Tiny Chestnut Paradise is an experiment in Radical Permaculture Organic Hybrid Chestnut farming. In an uncertain time where the future looks bleak, my experiment hopes to provide a climate sanctuary of perennial food production which maximizes food production in a natural way while minimizing soil disturbance and topsoil erosion.
There used to be 5 billion Chestnut trees in North America, and now they are all but gone. Where they once stood in some places there are massive stumps that continue to sprout new trees that thrive for a few years then die off from blight.
Many years ago forward-thinking people starting breeding hybrid chestnuts for blight resistance. I would like to see a future where much of the empty and fallow fields of this great country are planted with Organic Permaculture Hybrid Chestnuts which are the only sustainable solution right now to the very real problem of topsoil erosion. If we continue farming annual crops, in 50 years there will be no topsoil left in America. We need to figure out how we are going to feed billions of people, without any topsoil left. Perennial tree-based agriculture solves many of these problems right now and the Chestnut tree produces more food per acre every year than any other nut tree.
This 42-acre farm will hopefully be a model for many others to follow. This project would not have happened without the inspiration and support from Akiva at Twisted Tree Farm.
Karl