Firouzan Food Forest + Nursery

The US and Israel started this war with Iran.

Remember that, remember who is to blame for all the casualties.

2026 growing season underway: Copper Chinkapin (castanea pumila), an open-pollinated nativar of Allegheny Chinkapin, known for its heavy nut production, winter hardiness, and compact size. Easy to crack with a chewy sweetness akin to coconut; excellent nut-production option for small spaces.

#foodforest #permaculture #ediblelandscaping #milkweed

Seed processing:
💫The elegant textures and patterns of butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa)
💫Meet the vibrant mother plant
💫A good handful from 3 or 4 pods
💫Hoping this next generation of splashy orange flowers will have finds their way into gardens and easements and food forests throughout Buffalo.

American persimmon (diospyros virginiana) fresh off the tree. Found these sweet, richly flavored beauties while walking around my neighborhood. There's no good reason we aren't all harvesting fruits and nuts from native trees and shrubs lining our sidewalks.

I am growing a favorite spice I encountered while living in Jerusalem: habat al-barakah, ketzach, black cumin.

Before another seed pod forms, before it swells, before it dries: End the genocide. Feed Gaza. Free Palestine.

#GazaUnderAttack #Gazaisstarving #FreePalestine

Garlic harvest.

From scapes to heads to seed garlic to pest protection, garlic is a particularly generous food forest member.

Now to hang these in a shady spot with excellent air circulation to cure for 2-3 weeks.

#foodforest #permaculture #ediblelandscape #gardening #eatyourlawn

Mid-July harvest:

Feverfew
Fig leaves
Ground cherries
Gooseberries, Pixwell and Captivator
Red Lake Currants
Black Consort Currants

#foodforest #ediblelandscape #berries

Berry season continues:
Raspberries
Blackberries
Black currants
Red currants

When wildlife starts wondering why *you're* here.

Capturing a photo of baby rabbit stretched out under a red currant bush; look up to a doe 5 yards away.

Trade lawns for functioning ecosystems.

Scapes upon scapes.
Garlic is a fantastic crop for fitting into odd spaces: between containers, under a tree swing, at the base of fruit trees--so long as they get full sun and minimal competition.

#foodforest #gardening #permaculture #forestgarden

We have one bush with rust, affected for the first time this year. Are you doing anything to treat it/remediate the conditions--increased airflow, pruning affected portions?

Elderberry, serviceberry, blue flag iris, gooseberry

#agroecology #permaculture #bloomscrolling #gardening

Serviceberry season, June's generous gift. Robin Wall Kimmerer teaches from amelanchier that all flourishing is mutual. Commitment to mutual flourishing opposes the delusional bloodlust of war.

Introducing: pineapple quince, our latest addition to the food forest. Recommended as highly productive, disease and pest resistant, and compact, quince can be an excellent option for smaller growing spaces. We've nestled it below a mature maple, alongside evergreens, and above a blueberry patch.

Stella cherry; heavy fruit set this year.
Half for the birds, half for humans.

Fours different hands pull a golden crown apart, surrounded by the words "Many hands make light work."

No kings

Does this count as a cue to care?

Kristi Noem must resign. She has deported a four year old with cancer, detained a U.S. marshal, and arrested two members of Congress. She’s lost the confidence of the American people. ICE must stop terrorizing our communities.

First fig harvest of the year in WNY, petite negra brebas:

#ediblelandscape #foodforest #figs #wny

Currants growing unimpeded above a broad viburnum that absorbs moderate deer browse

Spent monarda stalks allow blooms to form on this year's growth. Contrast with the decapitated section I pruned, then the deer pruned, to the left.

Species that tolerate deer browse (light, medium, even heavy--depending on the species) respond with new growth and/or you may be left with cuttings for propagation. The serviceberry here shows new growth from rabbit-pruned branches I was going to remove, but which quickly regrew to fill in the serviceberry's bushy habit.

Three strategies for forest gardening with heavy deer pressure:
-Layer tall edible species behind barrier plants that absorb the browse;
-Leave last year's growth as a physical deterrent;
-Tolerate sustainable browsing

#forestgarden #foodforest #permaculture #ediblelandscape #greensky

Sweetshrub (calycanthus) + Sweetgrass

Just planted sweetgrass grown from seed to form a soft landing around two sweetshrubs, which we prize for their beauty, deer resistance, and evocative fragrance. New suckers pushing up this year.

#nativeplants #greensky

A weaponized AI chatbot is flooding city councils with climate misinformation Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers. The messaging is all framed to ...

"The chatbot’s instructions tell it to “de-emphasize the climate catastrophe narrative,” to focus on “real pollution, not CO2.” The bot is told to frame these arguments in the most reasonable possible way"

"chatbots are useless" is wrong. They're very, very useful, for a certain kind of person:

Moisture retention, biodiversity, weed suppression, soil building--density has a lot to offer. Plus, we're growing on a small suburban lot, so we'll grow as densely as the plants allow.

Happy to answer any questions, if you have any. I'm sharing all the learning from lived experience I wish I'd had access to when we started.

Each plant was insulated with leaves and wrapped, and although we did not lose any plants, most died back at least half their height and several died all the way back to the ground. We are hoping that the roots are well-established enough that a full dieback to the ground will not seriously reduce their fig production. What we learned in next photo--

-Microclimates matter more than wrapping: Although fully wrapped, our large Chicago Hardy died back on the side with more exposure to wind and cold, unlike the side partially sheltered by neighboring evergreen shrubs. The thickness of the branches, 2-3 times thicker than the interior branches, did not compensate for their relative exposure; only the thinner, sheltered branches survived. -Wrapping materials did not seem to make a difference: We used a tarp, bush covers, a kids carseat travel bag, and an old hammock. Trapped moisture and subsequent mold can be a problem with wrapping figs for the winter, and indeed we had our first case of mold with the fig wrapped in the synthetic travel bag. -Give figs ample time to wake up after a cold winter and cool spring. We are only lightly pruning in order to preserve as many nodes as will reawaken, and have been surprised by some growth on sections we thought might have been dead. Of the species we're growing, Desert King are most affected by dieback since their largest crop in our climate is the breba crop grown on last year's growth. Going forward, we may focus on wrapping the DKs and cutting the other varieties to the ground then tarping. I'll give updates about growth and fig production over the course of the summer.

Growing in-ground figs in zone 6b, Buffalo, NY:
This winter was the coldest in several years, so we got to see how well our in-ground Chicago Hardy, Brown Turkey, Desert King, and VdB would overwinter. Here's what we learned (in alt text):

#ediblelandscape #forestgarden #permaculture #foodforest

NYC wants to turn vacant lots into pocket parks Busted vacant lots like this one could become a little park under a plan pitched by Mayor Eric Adams. Mayor Eric Adams pitched the plan as part of next year's city budget. [ more › ]

NYC wants to turn vacant lots into pocket parks https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-wants-to-turn-vacant-lots-into-pocket-parks

Front yard food forest guild: around 10 varieties of currants and gooseberries, elderberry, rhubarb, asparagus, white alpine strawberries, feverfew, echinacea, butterfly weed, and columbine.
New dead-hedge fence for the deer, rabbits, and groundhog.

#ediblelandscaping #forestgarden #permaculture

The flavor is delicious but there tends to be more seed than flesh, in case that matters to you. I like them slightly dried on the tree because it brings out the sweetness. I use slight dehydration with haskaps, too, to bring out their sweetness.

Rain-soaked serviceberry, american plum firstfruits, nannyberry blossoms

#nativeplants #nativegardens #foodforest #permaculture #wny