For over a year I've been involved in planning and working on a food forest in Tarpon Springs. The goal of this project has been to develop a self sustaining system that can provide food and fuel for the local community.
With a fantastic benefactor I've been allotted an of acre space and funds to create what has been in my imagination. Using food forest techniques from permaculture, I'm going to attempt to create a space that, when fully, mature will provide tens of thousands of pounds of fruit and vegetables. This will be an experiment and may have failures but I've had great mentoring from two permaculturists in the area. Jim Kovaleski and Robert Segundo have both been giving me ideas and allotting time out of their busy schedules to help me in this undertaking.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.