We have had a great summer so far in Hazelwood. The food forest is lush with plants, old and new. The peach tree is heavy laden with fruit, and the elderberries are so full they are nearly touching the ground! We’ve been harvesting medicinal and culinary herbs, shiitake mushrooms, flowers, fruit, and more at the food forest all spring and into early summer. We’ve had the Pittsburgh Food City Fellows come down and learn about what we’re up to, and we gave a tour to a group of professionals working for environmental health around the country. But we want to do even more!
As the food forest intern this summer, I have a couple of projects and things I personally think would be great for the growth of the food forest. We have been working hard at getting plants established for four years, but now I think it’s time to really make the food forest sustainable and get the community involved. Here are some ways I think we could make that happen:
Build a front gate – As of now, the food forest is a bit obscured from the road, and not many people in the neighborhood know what we’re up to. A front gate would create an entrance point for passers-by, raise awareness, and invite people into our space.
Increase signage – If you are unfamiliar with plants, it might be difficult to see the wealth that the food forest holds just by walking around. We think it would be great to put signs up around the food forest so that people can learn about permaculture even if we are not there to teach.
Host more workshops to show people how to use some of our plants – Many of the plants we have at the food forest are fairly uncommon species, but most of them have great use! It would be really great to have workshops about herb drying or medicinal uses of plants, so that people could learn how to make use of the bounty of the food forest.
Get more plants – Although we do have a long list of plants at the food forest, there is plenty of room for more diversity. The goal is to fill the space up with edible, medicinal, or useful species, and we’ve got a long way to go before we’ve met that.
We are still down at the food forest every Tuesday night from 6pm until sundown, and last week, we started Saturday workdays from 10am-2pm. Feel free to come on down, and bring friends and family, even kids. Everyone is welcome. If you haven’t done so already, follow us on Facebook to keep updated with photos and our latest events! And if you want to be involved with any of these projects or you have an idea of our own, let us know. We would love to have your help!
Until next time,
Julia