Make the Most of Your Woods With Forest Farming

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by Adobe Stock/Kalyakan

Get some ideas for your forest farm layout. Discover a variety of food, medicinal, and non-timber products you can grow in the woods, including growing pawpaws.

Food from the Forest

At the Cornell campus in Ithaca, New York, there is a woodlot called the MacDaniels Nut Grove, where students and the public come to learn about forest farming. In the fall of 2006, a memorable culinary occasion was held there called the “forest feast,” in which an array of edible non-timber forest products (NTFPs) were prepared and served. The main course was roast goat. This wasn’t just any goat. This goat had been raised at Cornell’s Arnot Forest as part of a research project called Goats in the Woods, to see if goats could be used as part of a forest management plan.

The MacDaniels Nut Grove has an abundance of hickory and black walnut trees, with a few white oak trees and some Chinese chestnuts, which played a role in the feast. Nyla, who had recently spent her summer internship shepherding the goats in the woods, was smashing hickory nuts, shells and all, in a large wooden mortar and pestle. These were thrown into a pot of boiling water to separate the rich oil, called “pawcohiccor”a (hickory milk), from the nut meat/shell mash. After everyone at the forest feast got a taste of the hickory milk, the rest was used to fry acorn ash cakes. First, the acorns were leached several times in water to remove the bitter tannins, then ground into a flour to make the ash cakes (“pancakes”) that were cooked on a hot stone. Several other students were cooking a stir-fry of pickled ramps (wild leek), forest-cultivated shiitake mushrooms, and wild lion’s mane mushrooms, as well as wildcrafted black trumpets and porcini. Jim made a fragrant porridge from the inner bark of slippery elm. Forest fruits were in abundance. Abdoul came up with “Cornus mas sauce,” made from the fruit of Cornelian cherry dogwood. Just a little tart, it went well with the goat.

There was a soup made from nettle and lambsquarter, and applesauce made from wild crab apples. Beverages included tea made from hemlock and pine, and dandelion wine (from Isaac’s lawn). For dessert there were brownies made with hickory nuts and walnuts collected from the site. Marguerite made a pawpaw mousse, and Sefra contributed a wild berry torte made from blackberries, raspberries, elderberries, and blueberries!

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