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Forest farming approaches and crops

Penn State Extension will be launching a series of free webinars that will run February 16^th, 2022, through October 26^th, 2023 about agroforestry and forest farming. The webinars will be from 7:30 to 9:00pm—for those who can’t make a webinar, they will be recorded and posted. Agroforestry/forest farming is the practice of planting and management of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in existing forests to produce edible and medicinal crops for personal use and/or income. Plants covered will include ramps/wild leeks (Allium tricoccum), ghost-pipe (Monotropa uniflora), American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) and medicinal root crops, along with morels and other wild mushrooms.

In this series, Eric Burkhart, the Director of the Appalachian Botany and Ethnobotany Program at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center at Penn State, and other experts will provide an overview of these popular non-timber forest products in Pennsylvania and discuss forest farming opportunities and approaches for each species, along with the uses, identification, biology, foraging, forest farming, habitat management, markets, and economic opportunities associated with the species. Participants will also have plenty of time to ask questions to the presenters.

Forest landowners, recreational and commercial foragers, wild/farmed product consumers, natural resources professionals, and gardeners should consider signing up for the series. 1.5 credits of professional development per session are available for people in the Society of American Foresters.