Author Archives: Biologicalenrichment

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About Biologicalenrichment

I started a farm in the early 1980’s called Oikos Tree Crops. It was once a 13 acre pasture and with the help of many worldwide plants became a forest. Today I am dedicated more than ever to finding, preserving, creating and disseminating a wide variety of food plants via seeds that I harvest at my farm. I explore new plants and healthy ways to raise them. I currently focus my attention on my seed repository while providing seeds and bring these new discoveries to the public at large. My farm is one of the oldest and most diverse maintained tree crop plantings in the U.S. using many plants from around the world as a form of global agroforestry applied at a local level. Every plant grown on my farm is grown from seeds. I use the tree crop philosophy as a means to expand the use of perennial, woody tree and shrub crops raised from seed without the use of chemical and high energy inputs.The two story agriculture is alive and well at Oikos Tree Crops. This blog highlights ecological enrichment as a means to improve human health and raise awareness of the possibilities of creating a healthy earth and a wealthy farmer. My story is told by describing my 50 years of farming and life experiences surrounding agriculture filled with my love of nature and my constant search for a greater diversity beyond the cultivar on a global stage.

Perennial Protein of Apios americana: Tubers on a String

In high school I owned several books of edible wild plants. This was in my phase of finding a cave in the wilderness and bailing on society. I still have a lot of those Bradford Angier survival and camping books. … Continue reading

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The Thicket Bean Explodes

Before the advent of annual beans, the thicket bean was well known. It was the protein that did not run away. It is a species of perennial bean found throughout the midwest and northeastern U.S. Unlike the thousands of selections … Continue reading

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Response To The Chemical Warriors

I always had this idea that the roadsides could provide food in terms of nuts and fruits along with a few perennial vegetables like sunchokes. It seemed like unused space with huge potential. All you would have to do is … Continue reading

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I Can Plant Trees

My father took this picture. It was a cloudy day and I wanted to show him what I was up to on my new farm. There was no barn, water or phone. I was planting trees in a little box … Continue reading

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One Tree Crop

My father and his friend from the post office had this idea back in the sixties. It was not easy to get anyone to agree. Out of a dozen potential partners only one remained in the end. It was 140 … Continue reading

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Grow A Guitar

I own two soprano recorders that are made out of fruit wood. One is apricot and the other is pear wood. The pear wood recorder is a Hohner that I purchased when I was in high school. I brought it … Continue reading

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Regeneration Through Dissemination

Like my family’s Christmas tree farms of yesteryear, most tree crops are planted in long rows of a single species to maximize production. At my 13 acre farm, I did not have the luxury of both time and money to … Continue reading

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The Plum That Lives in a Farmer-less Field

There has never been a greater example of a species of fruit that could be grown as a species of fruit without employing the cultivar based system of fruit growing. The above image is one of the first beach plum … Continue reading

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Asparagii of Unknown Origin

It’s not pretty but it’s asparagus. You may not have eaten it when you were a child. Here was this quasi-gelatinous long green alien stalk of unknown origin. “Who would eat this?”, you would ask yourself? If you did dare … Continue reading

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Simply Making the Plant World More Diverse

One of easiest ways to increase plant diversity in the natural world is to look for potential species that can reproduce and increase on their own without burning, mowing or herbiciding everything to near death. The same can be said … Continue reading

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