Food Forest Beginnings

There lies a 4 acre piece of land, just outside Glastonbury, on the Godney road, opposite from the ancient site of the Glastonbury Lake Village. A special piece of land. A lady owns it right now, but she will put it into community trust. A community food garden for all. 

A group of 35 or more people visited the land last weekend, and planted 120 tree saplings, including hazel and holly, to create a beautiful meandering hedgerow. Willow already grows there. What a delight it will all become for future generations. And for us, now, and in years to come.

The Glastonbury Friends of the Earth group recently did a film showing of Tawai: A Voice from the Forest. Bruce Parry visits a people in Borneo, and treks with them through their forest home. The Penan never felt scarcity before, until the forest began to be cut down for palm oil and pipelines, and a foreign aid group built them a house. Suddenly they became aware of time, because they needed to turn to agriculture to feed themselves. They have to cut down the forest that sustained them for generations, to grow their crops. 

The forest gives food like a mother gives milk. Food will never be withheld. Fruit grows, falls, and seeds sow themselves to grow other trees. Simple and easy. When you feel hunger, you go out and find food. There always exists something to sustain you in a forest.  Planting community forests like the one currently in progress in Glastonbury will be a vital part of humanity's future, not to mention the future of many other plant, insect and animal species. 

You are invited to this forest garden to sit, contemplate, picnic with friends, or just be in a quiet natural space. The forest is ours, as long as we respect and honour it. A gentleman who accompanied the tree-planters taught us a simple healing technique, to send light to the saplings so they are happy when they are planted in the ground. A beautiful gift. And the forest will give back, a thousand-fold.