Free Fruit, Berries, Nuts Found At Food Forest In Havre De Grace

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — Residents can pick fresh fruit, nuts and berries for free from a 2.63-acre food forest growing on city-owned land at Todd Park.

The Havre de Grace Green Team and volunteers care for the food forest, which was established in 2016 with a grant from the Maryland Urban Community Forestry Committee. At that time, volunteers planted numerous trees and shrubs that yield edible produce and nuts on the plot at 117 Seneca Avenue.

Havre de Grace Director of Administration Christopher Ricci told Patch that the city renewed the longstanding program's memorandum of understanding at the Oct. 5 meeting.

At that meeting, Danielle Wolfe, president of the Havre de Grace Green Team's board of directors, told the city council the food forest remains popular in town.

Since the initial plantings in fall 2016, Wolfe said the group has added more trees and bushes each year. Species planted at the food forest include serviceberry, blueberry, apple, peach, persimmon, pawpaw, fig, elderberry and plum.

“We consider the stewardship of this program to be a great privilege and thank the city for their support over the past decade," Wolfe said at the meeting.

According to the Green Team's website, the vision for the food forest is for community members to plant and maintain it, observe and learn from it season after season, and harvest edible produce as the plants mature.

"The food forest was planted with sustainability in mind. It is an ongoing source of fruit, nuts, berries and other plants that add to and do not deplete the earth’s natural resources. The plantings provide habitat for other species, including pollinators that are essential to our food system.

"The food forest also contributes to the environment by adding to the forest canopy, an important step in addressing global warming, and to enhancing the green cover of the land for watershed management," the Green Team states on its website.

The Green Team will be hosting a food forest open house and native plant swap Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at Todd Park. Residents are encouraged to bring a native plant or seed to share or swap.