Plant These 8 Trees Once, Eat for 300 Years

About this video

• Video Title: Plant These 8 Trees Once, Eat for 300 Years
• Channel: Sidney Explains
• Speakers: Sidney
• Duration: 18:57

Overview

This video advocates for planting perennial food-producing trees as a long-term food security strategy, contrasting them with annual crops. It highlights eight specific trees that offer significant yields, nutritional value, and resilience, emphasizing their ability to provide food for decades or even centuries with minimal maintenance once established.

Key takeaways

• Perennial Food Systems: Trees provide a sustainable food source that requires planting only once, offering food for generations, unlike annual crops that need yearly replanting and harvesting.
• Eight Key Trees for Long-Term Food Security: The video details eight trees: Mulberries, Hazelnuts, Figs, Apples, Carobs, Chestnuts, Walnuts, and Oaks, outlining their unique benefits.
• Mulberries: Known for high productivity (50-80 lbs/year), minimal maintenance, and quick fruiting (3-5 years), though the fruit is delicate for shipping.
• Hazelnuts: Provide calorie-dense nuts (2800 cal/lb) with healthy fats and protein, store well for over a year, and start producing in 3-4 years, but typically require cross-pollination.
• Figs: Highly productive (100-200 lbs/year), drought and heat tolerant, produce fruit within 2-3 years, and dried figs store well for long-term consumption.
• Apples: A northern staple, yielding 200-400 lbs/year, with fresh storage of 3-6 months and dried forms lasting over a year, though they take 6-10 years to produce and often need cross-pollination.
• Carob Trees: Produce chocolate-flavored pods, are exceptionally resilient to drought, heat, and poor soil, and store for years. They require 6-8 years to start producing but offer 200-400 lbs/year with minimal maintenance in suitable climates.
• Chestnut Trees: Provide a massive yield (200-400 lbs/year) of starchy, carbohydrate-rich nuts, similar to grains, and can live for over 300 years, though they take 5-7 years to produce and 20-30 years for peak yield.
• Walnut Trees: Offer both food (50-80 lbs/year of calorie-dense nuts) and valuable timber, are hardy, and can live for 150-200 years, but take 6-10 years to start producing.
• Oak Trees: Potentially the most productive (500-1000 lbs/year of acorns), fed entire civilizations, and can live for over 300 years, though acorns require processing to remove tannins unless selecting low-tannin varieties.
• The Importance of Timing: The video stresses that the best time to plant these trees was 20 years ago, and the second best time is now, emphasizing the long lead time for production versus the immediate yields of annual crops.
• Layered Food Security: A resilient food system combines annual crops (for immediate needs), perennial crops (medium-term), and trees (long-term and multi-generational security).