People and Food Forest Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie in Honk Kong

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 289-365

Two brothers, Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie in 1951 took on an idea to redevelop a trashed and degraded mountainside on 148 hectares with the emphasis on helping people to help themselves through training, supply of agricultural inputs and interest-free loans.

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG)  formerly known as Kadoorie Experimental and Extension Farm ), or Kadoorie Farm  for short, was originally set up for aiding poor farmers in the New Territories in Hong Kong. 

 It had been completely re-vegetated into a food forest with numerous water falls, ponds, rare turtles, terraced gardens on steep slopes, a compost and biochar system, a waste-water treatment plant and wetlands and so much more. It is an amazing site that was built so far ahead of its time with an emphasis on teaching local people.

It later shifted its focus to promote biodiversity conservation in Hong Kong and south China, and greater environmental awareness. 

It is located near Pak Ngau Shek, encompassing Kwun Yum Shan in the central New Territories; 

The Farm was built in a valley with streams, woodlands and terraces in 1956 by the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association. 

Now it is managed to integrate nature conservation, including a rescue and rehabilitation programme for native animals, along with holistic education and practices in support of a transition to sustainable living.

Programmes run by KFBG's Education Department include tree planting, improving wildlife habitat, art and environment workshops, as well as outreach programmes for schools and the local community. 

Increasingly there is an emphasis on holistic education, encouraging visitors to explore their relationship with nature by artistic means, internal inquiry, mindfulness and compassion.

 Meanwhile through its Sustainable Living & Agriculture Department KFBG works to support community Transition by developing new and economically workable opportunities for all parties in the food system. KFBG is actively trying to reduce the ecological footprint of its own operations.

History

Sir Horace Kadoorie, received Order of British Empire ( lived from 28 September 1902 - 22 April 1995) was an industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. 

His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-18th century. In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.

Kadoorie and his brother Sir Lawrence Kadoorie worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai hotel. They also worked for there for their father, the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.

Among Sir Horace's philanthropies was a school that became a haven for Jewish refugee children in Shanghai.

He and his brother also formed an agricultural aid organization that in the 1960s helped hundreds of thousands of peasants in rural areas near Hong Kong to become independent farmers.

Kadoorie and his brother, Lawrence, both received the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1962.

Links

http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/77209-re-greening-a-mountain
http://permaculturenews.org/2015/01/30/nursery-quality-to-tree-planting-success/
http://www.kfbg.org/kfb/introwithreport.xml?fid=169&sid=239&lang=en

Medicinal Trees Around the World

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 288-365

Allspice (Pimenta officinalis)
Native to the Caribbean islands and southern Mexico, the allspice tree produces berries that are dried for export. Crushed, they are used in cooking, but also are added to medicines as a carminative that aids in expelling gas to relieve colic.

Areca (Areca catechu)
A palm tree of Malaysia, the areca yields a seed or nut once chewed by the natives to dye their mouths fashionably red. Although not relied on in human medicine, the alkaloid arecoline, the seed’s extractive, has the ability to destroy and repel worms in animals.

Balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera)
Growing across the northern reaches of North America, balsam poplar bears buds coated with a gooey, fragrant substance. In the drug industry, it’s called “balm-of-Gilead,” and as an expectorant, it becomes a constituent of cold medicine. It also keeps ointment from going rancid. Applied externally, it helps heal wounds.

Benjamin (Styrax benzoin)
Native to Java and other Southeast Asian countries, this large tree has grayish, fluffy bark. When wounded, it exudes a white, aromatic gum universally known as gum benzoin. It’s a productive expectorant when used in medicine. As the compound called tincture of benzoin, it relieves bronchitis when employed in a steam inhaler.

Birch (Betula papyrifera, nigra, lenta )
Native to northern and eastern North America, birch trees possess concentrations of salicylic acid, the predecessor of aspirin. Although birch products were never widely used, folk medicine called for chewing birch twigs to relieve headache and pain. Willows (Salix spp.) also contain the pain-reducing acid.

Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora )
In both China and Japan, the evergreen camphor tree grows to great size. An extractive of its bark, camphor acts as a counterirritant when included in ointments for relieving muscle pain.

Cascara (Rahmnus purshiana)
In the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, this small tree is called cascara buckthorn. Since 1877, its bark has been dried, baled, and shipped to dealers who grind it into a fine powder for medicinal use as an effective laxative or purgative.

Dogwood (Cornus florida)
A medicine made from the bark of this tree native to the eastern United States often has been substituted for quinine. During the Civil War, Confederate doctors used it to treat malaria cases. Although it grows in abundance, drug companies looked past it to the more powerful quinine that comes from the cinchona tree of South America and the tropics.

