Food Forest

The Native Food Forest at Christ the King

Working with Nature to Create Abundance

What is a Food Forest?

A food forest is a garden designed to mimic a natural woodland ecosystem, planted with edible, medicinal and other useful plants. It is planned with trees, shrubs, perennials and vines all growing together in a self-sustaining network. A food forest can produce an enormous amount of food in a small area. In addition, a food forest is remarkably easy to care for once it is established. This is because it works with natural processes instead of against them. It is one of the most productive and sustainable systems known. For this reason, it is a favorite project for people who practice Permaculture. Permaculture is a philosophy that addresses sustainability in the face of global change. Learn more about Permaculture .

Our Food Forest is in its infancy. Our trees are still immature, but we are beginning to harvest ground cherries, black raspberries, Sochan, sunchokes, rhubarb, and numerous medicinal herbs and teas. Stay tuned and watch it grow with us. Better yet, get involved! We welcome volunteers and those who want to learn more about this approach. Contact us to learn more.

Why Does Christ the King Have a Food Forest?

We are committed to Creation Care as a ministry here at Christ the King. This Food Forest is one of the many ways we are living that ministry and is a way to educate our community about this highly sustainable approach to growing food.
A food forest…

Feeds people
Feeds animals
Preserves the soil
Mitigates climate change
produces a large amount of food in a small space

We believe that by learning about and developing sustainable and highly productive gardens, we are being good stewards of creation, and preserving the planet for future generations.

What’s in the Food Forest?

Plants are included in a food forest for a variety of reasons:

to provide food or spice,
to provide medicine, tea or fiber,
to fertilize the soil,
to cultivate the soil,
to provide ground cover,
to provide support for pollinators and other insects
to deter pests

All plants work together in concert to build topsoil, hold water, sequester carbon and feed many of God’s creatures, including humans. Never harvest anything from a food forest without knowing exactly what it is and what it is used for.

What makes our Food Forest unique is that all the plants are native to the United States or have cultural significance to Native Americans from this region.

Our Food Forest also incorporates a Rain Garden. A Rain Garden is valuable because it holds water in the soil instead of shunting it to our overburdened sewer system. It cleans the water, and can support plants and soil life, and reduces runoff. Our Rain Garden is particularly special because it is planted exclusively with native, edible, medicinal and other useful plants.

Resources and More Information

Are you interested in knowing more about what's growing in our native food forest? Or how it was made? Here are some resources to explore.

The Christ the King Food Forest design was chosen as one of the winners of the 2022 design contest held by the Permaculture Institute of North America.

Contact the Food Forest Team

Christ the King Lutheran Church
7393 Dimmick Road
West Chester, Ohio 45069
(513) 777-4370
[email protected]