Specializing in native & medicinal species.

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Regenerative agriculture moves beyond what is sustainable to ask, how can we actually improve the overall health and wellbeing of our shared environment through farming?

It is an alchemical invitation to push ourselves beyond settling for what can reasonably be maintained, into the realm of planetary renewal through the development of agricultural systems that support the world’s populations. Our work in this field began on our flagship farm, and has since expanded to include client projects across the region, and a second farm location currently in early development.

At home on our farm we integrate approaches found in ecological restoration, permaculture design, and regenerative agriculture to create low input, self-renewing, agroecology systems that naturally restore health and integrity to our shared landscape. Our gardens are inspired by natural systems and take the form of young forests, mosaic meadows, and shaded stream banks. Native fruit trees grow alongside berries, medicinal herbs, herbaceous roots, and mushrooms in a storied architecture inspired by natural patterns of ecological succession. We aspire toward continuity with the wild through integrated design.

Certified organic growers since 2013 committed to keeping our environment free of insecticides and herbicides.

FOREST GARDEN FARM

Wild Gardens

Crop production happens in collaboration with the plant world at Fields Without Fences.

Our gardens are stewarded as natural systems and take the form of young forests, mosaic meadows, and shaded stream banks.

Native fruit trees grow alongside berries, medicinal herbs, herbaceous roots, and mushrooms in a storied architecture inspired by natural patterns of ecological succession.

Organic Fruit

Our primary crop is Elderberry which grows in the tall shrubby layer of our mixed perennial polycultures.

Elderberry is a native berry shrub with a higher than average antioxidant level that has been used medicinally throughout time across the northern temperate climate regions of the world.

We grow several improved and wild varieties of American Elderberry from across the region, including our own site selected and improved varieties.

Native Species

On our farms, growing begins at the intersection of ecological restoration and agricultural production.

In addition to Elderberry, native fruits like Aronia, Highbush Blueberry, American Persimmon, Pawpaw, and Beach Plum comprise the bulk of our orchard plantings.

While native wildflowers like Monarda, Anise Hyssop, Blue Vervain, Goldenrod, Mountain Mint, Joe Pye Weed, Echinacea and many others are encouraged in our herbaceous understory and medicinal meadows.

Creating habitat and promoting species diversity is essential to a balanced and thriving ecology.

Medicinal Herbs

We specialize in medicinal varieties of fruit & herbs.

Many of the species that play a vital role in transitioning degraded landscapes into healthy ecosystems, are the same species that inspire greater equilibrium within our own body ecologies.

We grow over 100+ medicinal herbs species relevant to our site and local ecological context.

Wild Edibles

We continue to incorporate popular foragable wild foods into our production areas including ramps, wild strawberries, blackcap raspberry, and fiddlehead ferns to support a growing interest in wild foods while not taxing existing populations in the wild.

Wild foods are integral to a diverse and seasonally inspired diet, as well as our shared human culture and connection with the wild world around us.

Perennial Crops

As we make the necessary transition toward a regenerative agricultural landscape, perennial plants will have an increasingly more valuable role. 

At Fields Without Fences we are currently growing and propagating many improved varieties of fruit and nut species including elderberry, aronia, chestnut, hazelnut, northern pecan, black walnut, hican, persimmon, pawpaw, mulberry, seaberry, currants, and gooseberries.

10 Acre Farm Site / Frenchtown NJ

On our certified organic farm outside of Frenchtown, New Jersey we grow herbs, fruit, and wild edibles within a forest garden design.

Our wild edges dominate the landscape as cultivation occurs within an unfolding process of naturalized succession. Severe site limitations brought about by hundreds of years of agriculture use and land mismanagement, inspired us to pursue alternative approaches to farm design. Exploring the intersection between ecological restoration and agricultural production we began developing this site in the spring of 2012.

During the first season we created a series of interconnected pond systems that would catch and store water in the landscape. We regraded fields to move standing anaerobic water, and installed permanent raised beds for our plantings. The following season we would begin cultivation through a process of succession that started with polycultures of diverse annuals, followed by herbaceous perennials, emergent shrubs, and a mixed tree overstory that continues to evolve with each passing season. Our plant palette includes native species and their analogues as we aspire to move the landscape into a forested ecosystem reminiscent of the intact ecology that originally comprised this area. Elderberry, persimmon, pawpaw, currants, blackberries, raspberries, walnut, Aronia, all grow above a diverse understory of medicinal herbs and wild edibles.

Eight years on, our farm continues to evolve with each passing season. We are always refining our process and approach as we process and synthesize the wisdom regularly offered by an autonomous wild ecology. The farm provides so much beyond the harvest; enriching the soil, providing habitat to avian, aquatic, and terrestrial dwelling creatures, seeding the future with resilient plant stock, and connecting us more deeply to ourselves and our nature. Designing a cohesive and interactive agricultural system at the holistic level is exemplary of a familiar trope; “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

35 Acre Farm Site / Frenchtown NJ

This site is currently undergoing a period of protracted assessment and observation as we craft our plans. In 2019 we broke ground on the first stage of earth works for water management with the cost share program from the National Resources Conservation Service.

We plan to continue our work in the overlap between ecological restoration and agricultural production integrating wild gardens, elderberry production, native & medicinal species, and woody perennial production.

Photos from the field…