Backyard Food Forests

Backyard Food Forests Nursery specializing in edible perennials, fruit and nut trees, and superior crops discovered in the wilds of Appalachia.

I use this page to share the goings on of my homestead and kitchen laboratory, from food forest news to product development.

The goumis are coming! These will be ready in about 1.5-2 weeks.
05/05/2026

The goumis are coming! These will be ready in about 1.5-2 weeks.

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #15: Berry ripening stages and 'Honey Bunch' sizeThe first two photos show the different sta...
05/04/2026

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #15: Berry ripening stages and 'Honey Bunch' size

The first two photos show the different stages that the berries go through as they ripen. All of these stages were present on the bush at the time of first harvest.

The third photo gives a sense of how big 'Honey Bunch' honeyberries get.

2026 Fruit Salad Chronicles #1Spooky Mix Dianthus (flowers), Alpine Strawberries (small white), Earliglow Strawberries ...
05/04/2026

2026 Fruit Salad Chronicles #1

Spooky Mix Dianthus (flowers), Alpine Strawberries (small white), Earliglow Strawberries (red), Flamingo Strawberries (large white), Honey Bunch Honeyberries (blue, on the bottom)

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #14: HARVEST TIME'Honey Bunch' is usually the first cultivar to ripen berries for us. If you...
05/04/2026

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #14: HARVEST TIME

'Honey Bunch' is usually the first cultivar to ripen berries for us. If you just pick the brerries from the bush like bluberries, you'll end up with a lot of sour, under-ripe ones because they turn blue long before they get sweet. Instead, you should harvest by tapping the branches because the ripe ones will fall off on their own. The berries do not ripen all at once, so it will take many visits to the bush to harvest them all.

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #13: Springtime GrowthWe had to raise the height of the bird netting becausethe culitvars 'H...
05/04/2026

2026 Honeyberry Chronicles #13: Springtime Growth

We had to raise the height of the bird netting becausethe culitvars 'Honey Bunch' and 'Sugar Pie' grew about 5-6" in the last couple of weeks. We've noticed that these cultivars do almost all of their growing in early to mid spring. They stop growing when the weather gets hot in the summer; then they slowly go dormant from about September until January.

Strawberries aren't the only edible groundcovers out there! We'll be showcasing various edible groundcovers all summer.
05/03/2026

Strawberries aren't the only edible groundcovers out there! We'll be showcasing various edible groundcovers all summer.

BEANS FOR THE BEAN TUNNEL!!We're going to interplant these puppies (a mix of Scarlet runners and heirlooms from our regi...
05/03/2026

BEANS FOR THE BEAN TUNNEL!!

We're going to interplant these puppies (a mix of Scarlet runners and heirlooms from our region) with our newly acquired seedless muscadines Oh My, Oh Yes, and Razzmatazz and see how it goes.

We're also planting beans around the base of certain bushes and small trees. It'll be interesting to watch them grow and climb!

Lovage is often described as a perennial vegetable, but it's really more of an herb. It has a great parsley-celery flavo...
05/03/2026

Lovage is often described as a perennial vegetable, but it's really more of an herb. It has a great parsley-celery flavor and aroma, but the flavor is WAY too strong to eat lovage as a vegetable.

In Eastern Europe, lovage is used to flavor soups and stews. We dried it and added some to chicken broth we were making. Sure enough, the lovage added a very nice complexity to the broth flavor.

Last year we grafted Silk Hope, Miss Kim, and Gerardi dwarf mulberry varieties. This year we grafted Lawson Dawson, Blac...
04/29/2026

Last year we grafted Silk Hope, Miss Kim, and Gerardi dwarf mulberry varieties. This year we grafted Lawson Dawson, Black Prince, and Varaha to round out our mulberry collection. We'll see for ourselves which varieties are best suited to East TN and recommend them to our clients.

Pictured: a Lawson Dawson graft from this year

Honeylocust trees like our 'Millwood' variety have three types of flowers: male, female, and perfect. The first photo sh...
04/29/2026

Honeylocust trees like our 'Millwood' variety have three types of flowers: male, female, and perfect. The first photo shows a cluster of male flowers and the second shows perfect flowers. Both flower clusters were borne on the same tree.

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Maynardville, TN

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+16083200707

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