The #Moroccan #FoodForest That Inspired an #AgriculturalRevolution

These ancient forest gardens may be more relevant than ever.

by Eric J. Wallace April 1, 2019

"It was 1975 and Geoff Lawton was wintering with friends in Morocco. Camping on beaches north of Agadir, they’d been surfing for weeks when locals told them about Paradise Valley. Located along the Tamraght River in the High Atlas Mountains, it promised 5,200-foot vistas, blue-green waterfalls, and lush, rainforest-like vegetation.

"Lawton, then 21, was on his first trip outside the U.K. 'Tourists had yet to ‘discover’ the area, so the culture was very much preserved,' he says. 'For me, it was like going back to Biblical times.'

"The dirt road to the Valley climbed through a barren, arid landscape into rural hills studded with mud brick homes. Twenty kilometers in, the group stopped at the tiny village of Inraren for directions. Lawton went to relieve himself in a roadside wood.

" 'I remember thinking it was odd that this lush, green forest should be bursting from the desert,' he says.

"Stepping inside, things got stranger. The air felt cool, almost misty. Growing in the shade of tall date palms were trees, vines, and shrubs bearing bananas, tamarinds, oranges, figs, guavas, pomegranates, lemons, limes, mulberries, carobs, quince, grapes, and other fruits and nuts. Following a footpath through the grassy understory past groves of olive and argan trees, Lawton discovered a cluster of fenced-in vegetable and herb gardens—most about a quarter-acre in size. Here and there, goats were tethered to posts. Chickens clucked through the underbrush and roosted in trees. Gazing down a leafy corridor, he spotted a man leading a donkey. Its saddlebags brimmed with produce.

" 'I felt like I’d wandered into some kind of ancient organism,' says Lawton. “I had goosebumps all over.'

"Totaling about 65 acres, the food forest was a remnant of one of the world’s oldest #sustainable systems of agriculture. While its origins have been lost to history, scientists agree it is at least many centuries old. Some, including Lawton, date its establishment to 2,000 years ago. When asked about the forest’s age, villagers shrug.

" 'I have no idea how old it is or when our ancestors first began gardening here,' says 45-year-old Abdelmajid Ziyani, a construction worker and member of a local argan and olive oil cooperative. 'But I know it has been here for centuries.' "

Related video: "The 2000 Year Old Food Forest in Morocco - Discover Permaculture with Geoff Lawton"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-b_C7a_es

Read more:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-permaculture-food-forests

#SolarPunkSunday #ForestGardens #UndergroundSprings #Permaculture #AncientFoodForests #SustainableAgriculture #History #AgricultureHistory #Histodon #TraditionalAgriculture

Forest Gardens and Permaculture
https://www.permaculture.org.uk/what-is-forest-garden

#SolarPunkSunday #ForestGardens #PermaCulture #Food #Organic

The more I read about India's Kerala province, the more I want to go there. Anyone been there?

"Here, rare and endemic species such as Impatiens jerdoniae, which are either endangered or fast disappearing in the wild, thrive. According to Joseph, more than 260 fern species exist in southern India, of which more than 200 are grown in the sanctuary. Similarly, 110 of the 140 species of Impatiens – a genus of more than 1,000 flowering plants – found in southern India are present at the sanctuary.

While crop seed vaults are common around the world, nurseries for wild and native plants are rare, and many plant species quietly become extinct. This marks Gurukula out as a Noah’s ark for endangered plant species."

#biodiversity #india #keralasuccessstory #kerala #forestgardens #forestgardening

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/01/kerala-india-rainforest-biodiversity-restoration-nature-gardeners-gurukula-western-ghats?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Getting to know our food, and how being good stewards of the land can help us eat better

by Katharine A. Jameson, Vermont Country magazine
03/01/2024

Excerpt: "Learning from the land

"Chief Stevens points out that it’s all in one’s perspective. He gives the example of #dandelions. 'You might look at them as a weed but I might look at them as a food source,' he explains, noting the wine and greens for which they’re used.

"When Europeans arrived in what they later named Vermont, they saw the lush #ForestGardens Natives had fostered, but didn’t recognize that it had been cultivated. 'The sophistication of the agriculture system was so high that people couldn’t see it at all. It just looked like abundant wild lands, but really they were so abundant because of our deep connection and long-term #stewardship of them,' #Abenaki tribal member, #JohnHunt describes in a new, short film posted to YouTube about Abenaki food systems.

"What can we learn from these growth practices? Professor Tiana Baca of Sterling College explains in this film: 'Nature doesn’t grow in #monocrops.' She notes that Native people’s lush gardens maximized yields by #CompanionPlanting crops like the #ThreeSisters. 'The three sisters is a companion planting group of corn, beans and squash. They’re plants that grow together and support each other. The corn is growing up, it’s providing this living trellis. The beans use that to climb on. The beans are then fixing nitrogen and supporting the growth of the corn and then the squash plant kind of sprawls out and creates this living mulch. All of them working together makes all of them produce better.'

"Respect runs deep in the Abenaki tradition. From the elders and ancestors from whom they learn to the food and animals they consume, they bless the animals they dispatch with tobacco and hold sacred the chain of custody of each of their seeds.

" 'We have to have some foresight about it. Treating the land with respect and not looking at it always through our need, but as a collective community need. In the old days we used to look at community more than individual needs.' Stevens discusses the Native mentality that land, contrary to the European way, is to be shared by all creatures, not owned.

" 'There is hope,' Chief Stevens says. 'There is a way to reconnect and change the outcomes of what is happening. But the only way to do that is to put the effort, time and resources into connecting with us, the native people and others to try to remember that historical knowledge of connection to our land, our animals and our wild food sources. The forests and the wild foods sustained our people for thousands of years. Why would we not think it wouldn’t do that now?'

"The Chief set out a few things we can all do to help save the planet."

https://vermontcountry.com/2024/03/01/abenaki-food-systems-native-stewardship/

#NativeAmericanHistory #NativeAmericanFood #FoodSovereignty #FoodForests #Stewardship #RelationshipToPlace #SolarpunkSunday #KnowWhereYourFoodComesFrom

HT @TransitionTog

"#BridgehouseGardens community group in South London has been on an incredible journey.

"Together, they have transformed a disused, vacant tarmac site into a thriving forest garden and built by hand a new community learning space, #TheWinsladeBarn. Along the way, participants have learnt amazing practical skills, built community and created space for wildlife."

https://transitiontogether.org.uk/vacant-site-to-community-ecosystem/
#SolarPunkSunday #Rewilding #Resiliency #DIY #ForestGardens #CommunitySpace #UK #SouthLondonUK

The ancient Maya civilization, thriving in what is now Southern Mexico, Guatemala, #Belize, and parts of #Honduras, is renowned for its remarkable achievements in agriculture. Central to their survival was the intricate system of #forestgardens, a sustainable method that reflects their rich #Indigenous food traditions.

https://loom.ly/GiAn9r0

The aim of Mere Brow Farm is to create an ecological system that is fun, educational, productive, diverse and sustainable with a combination of mixed woodland, orchards, hedgerows and edible forests.

Learn more about the agroecological practices that take place at Mere Brow Farm

https://agroecologymap.org/locations/mere-brow-farm

#agroecology #agroecologia #agroécologie #agrarökologie #permaculture #permacultura #permakultur #agroforestry #agrofloresta #agroforesterie #agroforstwirtschaft #forestgardens #uk #europe