Fleur van der Laan calmly waves the grass short with the scythe. Not many mimic her, start a food forest all by themselves. But she likes her rest.
The Munkakkers food forest in Zeegse now covers 2.5 hectares. “Next winter, another 1 hectare will be added,” says Van der Laan. The land is divided into sections of 80 square meters each, with 48 berry bushes each and a walnut tree in the middle.
“I have always been involved with nature,” says Van Der Laan. Because despite her affinity with greenery, she had to miss forest, tree, and animals most of the time because of her profession at sea. When she came ashore, the first thing she did was a visit to nature.
After a while it became clear that life at sea was not the right choice for her after all. “I thought: I’m missing something,” she says. Until she and her brothers went to visit a food forest in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. And there the seed was planted that would grow into its own food forest. “I thought: now I know, that’s how it should be.”
Van der Laan does not want to keep the proceeds from the food forest just for himself: “It is too big and too much to eat it all alone.”
Her plan is to sell it to people and shops in the neighbourhood, and to the market in Zuidlaren. “The first year it might not be that much,” she says. “And must I also share it with the birds and the badgers.” But if everything goes according to plan, she’ll be happy to share the fruits of her food forest afterward.
Food forests are made up of layers. Typically, the different layers are classified into seven to nine categories: tall trees, which form the ‘roof’ of the forest; lower trees, such as fruit trees; shrubs; herbs; a layer of tuberous plants, which mostly grow underground; ground creepers, such as strawberries or pumpkins; and finally climbing crops. Sometimes a water layer and a fungus layer are also included.
Building a food forest in this way has several advantages. For example, the yield per square meter is increased by growing layers one below the other. Such a forest also requires little maintenance, because it is, as it were, a small ecosystem that keeps itself in balance. This also ensures that the soil remains naturally healthy because the different crops complement each other’s needs. Pieces of land where only one crop is grown can quickly lead to soil depletion, because that one crop needs specific nutrients that cannot be replenished by itself. That is why often everything is put in the soil to try to keep the soil functional. But in the case of a multi-layer food forest, the forest keeps the soil itself in balance.