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On the Joy of Setting Wilderness in Order
This is a long boring self-important navel-gazing ramble about gardening philosophy and my religion, filled with big words that make me feel good about how smart I am. Run away now or suffer the consequences of enduring my bloviations. My in-laws and I recently had the opportunity to head down to the property to do…
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Hayfield to Hazelnut Orchard Conversion Strategy
How we’re going about the process This conversion process is a huge undertaking, so having a strategy is important. First off, we need to source some plants. For this, we turned to Z’s Nutty Ridge, a chestnut and hazelnut nursery just to the east of our planting location. I’m thrilled to have a hybrid chestnut/hazelnut…
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Boiling Honey Locust Seeds for Better Germination. Amazing Results!
Honey locusts are an extremely useful tree. They’re fast growing, possibly nitrogen fixing, and their wood is rot-resistant. The wood that you don’t use for fence post burns extremely hot in your wood stove. Their leaves can be used as food for grazing animals, too! It’s said that George Washington used honey locust trees planted…
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A Reason for Hope
Hybrid hazelnuts are extremely resilient and hardy! The author of this video is Akiva Silver, who runs Twisted Tree Nursery . He also wrote the book Trees of Power, which you can find in our Sources page. The video gives me hope because it shows that even when totally neglected, hazelnuts have the ability to…
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Challenges
We face several challenges in the process of converting the hay field into a permaculture nut orchard. These challenges also represent an opportunity for us to make mistakes. We hope our mistakes help other people learn so their process of orchard establishment is easier! Distance. While we’re starting the orchard in Spencer, we actually live…
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Intentions, Opportunities
What we hope to accomplish and attain from our efforts Overall Intention: We hope to use the 7 acres of abandoned hay field as a home for a permaculture nut orchard that accomplishes multiple goals. The first goal is to increase our food security as a family. Hazelnuts and Chestnuts are extremely powerful in terms…