Kola (Cola nitada, C. acuminata)
Do you get a lift from a carbonated soda? The large kola trees of tropical West Africa, the West Indies, and South America are responsible. Their dried seeds, which contain much caffeine, provide the stimulant in some medicines. But they also provide an energizing ingredient in many soft drinks.

Nux vomica (Strychnos nux-vomica )
The deadly poison strychnine comes from the seeds of this Asian tree. In small amounts, or mixed with other drugs, strychnine can become a heart stimulant or tonic.

Quassia (Quassia amara )
The wood of this tree from Mexico and Central and South America has been an item of commerce since the mid-1700s. The wood’s bitter extractive, which has been relied on to expel parasites and reduce fever, is water soluble. Thus in the 1800s it frequently was turned into popular “bitter cups.” The substance also has uses as an insecticide.

Rauwolfia (Rauwolfia serpentina)
More like a shrub than a tree in most places where it grows in India, rauwolfia produces extracts in its roots that have for centuries been used to treat nervous disorders. The extract also provides an antidote for snake- bites and insect stings. In the 20th century it was discovered that powdered rauwolfia root as a clinical medicinal ingredient would treat hypertension and mental disorders. Many drugs that make up tranquilizers have their origin in rauwolfia root.

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
This tree of the eastern and southeastern United States is entirely aromatic—wood, bark, roots, branches, and leaves. Locally, sassafras tea made from its roots has long been a spring tonic. Bark may be taken from the tree’s roots, then boiled; the resultant drink, taken internally, is an active diuretic.

Forest Gardening

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 287-365

Robert A de J Hart (April 1, 1913 – March 7, 2000) was the pioneer of forest gardening in the UK.

Robert Hart coined the term "forest gardening" during the 1980s. Hart began farming at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire with the intention of providing a healthy and therapeutic environment for himself and his brother Lacon. 

A forest garden is a tiny imitation of a natural forest. Once established it needs nimimal maintenance and can provide fruit, nuts, root and perennial vegetables and herbs. The principles and practice of forest gardening are described by pioneer Robert Hart who created a small forest garden on his farm on Wenlock Edge, which has been a model and inspiration for many designers and horticulturalists.

Starting as relatively conventional smallholders, Hart soon discovered that maintaining large annual vegetable beds, rearing livestock and taking care of an orchard were tasks beyond their strength. 

However, a small bed of perennial vegetables and herbs he planted was looking after itself with little intervention.

Following Hart's adoption of a raw vegan diet for health and personal reasons, he replaced his farm animals with plants. The three main products from a forest garden are fruit, nuts and green leafy vegetables. 

He created a model forest garden from a 0.12 acre (500 m²) orchard on his farm and intended naming his gardening method ecological horticulture or ecocultivation. 

Hart later dropped these terms once he became aware that agroforestry and forest gardens were already being used to describe similar systems in other parts of the world.

 He was inspired by the forest farming methods of Toyohiko Kagawa and James Sholto Douglas, and the productivity of the Keralan home gardens as Hart explains: 

From the agroforestry point of view, perhaps the world's most advanced country is the Indian state of Kerala, which boasts no fewer than three and a half million forest gardens...'

As an example of the extraordinary intensity of cultivation of some forest gardens, one plot of only 0.12 hectares (0.30 acres) was found by a study group to have twenty-three young coconut palms, twelve cloves, fifty-six bananas, and forty-nine pineapples, with thirty pepper vines trained up its trees. In addition, the small holder grew fodder for his house-cow.

Seven-layer system

‘Canopy layer’ consisting of the original mature fruit trees.Robert Hart pioneered a system based on the observation that the natural forest can be divided into distinct levels. He used intercropping to develop an existing small orchard of apples and pears into an edible polyculture landscape consisting of the following layers:

1. ‘Low-tree layer’ of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarfing root stocks.
2. ‘Shrub layer’ of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
3. ‘Herbaceous layer’ of perennial vegetables and herbs.
4. ‘Rhizosphere’ or ‘underground’ dimension of plants grown for their roots and tubers.
5. ‘Ground cover layer’ of edible plants that spread horizontally.
6. ‘Vertical layer’ of vines and climbers.

A key component of the seven-layer system was the plants he selected. Most of the traditional vegetable crops grown today, such as carrots, are sun loving plants not well selected for the more shady forest garden system. Hart favoured shade tolerant perennial vegetables.

I hope I convinced you to plant at least one fruit or legume tree this year.

Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f8NCh3s8c