The first Toru Trail of 2025 took place at Deb and Ray Butterfields place, Tinui Food Forest.
We were welcomed by Deb and Ray in the farm shop with shelves full of preserves, syrups and pickles, on a warm and overcast day. In 2001, the couple moved to an old farm house on the 4 acre bare block of land with their 4 small children.
Everyone was spell bound when listening to Deb who prepared us for not getting a fright while walking through the well established food forest. There are no weeds at all Deb said, not a single one, just beneficial plants supporting each other and the ecosystem. It’s the control freak, that has to be let go off, a food forest is far from tidy. Befriending and working in partnership with nature, through observation rather then intervention, and giving nature back her voice.
The fruit trees grow high above the lower trees and shrub layer, this is to feed the birds, and the lower fruit is for humans, they do not cover any fruit either, there is enough to eat for everyone. All organic matter is given back to the soil, clippings of trees included, other species usually from cuttings are planted in between when there are gaps. Low input means nothing is brought in, it’s a continuous cycle of life and decay.
The diversity, the wide variety of plant species of which some, such as wild parsnip and the more shrub-like American elderberry, are some of their favorites. As well as plants such as comfrey and Jerusalem artichokes, that can be chopped and dropped, providing mulch that keep moisture into the soil and suppress grass, which was the one plant that we did not see a lot of. No compost is being made, instead it’s chop and drop and no dig / no till.
Three years ago Cyclone Gabrielle left a thick layer of silt-soil that came down into the river from the erosion prone land. Many trees fell down or died, but nature is resilient and her custodians as well. There was beauty all around, the fallen down wood was used again. Many hand crafted wooden fences, archways and seating were build from straight saplings of willow and hazel. Fallen trees were covered in silt with the help of volunteer crews and these are like hugelkultur or mount beds now.
The air was filled with different aromas and humming insects, fruit laden trees all pollinated by wild insects.
We all went home humming as well and now digesting this upside down approach to just about everything we believed in before in relation to gardening.
Food Forests are a statement, against the loss of biodiversity and the state of our waterways, it’s time for change!
Hella Coenen
- Log in to post comments