Community Supported Forestry
We have a very limited number of Community Supported Forestry shares available. Please contact us if you are interested in participating in this new project!
We were introduced to the concept of Community Supported Forestry by The New York Times article, Building with Whole Trees. The idea is very similar to our CSA in that members’ support enables us to manage the woodland in return for access to the forest during every season. While our members are welcome to enjoy the forest any day of the year, we do ask that you contact us before coming so that we know to expect you. We also ask that our members let us know in general where they plan to go and when they plan to return, so in the event of an accident, we know where to send help. Activities available to CSF members include but are not limited to hiking, camping, foraging wild edibles, horseback riding, and both turkey and deer hunting. We take the sustainable management of our forest very seriously and expect that our forestry members will do the same. We have installed street signs along the old logging roads to make navigating easier. You can stay on the roads or blaze your own trail. We have maps and aerial photography we can go over with you. Some of the terrain is gentle and some is very rugged. We have explored all over the property, but there is always something new to see, and we look forward to learning of the treasures our members will find. Once the membership due is paid, you can bring your friends and family along for weekends spent outside exploring our beautiful hillsides.
We were introduced to the concept of Community Supported Forestry by The New York Times article, Building with Whole Trees. The idea is very similar to our CSA in that members’ support enables us to manage the woodland in return for access to the forest during every season. While our members are welcome to enjoy the forest any day of the year, we do ask that you contact us before coming so that we know to expect you. We also ask that our members let us know in general where they plan to go and when they plan to return, so in the event of an accident, we know where to send help. Activities available to CSF members include but are not limited to hiking, camping, foraging wild edibles, horseback riding, and both turkey and deer hunting. We take the sustainable management of our forest very seriously and expect that our forestry members will do the same. We have installed street signs along the old logging roads to make navigating easier. You can stay on the roads or blaze your own trail. We have maps and aerial photography we can go over with you. Some of the terrain is gentle and some is very rugged. We have explored all over the property, but there is always something new to see, and we look forward to learning of the treasures our members will find. Once the membership due is paid, you can bring your friends and family along for weekends spent outside exploring our beautiful hillsides.
One hundred and twenty acres spread over a 600 foot elevation rise are awaiting your exploration...
We have Pre-Cambrian beaches, now covered with thick layers of green moss.The ancient boulders have been shaped over millennia by the power of water. It is easy to imagine the action of the running water that tunneled through this limestone and the waves that smoothed the faces and rippled the underbellies of these megaliths. Now instead of rocky beaches dotted with shells and urchins, there are Osage Orange trees, also known as horse apples and bode dock, with droopy, thorny branches, interspersed among the black berry brambles, cedars, oaks, and walnuts. In the spring the black locust trees are a vivid example of nature’s duplicity: they offer the juxtaposition of inches long black thorns against a shower of vanilla scented white flowers. Later, they offer seed pods that have a sweet flesh and are a treat for deer, cows, horses, hogs, and humans alike. We are always reminded of the natural place that death plays in a healthy ecosystem by observing how many woodpecker holes, bird nests, insect holes, and other uses the forest makes of dead trees, which might include a sizeable bunch of oyster mushrooms, if you keep out a keen eye. We have been blessed with many black walnut trees, and when they drop their nuts in the fall, it is a veritable feast. Want to dye your hair? Use black walnut husks! Well, maybe eating them is better. It’s amazing that come winter, you’ll be hard pressed to find any leftover nuts on the forest floor at all. During the winter the hillsides reveal their caves through their lingerie of leafless trees.
We have a matriarch Beech tree etched with a history of lovers who watches over a ravine that drops down to a quiet spot with a small meditation bench. Scattered through the forest you’ll find shagbark hickory trees, which are easily identifiable by the distinctive bark that gives them their name. There are two very large, very old shagbark hickory trees at one of the corners of our property. These great nut trees are on Slow Food’s Arc of Taste, and we are honored to watch over them. We encourage you to take some nuts and sprout some trees to plant around your own home.
We have a matriarch Beech tree etched with a history of lovers who watches over a ravine that drops down to a quiet spot with a small meditation bench. Scattered through the forest you’ll find shagbark hickory trees, which are easily identifiable by the distinctive bark that gives them their name. There are two very large, very old shagbark hickory trees at one of the corners of our property. These great nut trees are on Slow Food’s Arc of Taste, and we are honored to watch over them. We encourage you to take some nuts and sprout some trees to plant around your own home.
Holler Overlook Campsite
This lovely place is one of our favorite places on the property. On the other side of the fence is our neighbor’s pasture, grazed by contentedly munching cattle. The vista that spreads out beyond the pasture allows you to see down the length of the winding road you drove to get to us. There are rolling hills, interspersed with pastures dotted with cows and forests of hardwoods and cedars. You can see the meandering path our tributary of Dry Creek has carved out of the limestone foundation our holler sits on. Along the fence line, two old trees are engaged in a slow and twisting arm wrestle that neither will ever win. The grass is thick in this area, and we did pick up some of the rocks, but there are rocks everywhere here, even in the vegetable beds. To get to this magical spot, you have to walk through a young hardwood forest that is the result of a controlled-burn that didn’t live up to its description a couple decades ago then up a hillside that bears the scars of overworked, acidified cropland. For now, we’re letting the black locusts, blackberries, brooms sedge, turkeys, and deer rehabilitate the soil. If you keep walking up the hill from the campsite and look at the groundcover, you’ll see the dramatic humus building benefits of composting leaves. We made a fire circle and request that you start your campfires within it. A vigorous hike up the hill from the campsite will bring you into the presence of a titanic Chestnut Oak tree that you can only hug with the help of two other friends.
In addition to our beautiful vegetables, we also raise a beautiful and
rare breed of chicken. Javas used to be very popular birds on
homesteads all across the country because they are good layers and
perform well on the dinner plate too. One look at their gorgeous black
sheen and large size, and we were smitten. They are the genetic
rootstock of the Black Jersey Giants but almost completely disappeared
once agriculture made its move towards mechanization and homogenization.
Visit this website
for more about their history and come see our flock! In taking on this
project our goals were twofold. The first objective is to constantly
improve the genetics of our flock by selecting for the best performance
in our area. The second aspiration is to establish other flocks of
Javas in order preserve this rare breed. If you would be interested in
joining us on our historical preservation project, please contact us.