You can log in by clicking Login in the upper right corner of the menu.

Once you are logged into your account, you can log out by clicking Logout in the top right corner of the menu.

Step 1: Go to “My environment”. See the green bar at the top right

Step 2: Click the cogwheel at the top right and choose "My Account."

Step 3: Click on “Privacy” in the left menu to adjust your settings.

A participant account allows you to put your food forest on our food forest map, connect and chat with other participants, post on Q&A, and participate in food forest monitoring and create your own food forest budgets.

Extensive information can be found at https://voedseluithetbos.nl/deelnemer-worden/.

It costs nothing to become a participant of Food from the Forest . We only ask for an annual fee if you want to become a member of the association.

As a participant, you are of course welcome to attend the annual members' day. However, it is necessary as a participant to buy a ticket.

You certainly can. If you are interested in food forests or looking for opportunities in the food forest world, as a participant you can connect with other participants in the community and you can post on our message board. Opportunities abound, even without a food forest of your own.

Through our registration form you can easily sign up.

As a member, you can do everything you can do as an attendee, but in addition, there are a few extras. For example, as a member you can attend live knowledge sessions and ask questions of the speakers. Some articles from the knowledge base are only available to members and as a member you can come for free to our annual association day where you can attend workshops, get a tour, listen to speakers and meet lots of other members.

As a member you contribute to our growth with your dues. The more members the more knowledge we can gain and share and the stronger we become as a movement.

There are no prerequisites to become a participant. The association is for anyone who is a fan of food forests or wants to learn more about them.
Read more about the association's mission and vision here?
Or read all the details in our bylaws.

There are two types of memberships, basic and professional.

With both memberships, you can do everything a member can do. Among other things, you also get full access to the knowledge base and may participate in knowledge sessions, may attend the annual association day for free, and receive discounts on annual training and modules.

You will be invited to the ALV and may vote on decisions and you may join the active Whatsapp groups.

As a professional member, special knowledge sessions and meetings are organized.

For more information visit https://voedseluithetbos.nl/lidmaatschappen/.

If you are already a member, it is best to log in first and then order your desired membership.

If you are not yet a member, you can order the desired membership. You can pay immediately and receive an email for confirmation and from that moment on you are immediately a full member and have access to your account.

You can cancel a membership through your profile.

Step 1: Go to "My environment"

Step 2: Click the cogwheel at the top right and choose "My Account."

Step 3: In the link menu, click on "Subscriptions."

Step 4: Click "Cancel" to terminate membership immediately

You will receive email confirmation of the cancellation.

You can still log in and take advantage of the membership up to and including the last day as indicated above.

If you still want to reactivate your membership after cancellation, you can click the "reactivate" button.

There are no requirements to become a member. The association is for anyone who is a fan of food forests or wants to learn more about them.
Read more about the association's mission and vision here?
Or read all the details in our bylaws.

There are Whatsapp groups per province in which you can exchange information among yourselves.
Check https://voedseluithetbos.nl/provinciegroepen/ to see who the contact person is in your province.

If you want to link your membership to the profile you already have, we recommend logging in first and then ordering the membership .

Did you accidentally create 2 different profiles? Please send us an email about this to info@voedseluithetbos.nl.

Step 1: Go to "My environment." See top right green bar

Step 2: Click the cogwheel at the top right and choose "My Account."

Step 3: Click on “Privacy” in the left menu to adjust your settings.

Membership runs for one year from the time you sign up. It is renewed automatically but before the expiration of the term we send a reminder that the renewal is coming and that way you can still cancel in time if you want.

Of course you can. To do this you can log into your profile and go to your account via the cogwheel.

Here you choose subscriptions in the left menu and after clicking here you will see your current account and the option to switch subscriptions.

That is certainly possible. Even without your own food forest, you can learn a lot from us and you can get in touch with people who may be able to help you realize your dream.

Yes there is that option. When you register as a participant you can learn about the platform and community for free.

