WILD FARMING SERIES: "Up there, that's for the birds..."

Friday flashback to a few weeks ago when fruit harvesting at the farm was in full swing! Each season, in what feels like a matter of moments (though it could be a couple weeks), elderberry, beach plum, seaberry, blackberry, and aronia all come into ripeness at once. At that point a flurry of activity commences as us and the birds race to liberate the ripe from fruit from its branches!

We are often asked how we prevent the birds from consuming the berry crop, it’s a short answer - we don’t. The world we’ve created on our farm is as much theirs as ours. They eat some of the berries that we’ve planted here, and when we are out in the wild snacking and sampling wild fruits, we’re eating from what they’ve planted.

I always think of Sepp Holzer explaining his reach in the world… He said something akin to, I harvest here, where I stand, below that is for the deer, below that is for the rabbits, and up there, that’s for the birds.