About our food forest
It all started when…
Kat has always had a love for plants - especially ones that can feed you! She’s tapping into her Botany classes from her undergrad at Carson-Newman, her experience as a Botany field technician in Utah, and her Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Utah to start a forest of edible and supporting plants right here in South Knoxville.
So what is a food forest? A food forest mimics the structure of a natural forest ecosystem in an attempt to grow food more efficiently. The seven layers that exist in a natural ecosystem are the upper canopy, sub-canopy, shrubs, herbaceous, groundcover, root crops and vines. Not everything in a food forest has to be edible. There are wonderful supporting plants, like nitrogen fixers, and other useful plants, like trees for timber, that can be planted in a food forest.
Over 100 baby trees consisting of a variety of “usual” and “unusual” fruits and nitrogen fixers along with an edible hedge have been planted in the low meadow. Wild asparagus, blackberries and edible greens already exist in the sweet little meadow.
This food forest is just getting growing, but in time it’ll be an amazing place to graze.