The Edible Forest

Aim

The World's Largest "Edible" Forest. We aim to buy up agricultural land and turn it into edible forests.

We now have £650,000 in funding towards the land purchase. Please help fund the forest project.

The Edible Forest

A not-for-profit community project. All profits from our products goes towards reforesting agricultural land.

Our Mission

We would like to create the World's Largest Edible Forest in South Wales (UK). In effect a 'natural museum' creating local jobs focusing on re-forestation, the promotion of recycling and sustainable waste management and creating a learning link to young people. This will also become a tourist attraction & providing additional protection to Welsh Heritage.

What is an 'Edible' Forest?

This will be just like the structure of a usual forest. Many acres of land made up of big trees, smaller trees, shrubs and smaller plants. The only difference is that this forest will be designed to include only edible plants that have or produce some sort of food value. A magical forest designed to work harmoniously to its environment and providing a huge range of benefits for everyone involved (Based on the efforts & books of Robert A. de J. Hart, Patrick Whitefield and Martin Crawford).

Our intention is to grow these forests just from plant cuttings - mass expansion with low cost.

What will we be growing?

We will be growing over 80 types of extremely rare Welsh Apple Tree varieties and many other rare Welsh plants. A variety of nuts & fruits suitable for the location (walnuts, hazelnuts, mulberries, apples, pears, apricots, plumbs, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, grape vines... & many more).

First Stage

To begin we will create a commercial scale plant nursery to assist with foresting.

Future Goals

We  plan to setup a "forest school" where local schools can visit once a month to take part in learning & developing forests. Once the forest is established we will also be setting up 12 small plant based businesses based at the the forest. We have already started 'The New Milk Company' to help fund The Edible Forest Project. All profits from this company will be going towards purchasing a 240 acre farm in South Wales. One of the businesses once established will also be a Historic Welsh Organic Cider Company, another will be a composting area recycling local plant waste.

The Project Benefits

• The reforestation will protect wildlife habitats, improve biodiversity and support the natural world
• Reforestation provides flood defences to local areas.
• It will also provide protection from pollution. 
• The project will help build stronger communities.
• Preserving heritage & culture. Historic varieties of Welsh fruit trees & other food plants (a 'natural museum')
• It will make an environmental difference for all people around the World (becoming an example for others to replicate).
• We will provide educational learning and social involvement for local schools & people which will excite and inspire mainly children and young people to get involved in nature and taking action to make a difference.
• There will be greater local food security. We currently live on a small island with millions of people and 90% of our fruit & veg is imported.
• The project will encourage healthier and more active people and communities. Local people with affordable locally grown organic produce.
• Other ways we will also promote Welsh Culture (we will build historic welsh thatch roofed buildings for drying fruit - similar to St. Fagan's but with better use of internal space)
• We will eventually provide local jobs involved with teaching, gardening, and in harvesting, processing and selling dried/fresh fruit & nuts.
• This is a project that will benefit everyone and many more to come

Membership Rewards

- All members will receive a certificate for helping to support the development of the World's Largest Edible Forest.

- A tree/plant named after you and will be planted at the Edible Forest (once established there will be an interactive map showing you the exact position of the tree/plant you helped to support). If you send me your details I can invite you to plant it yourself. Or the map will be great for when you come visit!

- A membership card with your member number to use when purchasing organic products from us in the future (historic welsh cider, organic dried fruit, nuts, new type of plant milk product, 2 types of historic grains, - and there will be many more).

• Bronze Membership £20.00 - 10% discount
• Silver Membership £50.00 - 15% discount
• Gold Membership £100.00 - 20% discount

Once the project has been established the membership will close & we will then only offer membership to committed volunteers. Membership discounts will only apply once we have reached our funding goal.

• Bronze Volunteer Membership £20.00 & Volunteer 1 day per month - 15% discount
• Silver Volunteer Membership £20.00 & Volunteer 3 days per month - 25% discount
• Gold Volunteer Membership £20.00 & Volunteer 1 day per week - 40% discount

General Information

• Membership is a one time payment, no monthly or yearly renewal. It is just a way to genuinely show your support to the project.
• Only members (with friends or family) will be able to visit at certain days of the week, other days will be designated to the 'forest school'.
• Only members will be able to buy products from us. We will be focusing creating quality organic products with quite a long shelf life. Therefore, we have no need to supply others than the people who helped make this happen.
• We reserve the right to refund a membership & stop providing services.
• As a member you will be able to upgrade your membership at any time up until the moment the project becomes established. 
• There will be an online shop on our website. We will send out messages letting everyone know what we have available and anything you buy you can either collect from us, from a local market or we will be able to post the products to you.
• ***Membership discounts will not apply to postage costs.***
• It will take 3 years from the moment we purchase the farm to start having some produce in the shop. Additional products will gradually appear within the following 3 years.
• We will not allow any member to purchase more than 5% of our total stock (per product) each year. This is to ensure that we have a supply available to other members.
• We will always provide you with the full discount of your membership provided it doesn't equal to an overall loss. If this is ever the case with a certain product, our expenses will have to be taken into account (cost of harvesting & packaging). And the product will be supplied to you at cost price.
• In the long run - if you do buy products from us in the future. You will benefit massively when comparing to you initial investment.
• Prices for each of our products will be based on the cheapest organic of the same type we can find for sale online. This will include any wholesale website prices.
• The Edible Forest (Farm) will not be open to the public. I have witnessed how Pick Your Own fruit farms get trashed and that is not what I would like to see happen here. Our job will be to create a product and make it available for you as a customer. Farmers do the exact same thing, they create produce and provide it to local shops. We will not be having 80 million people roaming around picking fruit. Members will be able to come and PYO on specific days of the week (& when in season).

The Project Benefits

1) The reforestation protects wildlife habitats, improves biodiversity and helps support the natural world

2) Provides flood defences to local areas.

3) Protection from pollution. 

4) The project will help build stronger communities.

5) Preserving heritage & culture. Historic varieties of Welsh fruit trees & other food plants (a 'natural museum')

6) Making an environmental difference for all people around the World (becoming an example for others to replicate).

7) Providing educational learning and social involvement for local schools & people which will excite and inspire mainly children and young people to get involved in nature and taking action to make a difference.

8) Greater local food security. We currently live on a small island with millions of people and 90% of our fruit & veg is imported.

9) Encouraging healthier and more active people and communities. Local people with affordable locally grown organic produce.

10) Other ways we will also promote Welsh Culture (we will build historic welsh thatch roofed buildings for drying fruit - similar to St. Fagan's but with better use of internal space)

11) Providing local jobs involved with teaching, gardening, and in harvesting, processing and selling dried/fresh fruit & nuts.

12) This project will benefit everyone and many more to come.

Project Founders

Wade William Heames MIQ

Rosie Maunder

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Help make this happen!

Become a Member today.

www.TheEdibleForest.com

Link to Blog Posts

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This project successfully funded on 22nd June 2019