Country Life: Indigenous knowledge fuels 'food forest' trial

It may not look like much now - but this small plot of land will soon bear blueberries, apricots, mandarins and more.

A team of Lincoln University researchers are trying their hand at growing a ngahere kai, or food forest - a food system used by indigenous communities around the globe.

"If you think of the Amazon - that would be one of the oldest living examples, that Mayan have cultivated for between 2000 to 3000 years," Dr Chystal O'Connor told Country Life at a planting day.

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It is what it says on the tin: edible bushes, tubers and trees are planted in a layout which mimics a natural forest.

The forest-like layers mean multiple plants can grow in one area, she said.

"There're usually up to seven layers, and a food forest creates the climate of a natural forest, so it increases the humidity and helps everything else to grow."

A food biochemist and former Whanake Ake appointee, O'Connor is one of three Lincoln lecturers heading the food forest trial.

Fellow project leads Dr Jorie Knook and Hiraina Tangiroa, of the Agribusiness and Commerce faculty, share an interest in finding new ways to grow food.

"There's a real lack of information on how food forests are established in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and then what that production could look like," O'Connor said.

Applying a local, te ao Māori lens to this system means finding ways it can benefit people and the environment, she added.

"A big part of our vision is to connect people back to their food and connect communities back to growing food.

"And we really see a food forest that is not only for food production but for biodiversity, attracting the insects, the birds.

"So setting this up is [not] only a proof of concept, but you can see everyone out here planting today, just the connections and relationships that it builds with it as well."

Accompanying the edible plants are native nitrogen distributors - like matagouri and kākābeak- and purely aesthetic plants, like a circle of willows which will be bent into a dome shape.

The trial is being carried out at the Biological Husbandry Unit's (BHU) organic farm - and it's one of three food forests to come.

"We have another two sections, also 20 by 50 metres. One, we want to design what [this] could look like on farming systems, so easier for harvesting.

"And the last section is how it could be implemented into communities, both for papakāinga - our Māori housing communities - but also within urban areas and cities, park-type systems."

BHU manager Harry Baitz said the charity had spent the last half-century supporting such projects.

The remnants of an apple orchard and cow parsley experiment from 40 years ago are still growing strong on the site.

"The Granny Smith orchard was a rootstock trial, back when Granny Smiths weren't a big commercial crop.

"They were wanting to see if it was a viable commercial enterprise ... and now, of course, you see Granny Smiths everywhere."

"That's kind of cool," O'Connor said.

"The Granny Smith orchard was implemented before it became commercial. Now we have the food forest, so hopefully in 20 to 40 years' time, this will become a normal thing that you see too.

"The research has to start somewhere."