Learn how to create an edible forest garden from groundcover to canopy, modeled after nature―perfect for gardeners and growers at any scale!
When market gardener Dani Baker, owner of Cross Island Farms, attended a permaculture workshop, she was inspired by its message of working with nature to create a thriving edible garden ecosystem. She immediately launched a new experiment she dubbed the “Enchanted Edible Forest.” In The Home-Scale Forest Garden, Baker shares what she learned as she became a forest gardener, providing a practical, in-depth guide to creating a beautiful, bountiful edible landscape at any scale―from developing an edible hedge to screen your house from your neighbor’s to planting an acre or more.
To build an ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable farm, diversified in plant and animal life, that provides us with a reasonable living, our community with healthy, wholesome food, the environment with a good neighbor, and provides educational opportunities for as many people as possible about how to produce organic, sustainable, local, healthy food. We also want to be able to have this vision and this farm continue long after we are gone.
"This magical, marvelous food on our plate, this sustenance we absorb, has a story to tell. It has a journey. It leaves a footprint. It leaves a legacy. To eat with reckless abandon, without conscience, without knowledge; folks, this ain't normal."
-Joel Salatin, farmer and author of Folks, This Ain't Normal; You Can Farm
Our Story
Cross Island Farms was started in 2005 by Dani Baker and David Belding. After purchasing the 102 acre farmstead from the estate of Claude Harden, Dani and David became intrigued by the idea of making the land productive again, while being good stewards of the land and water resources entrusted to them. They initially contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation to learn about protecting the Class II wetlands on the property. Next they had a DEC Senior Forester tour the property and develop a Forest Stewardship Management Plan for the forested areas. Then a hive of honeybees moved into the wall of a farm outbuilding. Our friend David Martin convinced David Belding to capture the bees and raise them for honey. We didn't realize it at the time, but this was our first livestock! From that point forward, Cross Island Farms continued to grow...
