Perennial Agriculture
Focusing on conservation and connection
What are we raising?
Hazelnuts
Just like the elderberries, hazelnuts are native, resilient and contribute much to the health of the landscape and soil. They provide a nutritious and versatile nut that can be eaten raw and roasted, in confection and pressed for oil, making it a sought after treat.
Chestnuts
Similar to whole grains in terms of nutrition, chestnuts not only provide vitamins and antioxidants, but fats and carbs as well. Though slow to produce, starting at 7 years, they are abundant when mature. They are also a very large, long lived tree, sometimes spanning centuries of time.
Elderberries
Native, resilient, medicinal, nutritious, and beautiful, elderberries are a welcome inhabitant on the landscape of our farm. While planting, weeding and harvest are all hand work, there is real joy in caring for them and watching them grow.
Willow
How does one begin to explain all the virtues of willow? From the beginning of human history it has provided itself for building material, craft, dyes, charcoal, energy production and medicinal use. Willow offers all of this, while simultaneously creating habitat for wildlife and pollinators, and contributing to soil and water heath.
Alfalfa
Alfalfa is a perennial cover that has been a significant part of our transition process. Not only does it provide a valuable winter feed source for livestock, it also helps maintain the soil on our hilly land and provides a relatively weed free way to transition away from farm chemical use.
Sheep
Aside from just being a joy on the landscapre, sheep as graziers are helpful in managing the perennial ground covers in an agroforestry system. The colorful and versatile wool of our heritage Shetlands also offers value in the folk school, for felting, spinning and dyeing.
Why Perennials?
The journey toward a sustainable future begins with awareness that our own health is tied to the health of the land.
Human innovation has created amazing things - efficiency of food production, speed of travel, and remarkable medical advances have allowed us to live longer, safer and more connected.
It is also daunting to realize how much damage we have done to our environment in the process. As with so many human practices, farming has taken a toll on environmental health.
Perennial agriculture presents an opportunity to shift our relationship with the environment.
The land won’t recover if we continue operating with the same mindset that brought us here, but the earth has the capacity to heal itself if we can approach it with humility.
By transitioning to perennials on this farm, we are able to work toward long-term ecological health in a new way, tending to soil health, improving air and water quality, increasing biodiversity and improving habitat for all forms of life.