Silver Tree Forest is a permaculture nursery and forest farm located in the hamlet of Owasco, NY.
Nestled in a high valley in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, Silver Tree Forest Farm is a highly diversified, 6-acre micro farm founded in 2016 by Peter & Erin Konuma. Our mission is to regenerate ecosystems, landscapes, and soils through diverse and profitable farm enterprises that benefit all beings. We focus on producing nutrient-dense food, offering inspiring on-farm experiences and providing affordable access to farmland.
Using the tools of permaculture design, regenerative agriculture and holistic management, we cultivate human-scale, ecological production systems including perennial forest gardens, no-till market gardens, poultry silvopasture, useful plant nurseries and mushroom yards. Our products include vegetables, flowers, mushrooms, eggs, herbs, honey, seedlings, fruit trees, berry bushes, and tinctures for sale on farm, online or though our CSA program.
We envision the broad-acre restoration of monoculture farmlands into bio-diverse, abundant and highly useful perennial ecosystems stewarded by farmers and their local communities. Mimicking the oak savannahs and old-growth forests stewarded by indigenous people on this land before European colonization, we observe and encourage beneficial relationships between plants, animals, humans and the soil, designing polycultures of resilient species that maximize function, beauty and abundance. Nourishing life is our passion!
We believe that humans are just one participant in the cooperative, interdependent network of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms that make up our living world. As stewards of this land, we feel we have not only a right, but a responsibility to actively participate in the creative design, implementation and management of productive biological systems that meet our needs and produce a surplus of useful, edible crops and ecosystems services that benefit all. We practice and share our experiences with our community, inspiring others to co-create a human culture deeply rooted in our relationship with (as part of) nature.
Serving our community as a demonstration of a human-scale, highly diversified micro farm, we increase soil fertility, store carbon and support biodiversity, all while providing food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizers, “farmaceuticals” and fun.* Basically, we strive to cultivate conditions conducive to life and let nature thrive!
* Thanks to Dave Jacke for this description of the products of a forest garden.
