Silver Tree Forest is a permaculture nursery and forest farm located in the hamlet of Owasco, NY.
Nestled in the rolling hills of the eastern Finger Lakes, our 6-acre farm is home to a perennial forest garden, useful plant nursery, mushroom yard, chicken and duck pastures, and multiple ponds surrounded by silver maple wetlands. Using permaculture design, organic practices, biological processes and hand cultivation, we grow perennial flowers, mushrooms, herbs, fruit trees, berry bushes, edible vines and vegetables for sale on farm or through our CSA program.
We observe and encourage beneficial relationships between plants, animals, humans and the soil, designing polycultures of resilient species that maximize function, beauty, and abundance. Serving our community as a demonstration of a human-scale, highly diversified microfarm, we increase soil fertility, store carbon and support biodiversity, all while providing food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizers, “farmaceuticals” and fun.* Basically, we strive to cultivate conditions conducive to life and let nature thrive!
* Thanks to Dave Jacke for this description of the products of a forest garden.
We envision the broad-acre restoration of monoculture farmlands into biodiverse, abundant and highly useful perennial ecosystems. Mimicking the oak savannahs and old-growth forests stewarded by indigenous people before European colonization, we see a path towards the dynamic regeneration of our lands. We believe that humans are just one participant in the cooperative, interdependent network of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms that make up our living world.
As stewards of this land, we feel we have not only a right, but a responsibility to actively participate in the creative design, implementation and management of productive biological systems that meet our needs and produce a surplus of useful, edible crops and ecosystems services that benefit all. We practice and share our experiences with our community, inspiring others to co-create a human culture deeply rooted in our relationship with (as part of) nature.