Growing Food Forests Class
Growing Food Forests with Don Tipping
Sat. April 10, 2010- 1PM • $30 non-members, $20 SLC members • At Frog Farm
On Saturday, April 10, 2010, Spiral Living Center will host a class on growing food forests with Rogye Valley farmer Don Tipping. The c;ass will begin at 1PM at the Fprg Farm in Takilma. Pre-registration is required. Students will learn to design, plant and care for high-yield. food producing communities.
Forest gardening, or growing fruits, vegetables and herbs in the understory of an orchard, is often promoted by Permaculture designers. The concept was explored in the 1930's by Tpyohiko Kagawa, as the Japanese sought solutions to soil erosion caused by deforestation. Kagawa proposed plantung walnut trees to hold the soil and feed livestock. More recently the concept is re-examined in "Forest Gardening" by Robert Hart, copyright 1996, who describes a multilayered canopy incuding fruit and nut trees, vines, berry schrubs, herbaceous pnats and root vegetables. This plant community, or guild, includes nitrogen fixing plants and dynamic accumulators, plants that gather excess minerals and make them available to other nearby plants.
Tipping will discuss the advantages and virtues ofr basing a portion of garden agriculture on deeply rooted perennails and multi-layered systems. He will explain how nectar flow, beneficial insects, pollinators, nitrogen fixation, dynamic accumulators, fooder for animals and multiple yield are all related to each other in a process that can put food on the table. In addition, Tipping will gove some instructions on propogation techniques - cutting, grafting, layering and seed.
Don Tipping and his family have stewarded Seven Seeds Farm, and now Siskiyou Seeds for the past 13 years on the north sope of Greyback Mountain in Williams, Oregon. They produce fruits, vegetables, seeds, wool, eggs and lamb. Their farm has been designed to function as a self-contained, life-regenerating organism with waste products being recycled and feeding other elements of the system. Lauded as one of the best example of a small productive Biodynamic and Permaculture farm in the Pacific Northwest, Seven Seeds helps to mentor new farmers through internships and workshops. Tipping helped to found the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative, whicg manages a 150 share Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a commercial seed growing business. an equipment co-op and internship curriculum among 12 cooperating farms. Tipping is currently serving as the president of the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative.
Spiral Living Center is non-profit organization promoting sustainable living skills and community self-sufficiency in the Illinois Valley in southern Oregon. The Center offers owrkshops, programs and free skillshares througout the year. Membership is $20 per year, and includes a $10 discount on each workshop. View this years schedule on this website or call the office at (541) 592-3542 on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday from 9AM to 3PM.
Date:
Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 1:00pm
