Author Archives: Biologicalenrichment

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About Biologicalenrichment

I started a farm and nursery in the early 1980’s called Oikos Tree Crops. It was once a 13 acre pasture. Today it is a forest rich in food producing plants. I am dedicated 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 focus on my seed repository while providing seeds to others that wish to follow my bold experiment in some way or form. 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.

Diversity Explored: The Wild Blueberry

When my father and his friend from the post office purchased 140 acres of wetland in central Michigan in the mid-1960’s they knew that it was a swamp and generally unusable.The price was roughly $100 per acre at the time. … Continue reading →

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Diversity Explored: The Edible Sunflower

I always was fascinated with the sunflower. There was always so much activity around them. My parents decided to move to a new home when I was 16 years old. It was in a new subdivision in the midst of … Continue reading →

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Diversity Found: American Black Currant

When the ponds were built on my family’s farm, large ditches were needed to drain the water to finish the excavation. It was roughly a 30 acre pond surrounded by a wetland. The ditches near the highway were massive as … Continue reading →

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Diversity Found: Dandelion

I had this collection of dandelion varieties for a while. These were selections bred for human consumption for the foliage as a super nutritious perennial green. I kept the collection secret. My employees noticed when they started to flower and … Continue reading →

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The Pecan is the Pie in the Sky

I live in one of the cloudiest counties in North America. When sun appears, people comment on it in the stores. “Oh, it’s a sunny day!” As if to say time is short and you better enjoy it now! The … Continue reading →

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Chufa-The Savior of Sedges

One of the tuber crop plants I had the pleasure of working with was chufa or tiger nut. I first read about this plant from a food website describing the use of the crop and how it is cultvated. You … Continue reading →

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Bean Flowers

Yesterday while trying to capture insects working my bean flowers via photography , I remembered the college professor that I took an Entomology class from Western Michigan University in 1975. The whole class went out one night to a nearby … Continue reading →

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One Plant-One Human-One Idea

If you have ever planted a cover crop of rye, you soon realize how much this powerhouse of a plant can do in such a short period of time. It is such a simple thing yet has immense environmental benefits. … Continue reading →

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The Deer Solution

For many years on my way into town, I would drive by a farm that raised sheep. The pasture was very neat looking and was often cropped to the ground. Like a neatly mowed lawn with isolated thistle plants popping … Continue reading →

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Michigan Oranges

Not too long ago, the USDA sent me a newsletter that contained a snippet of nursery catalogs from the early 1900’s. It is interesting to see the drawings and written descriptions of plants used in gardens at this time. This … Continue reading →

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