To get started, then, you must first be a participate or become a member of our association.

Once you have an account, you can create a food forest project(s) in your area.

On the home page of "My Environment" is the "Project Information" section and the option "Create a food forest project."

A page follows where all information about the food forest can be entered. Click on "Register this food forest project" and your food forest will be on the map.

Once you are registered as a participant or member, you can use our Q&A bulletin board to call for volunteers to come and help out in your food forest.

You do not have to be a member to take a course. You do get a discount on our courses if you are a member.
When you take a course with us, a member account is automatically created for you.

Upon completion of our courses, you will receive a signed certificate of participation.

We are not aware of any grants or fees for our courses.

The courses take place at various locations in the Netherlands and sometimes abroad. The location of each course is indicated.
Some of our courses are given online.

The course season runs from March through December.

You can easily make a a one-time or repeated donation through the donation form.

You choose the amount yourself, can support a specific project (such as the Foodforest Podcast (in Dutch)) and pay securely via iDEAL or Bancontact.

Do you want us structurally support, you can make a periodic donation for a minimum of five years. Only then does the donation count as structural and is it fully tax deductible.

Read how that works here.

Yes. Food from the Forest is an ANBI institution.

That means your donation is tax deductible, depending on the type of gift

• One-time or repeat donation: Deductible above 1% (minimum €60) and up to 10% of your aggregate income.

  A bank statement will suffice as proof.

• Periodic gift (five years or longer): Fully deductible, with no threshold or maximum.

  This requires a written agreement - download the form from the Internal Revenue Service or contact us at info@voedseluithetbos.nl.

Read more about tax benefits.

Companies can contribute as sponsor or partner.

Collaborations are customized and can include financial support, knowledge sharing, joint projects or in-kind support (such as materials or expertise).

We enjoy working with organizations that share our mission: more food forests, more biodiversity and a healthier food system.

Contact us at info@voedseluithetbos.nl to discuss options.

Donations are carefully used for:

• Projects with direct impact., such as the Foodforest Podcast (in Dutch), knowledge sharing and food forest monitoring.

• Support the core team, which communicates, organizes and enables projects.

Updates we share through our newsletter, annual reports and on the projects page.

You can read our privacy policy at Privacy Statement for Food from the Forest - Food from the Forest

Our terms and conditions can be found at Terms and conditions - Food from the Forest.

You don't have to be a member to submit data ,but you do need to register as a participant andpost a food forest project on the site .

You can enter your measurement data by:

• Log in to the website and go to “My Overview” to view your food forest
• K"Enter measurements"
  
• Select the tree plot from last time, or create a tree plot first
  
• In that case, choose to enter, for example, the biodiversity test

1. Log in to your profile and then go to your food forest project page (https://voedseluithetbos.nl/projects/name of your food forest). You can also find your project on the food forest map.
2. On the project page, scroll down until you get to "Compare this forest to other forests."
   
3. Here you choose your soil type and year and click "Filter for results." A result looks like this:
   

You can compare 2 measurements here. Comparison of soil animals is not in here for example . Here you only see the results the Co2 measurement and the biodiversity measurement to compare with other food forests that have participated.

We have now developed three ecological tests that can be carried out by laymen using very simple materials and instruments. Think of a ruler, a pi meter, a measuring beaker and free-to-use apps on a mobile phone. This gives everyone a chance to participate and allows research to scale up very quickly to the whole of the Netherlands and beyond, and to a great many food forests on a great many types of soil, which is scientifically interesting and relevant.

In terms of depth, this type of research, also called Citizen Science or citizen science, is less far-reaching than research done by scientists. There may even be measurement errors. Many of these measurement errors we have already overcome and been able to correct in recent years, and of course we will continue to do so. Moreover, the larger the scale, the better you can correct for this in interpretation. If we get 1,000 soil profiles every year (with a photo, so there can still be corrections there, too) of lots of soil types, and 1,000 biodiversity measurements, that is, scientifically speaking, enormously valuable. So, no matter how small your little test seems to be, we would love to see you too participate with your food forest in food forest monitoring.

