than external inputs, the forest feeds itself... And she feeds us.
RESOURCES & HABITAT
Besides food, Food Forests can provide other useful resources for us, such as firewood, and of course, they become a welcoming habitat for wildlife. Furthermore, they improve the soil health and water retention. How does this happen? The diversity of plant roots and organic matter build healthy, fertile soil, and deep-rooted trees and ground cover help conserve water. So an increased biodiversity will be a welcome side-benefit as the wide variety of plants in the Food Forest supports a wider range of insects, birds, and other wildlife. This same plant diversity makes the system less vulnerable to pests, diseases, and climate change.
FOOD YEAR-ROUND
But how will be ensure food produce year-round? Well, different plants provide food at different times of the year, and that is part of the design. To ensure a consistent harvest, even in a temperate climate such as our Mediterranean climate, where the winter can get cold, we find varieties of apples and pears that give fruit through January, as well as Mulberries and Strawberry trees, not to mention Olives!
HANDS-ON 7-DAY WORKSHOP
NOV. 2025.
PLANNING & CONSTRUCTION OF FOREST GARDEN SYSTEMS
On the approximately 2 of 8.5 hectares at our farm in Tuscany, we will design a Permaculture Food Forest garden system. Starting with the theory of forest garden planning, followed by keyline design by measuring out contour lines. An excavator will be at hand to create the designed swales and drainage trenches. Then we will start with the multi-layered planting.
During 7-day of workshop, you will have the opportunity to design your own forest garden system and learn all the necessary steps for implementation.
KEYLINE DESIGN
& EARTH WORKS
Keyline design is a landscape design technique used to optimize the water resources of an area and to irrigate it. Compared to terracing for cultivation and water retention, the method is gentler and easier to implement; therefore, by adapting lines to the terrain to enhance deep percolation, droughts and erosion can be prevented and a significant contribution to humus build-up can be made.
THE TEACHERS
In this course, Marcus Pan, internationally active permaculture designer and teacher, not only shares his many years of experience in the planning and construction of permaculture systems. He also shares his knowledge of deep the connections in nature and how to restore them, as well as his insights into nature's interconnections.
Janick Peter, inspired by the vision of a new, healthy and diverse world, completed the Permaculture Design Course in 2013. He then began the multi-year diploma course in applied permaculture design, which he completed in 2017. Since then, he works full-time as a permaculture designer with a focus on project implementation.
WHEN & WHERE ETC.
The workshop will take place From Nov. 9th to 15th
At INSPIRA in Scansano, Tuscany, Italy
For more information, feel free to contact us.
