Food security has been a serious concern in New Brunswick for decades. The Covid pandemic heightened those anxieties and prompted many people into action. A 2020 report from the Dalhousie Agri-Food Analytics Lab showed that New Brunswick had the highest number of new gardeners of any region in Canada, 23.7 percent. Food forests in New Brunswick arose partly out of the renewed interest in food security.
Food forests, until recently a new idea for most people in New Brunswick, have existed in various countries for many years. They mimic a natural forest canopy with different layers of root crops, shrubs, small trees and large trees living off and in harmony with each other. For example, the bottom layer might have strawberries or mushrooms, the next layer elderberries or highbush blueberries, next a canopy of apple trees and then a butternut in the high canopy.
On Oct. 28, Fredericton City Council adopted an urban forest management plan that included a recommendation to implement a food forest as a pilot project. Later that week, Andrew Mathis, project director of St. Mary’s Community Food Forest, took Councillor Ruth Breen, chair of the livable community committee, for a tour.
St. Mary’s Community Food Forest was established in 2021 on land donated by Saint Mary’s Anglican Church on McEvoy Street on Fredericton’s northside. Mathis said the land was originally part of the adjoining cemetery. However, the church reckoned that, at current mortality rates it would take 300 years to fill – hence the donation.
Funding for the project was raised voluntarily from members of the church and the local community with some help from other sources including the provincial Community Investment Fund.
The St. Mary’s food forest concept is simple: a free source of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables that anyone can help themselves to, at any time. The food is provided by self-propagating trees and plants on the half-acre hillside site overlooking the city, fenced in to keep deer out. The gate is always unlocked. All are welcome to come in and help themselves to whatever fruit and vegetables might be available at that particular time.
It is important for visitors to note that the food forest is situated adjacent to the St. Mary’s Community Garden where individual plot holders grow food for their own use that is not free for the public.
The first thing that strikes you on entering the food forest site is the permaculture technique of mounds and long berms of earth situated among the mature birch trees. Making the berms created shallow ditches that collect moisture which slowly drains, irrigating the berms and enriching the already rich soil underneath.
Many of the plantings are in a system of ‘guilds’ or functional units of plants interacting with each other and leading to a very fertile output at harvesting time. According to Andrew, the growth rate of certain trees on the site is twice the normal. Among the trees are apple, pear, peach and heartnut walnut, and among the vegetables, squash, corn and beans.
Trees and plants have been sourced locally from Springfield Tree Nursery and Sima’s Roots and Fruits with some coming from Quebec and Ontario. Bare root planting as opposed to saplings is the preferred method because they grow more rapidly over time. Native plants at the food forest include service berries. The more exotic species include sea blackthorn, a Russian plant whose berries because of their high vitamin C content have been to the Russian Space Station.
Any food not taken by the public is harvested at season end and given to local food security sources including the community fridge at the Fredericton Public Library.
Future plans include a community pizza oven. Members of the public will be able to bring their own food or harvest it on the site and make their individual pizzas.
A final word. Anyone, even with the smallest of gardens, can establish and practice the food forest concept. Establishing a ‘forest’ might seem too ambitious, but a ‘guild’, a small patch of interacting plants and shrubs, might be a more attainable starting proposition.
St. Mary’s Community Food Forest has a Facebook site and mailing list with information for anyone wanting to get involved in the project.
Gerry McAlister is a member of the NB Media Co-op.
