Planting Nut Trees for a Sustainable Future
“…the natural engines of food production for hill lands are not wheat and other grasses, but trees. A single oak tree yields acorns… often by the hundred weight, sometimes by the ton. Some hickory and pecan trees give us nuts by the barrel; the walnut tree yields by the ten bushels.”
– from Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith
Nut trees can provide a bountiful and perennial source of protein and nutrient-rich food for humans, birds and other critters alike. They are long living, climate resilient, and can be incredibly productive in landscapes where other methods of agriculture do not fit. In the Northeast we once had forests of fruitful chestnut trees as an abundant and self- sustaining food source. With those native stands gone, we think it’s important to repopulate our landscape with new nut trees for the future, not only with chestnuts, but also with hickories, walnuts, hazels and various hybrids.
We are excited to expand our nut offering this year with trees from Yellowbud Farm in Northfield, MA. Yellowbud is a lot more than a farm. Growers there conduct extensive research, selection and breeding focused on viable tree-crop development, and they report that their seedling trees are “the result of 1,000s of hours of rigorous observation to find the most resilient consistent heavy bearing outliers with exceptional nut, fruit, and pod expressions.” Grown in the Connecticut River Valley without any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, Yellowbud’s trees are vigorous and well adapted. These trees also represent some of the best genetics to be found and deserve our stewardship.
Yellowbud Farm is part of a larger movement to increase the role of tree crops as major agricultural products. Their friends and neighbors at Breadtree Farms are working to reestablish chestnuts not only as a main food source, but as a rich part of our culture. Breadtree is creating viable systems for farmers to grow, process and market their nut crops. They view chestnuts as a staple food in the same realm as rice, wheat, corn and potatoes, and they are working tirelessly planting and stewarding tens of thousands of trees in the Hudson Valley and southwest Vermont. In the works is an organic nut processing facility. Someday more of us will be able to prepare simple nutritious tree-crop foods like necci (thin Tuscan chestnut pancakes), which are gluten free and delicious both sweet and savory.
A future with accessible local flour from perennial tree crops is so exciting, but it doesn’t stop with pancakes. We were fortunate enough to sample a bottle of Yellowbud hickory oil pressed by Northern Forest Foods in Vermont. Mild, rich and nutty, it’s versatile like olive oil and good for cooking, baking and salad dressings. Northern Forest Foods has been advocating for an improved selection of bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis, listed in our catalog as Yellowbud Hickory Seedling) as a crop for processing and producing as much of its own oil as possible.
A resurgent nut culture is forthcoming as we reimagine sustainable food sources. Let’s plant more nut trees for our common future.