Broad Acre Cold Climate Food Forestry in Action

In this video Takota Coen of take you on a tour of his broad acre food forest garden. The Coen farm produces seabuckthorn, buffalow berry, raspberries, currents, saskatoons, plums, apples, pears, haskaps, siberean peas, and soon to be a whole assortment of mast crops. Coen Farm is located in Central Alberta Canada which definitely has a cold climate!

You can find out more about Coen Farm at


0:48 Trees timeline - from hay field to forest
1:37 Harvesting berries
2:42 Trees planted as shelter belt
3:14 Edible foods in the shelter belt
3:45 Stacking functions - sugar maple plantation
4:26 Why add Korean Pine?
5:50 Preventing sunburned trees
6:30 Tree water catchment pattern
7:25 Forest ecosystem - fast-tracking the successional cycle
7:51 Korean pine - expectations and results so far
10:51 Caraganas
11:10 Harvesting caragana seeds - why & how?
12:45 Ways to stack other systems into the caragana crop
15:10 Utilizing nitrogen fixation from caraganas, 20 meters away from them
15:30 Alnoculture - used for 1000 years Italy to grow grain and animals without degrading the soil.
20:33 How this area fits in the hub and spoke system



About Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture:
In less than 10 years, Rob & Michelle Avis left Calgary’s oil fields and retooled his engineering career to help clients and students design integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste and food, all while supporting local economy and regenerating the land. He’s now leading the next wave of permaculture education, teaching career-changing professionals to become eco-entrepreneurs with successful regenerative businesses. Learn more and connect with Rob & Michelle at

FREE RESOURCES:
As a special gift when you subscribe to our newsletter is that we’ll send you the link to download our gorgeous Blog Book: 50 breathtaking magazine-style pages of our most popular blog posts and articles over the past five years, from permaculture ABCs to property-buying, home design, eco-investing, and community retrofitting. Sign-up:

Why should you reserve a place in your bulging in-box for Verge’s newsletters? One reason: because we challenge the headlines and cultural paradigms with a whole different kind of alternative fact: Permaculture-inspired businesses can succeed – and restore the planet. And we’ll show you how to do it.


#Foodforest #Permaculture #Coldclimate #Foodsecurity

Permaculture Alberta,Permaculture Design,Permaculture Design Course,permaculture,homesteading,sustainability,sustainable,eco design,ecosystem,biodiversity,renewable energy,broad acre farming,cold climate permaculture,food forest,forest garden,broad acre,food forest design,stacking,stacking functions,stacking functions garden,sustainable development,environment,science,health mobility,sustainable living,simple living,homestead,sustainable eating,food security,