What's involved in (starting) a food forest?
A food forest. It sounds very appealing. It's like paradise! Everywhere there is something tasty to snack on and it also grows without manure and without pesticides.
Unfortunately, that attractive image often leads to the mistake that establishing a successful food forest is also very easy. You put down trees and nature does the rest. You don't have to do anything else.
This is both true and false. A successful food forest is not just planted, but built from a sound theory based on making nature's principles work for you as well as possible. And if you do that well, nature can then take over much of the usual work from you. But, how exactly does that work and what can you do right and wrong here?
A complete module
In this module we will not only teach you the theory of successful food forests, but also give you a solid start for making a plan, the regulations and reading the many map systems available in the Netherlands. We'll also teach you how to look at land, and what the basic design principles are.
The module has three live days and two online learning days. You visit three food forests, each started from very different starting situations and founded by three top pioneers in the business. This gives you a very complete picture of what a food forest is, what it looks, tastes and feels like and what it means to start one. You'll visit food forest Ketelbroek, now more than 10 years old, started on a corn maker by Wouter van Eck, the food forest on poor sandy soil in a forest that Martijn Aalbrecht planted nine years ago and food forest Lekker Landgoed by Maarten Schrama and Jan Degenaar that was started seven years ago on rich windy clay with grass.
Three modules in annual training
This module in May is unfortunately sold out. There is still space for the module starting in September.
For some projects, the knowledge from this module is more than enough to proceed with the plan after that.But, this training has three modules for a reason. In the second and third modules: design and food forest plan, the groups are smaller and the guidance is more intensive. Because in those modules you get to work on your plan yourself. You literally make your design and your plan. Again guided by really the top people in the business.
So the annual food forest training can be taken modularly, but as a whole is a complete journey to your -often life-changing- plan. If you want to take the whole training, this year you can combine it with the design module in September and the food forest plan module in November and December.
Practical information
We will teach the basic module three times in 2023, once on Fridays in April and May; on Thursdays in May and June and on Wednesdays in September and October.
Each time there is one or two weeks between each day of class so that you have time to properly process the information while also keeping the pace.
This module includes three live days and two online teaching days plus the necessary reading, studying, watching and doing.
If you want to do this module well, it is smart to plan an additional 10 to 20 hours outside of classes. You can also choose to do that work later, as all class days are recorded and you will continue to have access to this and all other course materials for years to come.
What do our students say about the basic module?
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Module Basic on Thursdays in May and June 2023
dates: thursdays 11-5,18-5, 1-6, 15-6, 29-6
Investment: € 550,00 excl. VAT, max. number of participants 20
Teachers Wouter van Eck, Martijn Aalbrecht, Marieke Karssen
Locations: Food Forest Ketelbroek in Groesbeek (1x), De voedselboss near Hengelo(1x) Lekker Landgoed in Maarssen (1x) and other days digital + access to a considerable amount of digital (film) material, an online course environment where you can save all your work and share it with the group.
This module deals with a general and broad introduction to the food forest. What is a food forest? How does the system work? And what do you need to consider if you want to start one? The combination of live and digital leads to a nice mix of concentration, reference, real experience and networking.
After this module, you will be well versed in what a food forest is and know how to proceed if you have serious plans. For an optimal teaching experience, count on between 10 and 20 hours of additional time outside the course days.
In the morning, Wouter van Eck explains the basics of a food forest. In the afternoon, we get an extended excursion through food forest Ketelbroek.
This is a digital course day. In the morning, you get to work with the modules about succession and soil and fungi structure. In the afternoon, Wouter van Eck will digitally teach you about these using the formula for a successful food forest. You can also do the morning work earlier in the week.
This day is digital. In the afternoon Marieke Karssen will give an intensive lesson on everything that is involved in a good plan.In the morning, or actually that whole week, you can already start working on your own field and with the digital exercises in which we also show you the way in a good set of online map systems that can help you well on your way.
Day four takes place at Martijn Aalbrecht's food forest in Hengelo. Martijn teaches about planting, regulations and the elements of good design in the morning. In the afternoon, we get a tour of his nine-year-old food forest that he has realized in an existing forest.
On the last day, we are guests at Lekker Landgoed in Maarssen. This is a large food forest that is now 7/8 years old. In the morning, Martijn Aalbrecht first gives some in-depth information about soils and especially the clay/pasture base under this food forest. In the afternoon, one of the founders of this food forest, Jan Degenaar, gives an excursion around the estate.
Summary and investment
All class days, including the live days are recorded. So if you can't be there, you won't miss anything, because you can always watch the recording again.
From the start, we offer you a digital course environment where you can find the course materials including all recordings, where you can easily ask questions among yourselves and/or make carpool arrangements, and where you can also store all your files.
The cost is €550 excluding VAT for the first module and €800 excluding VAT for the design and food forest plan modules. Once you choose to take more than one module, or have taken a course/module with us before, we offer you a 10% discount. If this is the case for you, you will have received an email about this. All amounts mentioned here are excluding 21% VAT
We deliver this annual training according to our terms of delivery. These are simple and clear, so please read them.
If you are unable to pay the training fee at once, or if you work for an organisation that uses invoicing, please contact us.
€550,00 excl. VAT/VAT
Module Basic in May and June 2023
Our annual food forest training consists of three modules: basic, design and food forest plan. The modules can be taken separately or in all combinations. Maximum number of trainees in the basic module is 20, in the other modules 15 people.
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