The economics of a food forest is a hot topic full of big opinions. In this test, we have kept it simple. Precisely because we want as many people as possible to actually complete this test. We ask about:

• The structure of your forest: legal form, type of forest, and whether you keep cattle in it, for example.
• The kilos harvest per food forest layer (high canopy layer, low canopy layer, shrub layer, and other layers combined)
• The Euros harvest per same food forest layer
• The other income and, with everything, we ask whether you realise that turnover locally, regionally or further afield.
• The harvesting and maintenance of the forest, i.e. the related costs (purchasing in economic terms)
• The other forms of investments and costs
• And, how you organise it in terms of manpower: volunteers, people with a distance to, freelancers, staff.

This way we collect highly relevant information without giving food forest owners hours of work. And we sincerely hope that you, especially if you want to help prove that food forests have relevant earning models, will want to participate in the economic test. You can enter it for every year that your forest exists and you can basically adopt what you already keep for your own records. A number of testers indicated that they did not have this administration yet, and had now set it up themselves using this set-up. Also participate in the food forest monitoring.

The three ecological tests are organised in so-called tree plots per hectare. If you have a food forest of 1 hectare, you only need to do each test once; if you have more, we ask you to do the tests in several places.

The biodiversity test and the soil animal test must be done every year. The_{CO2 storage test}can be done every three to five years. More often is allowed, but not necessary. The soil composition test should also be done every five years. The economic test should be done every year. We recommend that you enter it every year when you close the year or prepare the annual accounts.

Roughly speaking, you spend one hour per test. If you pick up the_{CO2 storage}and Biodiversity tests together in May or June, it will take you two hours per plot in the field and one hour on the computer. The economic test also takes an hour and the soil fauna takes half an hour per plot in the field and 15 minutes on the computer. So a small part of the day in total. These are averages, but it gives you an idea.

When you join the food forest monitoring, you are asked what you want to share with the other participants: do you want them to see your forest and also your ecological test results? Then say yes. If you don't want to, say no. Then your forest will not appear in the comparison with other forests. However, if you participate, you will be sharing data that cannot be traced back to your forest with an Open Data Source that every scientist can use.

If you stop participating, you can indicate that in your profile and all your data will be removed from the tool. Data that has already been retrieved by scientists cannot be retrieved, but from that moment on your data disappears from the data stream. So you are really in charge and owner of your own data. Read more at Open Data Source and at Food Forest Monitoring

This is a logical question. When you start a food forest, you want to give your expensive plants a good start. So many forests start with a mulch layer that is supplied externally, or go even further by adding, for example, champost, compost tea or charcoal.

However, if you look at nature - and food forests are based on natural principles - it is a system that always looks for balance on the way to abundance. Nature will automatically make poor soils richer and over-fertilised soils move back to a healthier nutrient balance. Nature does this in ways that we humans often barely understand, but in any case through the first pioneering plants and animals that come to the area of their own accord. And, the less you add, the harder the soil life present in the soil will work itself out.

We say that you can add some mulch at the very beginning, but it is not necessary. Everything on top and after will disrupt that natural movement rather than help your forest. Food forests start differently on every soil type, but all move towards a balance and a soil that is primarily based on biomass and healthy soil life, no matter what the original starting position was: heavy clay, poor sand, acidic forest soil, etc etc.

So the best news is: the less you do, the better it is for those nice expensive plants. Note: sometimes the starting position of your land is so bad that it is better to improve the soil first with pioneer species and a fine hedge than to plant very expensive nut trees right away. In our courses you will learn much more about this, because succession and soil structure is perhaps the most important thing you need to understand to successfully realize food forests.

If you keep track of the progress of your forest in our food forest monitoring tool, you will see that happen and together we will show it to the whole world.

