Creating a food forest for Lüneburg

Healthy soil, high biodiversity, cool shade and happy farmers that contribute to a sustainable agriculture and can live well of their work - this is what we wish for from agriculture. More and more people are working on it. It involves: Thinking agriculture differently. But how does this look like?

Food forests can be part of the solution. They are designed as multi-layered systems, that mimic the design of forest or their edge with mostly perennial, edible plants. Fruit and nut trees, berry shrubs, herbs and ground cover are all on one site. This contributes to biodiversity and healthy soil, and stores carbon in plants. Many existing food forests serve self-sufficiency, education and community building.

Our food forests at Hof an den Teichen aims at showing how such a system can work economically and offer a perspective in agriculture. Supported by researchers from Leuphana University, we are developing a plan for the site design, planting activities and business development. Since October 2021, we have started transforming one hectar of cropland with soil improving measures. In spring 2022, we will plant the first trees and shrubs. Besides diverse products in our farm shop, we will create an educational pathway. Interested people can help in planting and harvesting and gain practical insights.

To cover the high initiation costs of the food forests, we need support. And to implement our ideas, we especially need: many plants! We can buy and plant them with private and entrepreneurial support.

We want to show a way towards a future-proof agriculture. Our food forest is meant to be a pilot to learn from. On one hectar, we create a system were diverse species live. We do not aim for profits but economic viability, so that food foresters can live off their work. The many different products will be offered in our farm shop and support the regional economic cycle. We will share our experiences in educational offers, like tours through the food forest.

You may live in or near Lüneburg or in another place - our soil and climate in Germany and worldwide needs a more biodiverse agriculture. We stand for all that value sustainability and regional food systems. More broadly, our project is interesting for all environmentally concious people that care about the next generations and the conservation of functioning ecosystems and want to be part of the urgent need for change in agriculture .

Few food forests exist in Germany. These seldom aim at producing food professionally and sustain livelihoods from the work as it is a complex endeavor.

But we urgently need people that work with nature in agriculture. Our food forest in Lüneburg Rettmer is meant to be a pilot project and will share experiences in the food forests with other farmers.

Our focus is on the economic sustainability. In the socio-cultural field these systems are already relatively strong. At the beginning, these system are cost-intense. In the mid-term, from year 10, they can mostly self-regulate through the interactions of the plants so that less work is necessary and running costs are low. These will be covered through the products from the food forests that will represent the diversity of the cultivated land and be offered in our farm shop.

Be a change maker! Set an example for a future-proof agriculture and sustainable food and support us to set up this food forest. Select one of our Rewards or support our project with a donation of your choice.

The funds of this campaign will finance the initiation of Lüneburgs' first food forest and cover the purchase of plants. This will create a system of diverse edible fruits from walnuts and peaches to blackcurrants. We plan to start planting in early 2022.

The first funding goal allows us to plant 800 sqm of the 1 ha food forest with hundreds of trees, shrubs, herbs and ground cover, and covers infrastructure costs for pathways, the pond, irrigation and more.

More financial support is offered by the non-profit Campus Foundation. These funds will be used for irrigation and wages. Our goal is that the food forest can self-sustain itself financially after a few years.

You can follow the development of our food forest on Blog Waldgarten Welten.