Last stop on the tour requires some muscle power to get up the western hills of the Rural District. Arriving at Mineral Hills Conservation Area, a city-owned property, the group is met by a tour guide who shows them the processing pavilion; there is a site for the mobile slaughterhouse, a press for turning fruits such as apples, pears, and persimmons into butter and cider, and a depot for cleaning, sorting, and distributing the nuts, fruits, and mushrooms grown on site. The agri-tour culminates with a guided hike through the property to see examples of permaculture principles adapted to a sloped site and thin, rocky topsoil. The tour leads into a forest garden with polycultures of fruit trees, berry bushes, and herbaceous perennials like Jerusalem artichoke. The forest then opens to a clearing in the understory where pigs and goats are roaming and foraging underneath a canopy of black walnut and pecan trees in a two-story agriculture site. Lastly, the group comes to a completely open expanse where dairy cows are grazed in rotation—a strategy that sustains the health of soil and groundcover. Everyone is invited back into the food forest to pick some sea buckthorn, quinces, and hickory nuts to take home to eat and to plant in the compost they were given to begin their own forest garden at home.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Feed Northampton Districts
53