We have an extremely practical conversation with Tom Wahl, co-founder of the Red Fern Farm, convincing us he has developed a very functional and economic system. The team there has chosen a variety of rustic crops that need little care, are high in demand, and picked by the customers themselves. Planted on fantastic soil for growing trees and you have a system where all Tom and his team need to do is 'mow the grass'. In the interview we focused on chestnuts, his main crop, looking at why the economics make it a no brainer, and finish off talking about ground cover management and woodchips. We hope you end up as inspired we did.
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
02:15 - Introduction to a low input farm model
13:10 - Tom understanding of agroforestry and imitating a savannah biome
17:40 - orchard architecture, spacing and competition between species
25:50 - Chestnut production and potential
30:30 - Integrating animals in the orchard
52:30 - Why is chestnut so interesting economically?
59:40 - Thoughts on mechanising chestnut harvest
01:02:30 - Characteristics that make a crop profitable
01:05:20 - The potential of chestnut as a staple
01:09:25 - U-pick as a commercialisation strategy and some more economics
01:18:30 - The honey berries experiment
01:21:20 - Managing the ground cover and comments on woodchips
• RESOURCES
Presentation discussed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAf1lUrqSq4
https://www.facebook.com/redfernfarm.iowa
• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org
• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry
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