Chestnuts and Pawpaws at Wyoming Farm
We have three acres of delicious chestnut and pawpaw trees planted for what is the basis of our permaculture-inspired pick your own food forest. We want to serve the community of Clinton, MD and the Washington, DC area by providing nutritional food grown in a natural and beautiful way.
Permaculture is a design theory for agriculture and human habitation based on the words “permanent” and “culture”, meaning it is very sustainable. It is known for trying to work with nature rather than in opposition to nature. This style of agriculture is similar to that of Native Americans who are now thought to have played a major part in the establishment, maintenance, and expansion of chestnut and pawpaw orchards during pre-Colombian times.
In this way, our chestnuts are a great fit for us as they are low maintenance, long lived, and productive. While the American chestnut is relatively extinct due to the chestnut blight, our Chinese chestnuts mostly resistant, and are beloved by European, Balkan, and Asian cultures.
Pawpaw trees are planted underneath our chestnut trees as a sub canopy tree, as they are one of the few fruit trees that are productive in part shade. Pawpaws are the largest fruit native to North America and were George Washington’s favorite dessert. They taste to many people like a cross between a banana and mango but with a custard texture. This extra layer of production is at no cost to the canopy layer of chestnut trees while providing added revenue and diversification.
Our first trees were planted in 2016. Both chestnut and pawpaw trees take 15-20 years to mature, so our production is still quite low, but they are growing fast. We have planted three acres for a total of about 500 trees and are planning to add more. We have planted a hedge consisting of 300 native trees and shrubs around one part of our orchard, too.
Topics covered on Tour:
Permaculture - definition, examples, and grand plans
American Chestnut - the importance, the blight, and efforts to reintroduce
Pawpaws - American folk culture and recipes
Native American history - stewards of agroforestry, re-imagining Wyoming