Food Forest RESILIENCE This is a story of navigating with integrity when things go sideways. In my second full season of building my food forest I was super excited to find FoodForestNursery.com as an amazing resource for native species and an impressive array of trees and shrubs I was thrilled to add as food and wildlife habitat. I placed my order in December and readied myself to welcome the additions in early March. Right on time, my tracking link appeared in my email alerting me my carefully selected 18 new friends were on their way, anticipated in a few days. The short version of this extended journey is at 2.5 weeks, they were deemed officially lost and we were alerted we should file a claim. Despite the disappointment and frustration, the nursery had already put together a complimentary replacement shipment, which was on its way. The evening before the replacement arrival, without any notice, the original shipment arrived, 23 days since shipment. The label and box were in pristine condition, so it is baffling how it went missing and was deemed lost for close to a month. Though weeks past its anticipated delivery, when I checked their roots, they were still damp in their carefully packaged moist sawdust. I held my breath as I gently scraped a bit of bark away from each of the 18 precious specimens to see if they were still alive. Every single one of them was green underneath! INCREDIBLE! I soaked the roots for several hours as I prepped all the planting sites. Some of their roots looked darker and potentially not as viable as they would have if they had arrived on time. But they clearly had been raised and nurtured with TLC and were determined to live their best plant life, so I wasted no time planting them with mycorrhizal fungi and kelp, tucking them in with compost and mulch. Phenomenally, several had tiny leaf buds just starting to open. When the replacement shipment arrived the next day, those roots were clearly fresher (having been packed only a couple days before), and I repeated the process, getting them into the ground so they could begin to wake up in their new home. A couple days later and after their first rainfall, I am inspired by their resilience. Two in the initial shipment had arrived with a couple tender leaves that had paled and wilted in the weeks of darkness, and in that short time in the ground, they had greened up and started to look feisty. A few leaf buds have even opened. Too early to tell how they will all fare, but wow, am I impressed with Food Forest Nursery on so many levels. I would sum it up with this: RESILIENCE. · They raise strong stock and set them up for success as bare root plants--staying viable weeks past their delivery window. · Their roots are packaged carefully and incredibly stayed moist for the unanticipated 3.5-week odyssey. · In full integrity, FoodForestNursery.com honors their word and cares for their clients, clearly communicating throughout the process and insuring we get a replacement shipment when the first delivery goes sideways. And that's the essence of an admirable brand: how they navigate when things don't go as anticipated. It's easy when everything happens as it should. But food foresters know, every day is an adventure. The key to thriving, even in uncertainty, is resilience. I am incredibly appreciative to Food Forest Nursery for their resilience and the resilience of their stock! read more

Since Spring 2022, I have ordered 20 different varieties of bare root trees and shrubs from Food Forest Nursery, several items of some varieties. And they have all arrived in excellent condition and thrived. I have ordered and bought on site from a number of nurseries, but the plants I buy from Food Forest Nursery have the best survival and growth rate by far. I highly recommend. read more