***From the Grazy Days website- As part of our effort to continuously improve our farm by increasing the diversity and productivity of the ecology and our financial sustainability as well, we are in the process of planting much of our farm in chestnut trees. In the spring of 2020 we planted 48 Chinese Chestnuts bred for nut production on three acres. in 2023 we received a grant from the USDA in conjunction with the good folks at SilvoCulture.org to plant twelve more acres of our pasture in these gorgeous, productive trees, which is planned for autumn 2023. The US imports a tremendous amount of these nuts and is the only country in the world that can grow them but doesn't have a commercial industry to do so, according to the folks at chestnuthilltreefarm.com. Once the trees have enough of a head start, we plan to graze our sheep in those same pastures, a practice known as silvopasture. Plants and animals complement and feed each other and growing both lamb and nuts on the same land makes so much sense. Also, growing food in a perenial (plants that live many years) system decreases the amount of food that needs to be grown with destructive annual (plowing, spraying) practices.
