Number 1. Grow the trees. Harvest the trees. Sell the wood for money. Use that money to buy the food from someone else. Done that. And so have others here on the DOW. Growing your own trees needs a largish timbered plot for the annual regrowth to match the take-off that is needed for a years worth of food. Plus . . . the Gov’mint money exchanges taxes.
Number 2. Grow trees. Trees that can bear fruits, nuts, food oils (nut, olive, etc.), harvest-able edible saps like maple, birch . . . This is re-using the same tree over and over again. Those trees will even supply annual a certain amount of wood in pruning, wind/ice breakage and limb drought-dropping. BillS in Minnesota is doing this. Ha! With now a bit of tree-made food exchanged back into fuel wood on barter. To save his food-making trees.
Number 3. Grow trees. Harvest the trees. Use the fuel wood from the harvested trees to heat greenhouse around the year forced growing spaces. With wood/char-gas generate electricity to forced grow light that space. Proven concepts now. Kristian in Slovenia with a whole topic up doing this. David Baille in Canada doing this.
Number 4. Grow the trees. Use the tree material processed to direct grow mushrooms/edible fungi. Most folks under appreciate this fourth way. Doing number 1, and number 3, you Will have saw chips, bump cut-offs, stubs, natural rot-pockets that will accumulate and make your mushroom feeding bed. Easy to culture. Then you control the mushroom types for safety and productivity. “Spent” mushroom growth media is excellent in a garden later as a soil conditioner. Many books on this.
More ways I am sure. I listed the do-direct, at-home, DIY ones.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