See the question above: for the soil itself, it doesn't matter. The beginning in both species is really different, but on both soil types you work toward a mature food forest. Regulatory wise, however, there are big differences. In the Netherlands, nature is governed by very different legislation than agriculture. You can read more about this at Legislation.

This is not really a question, but a whole day's course, but we will deal with this big discussion in one question. Some people think that food forests are nature in which only indigenous species are allowed to grow. Others already know that there will be very little to eat, both for us and for wild animals.

Food forests are a farming system based on natural principles. So, we want easy-to-crack and big nuts, sweet tasting apples, and thus cultivars (specifically bred or cultivated species that offer guaranteed shape and taste) that guarantee these harvests. At the same time, we want resilient systems that can take a beating, so people who want to work with seedlings to develop new cultivars are very welcome, but then the outcome is not guaranteed, because each seedling will be different from its parents and from its sibling.

The exotic species discussion runs right through this. Which is actually about invasive exotics, species that can develop as pests. Not every plant that does not originally belong here is invasive. In fact, if you look around you, whether in gardens, forests or in agriculture, most of what you see is an exotic species, which fortunately is not invasive at all.

Food forest owners must comply with the law and be aware of the red list of invasive species and not plant them. Read more about this on the Greendealvoedselbossen.nl website

Food forests are becoming more and more popular, but many farmers and neighbours still do not understand it and see a lot of weeds, a mess or feel that something is about to happen to their view. This is a very big question, but we will pick out a few elements:

• If your food forest lies between fields and meadows that are sprayed, at least make sure that there is a dense hedge that you do not harvest from and/or other forms of buffer zones, especially in the dominant wind direction. This also helps with the next point.
• If your neighbours (might) complain about weeds, a good hedge will also help to avoid the notion of 'blowing over'.
• Stay in contact with your neighbours as much as possible from the start, but don't overdo it. Invite them, tell them what you are planning, show them nice pictures of the possible end result, but if they do not understand any of this (yet), leave it alone and wait for a moment of extreme weather or beautiful blossoms or a rich autumn harvest to pick up the communication again. Because that is when you see the power of a food forest.

A food forest is agriculture and nature. And in nature you have animals. Mice, worms, snails, birds, snakes, frogs, beavers, foxes etc. etc. These wild animals are not fed by us and they all have territorial behaviour in their own way. In fact, these animals are needed to achieve the ecological balance that prevents pests from getting out of hand. So they are very welcome in a food forest.

Livestock is another story. Chickens, ducks, pigs and cows do not fit into a system based on no external input (as they are almost always fed extra). Moreover, territorial behaviour does not play any role and therefore, even in small numbers, they are very quickly disruptive to the soil and herb layer of a food forest.

Keeping cattle with trees is another form of agroforestry, not a food forest. If you have enough space, you can of course keep cattle next to your food forest, but not in it."

This is a very broad question and the answer is certainly yes, but that yes means looking at land use, market, income, time and production in very different ways than usual. And that is exactly why so many strong opinions and disappointments and sometimes even arguments arise. See also earlier in this article: a food forest needs time to start. It needs that time to build up the soil. So, do not try to get income from a food forest in year 1, that will only start after 5 years or so and even then it is far from complete. Keep your job during that time, or do something else on a piece of land next to it, or work with volunteers.

In our annual training, module business plan is exactly about this and we have seen many interesting, beautiful business models come along that tell us that this answer is yes, but also that there is no such thing as one recipe, one answer. Indeed, that that is exactly the way of thinking that you must first learn to let go of, if you want to arrive at a beautiful new revenue model.

We come from an agricultural and natural system full of generic solutions and straightforward monocultures. That is exactly what we as humanity need to break free from. And that is what this course is also about to a large extent: food forests are about learning to look at landscape, food and nature differently. Only then can you move on to learning to do things differently, budgeting and earning.

Otherwise, take a look at our four food forest themes and their business cases.