Working Toward Food and Fuel Independence

Ben Falk is a busy guy. He’s got a business to run and he’s busy transforming his ten acres in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, into a living-laboratory and demonstration farm.

Ben is the founder of Whole Systems Design, an innovative landscape architecture firm that works with families to make their homes…into homesteads. He helps landowners (on as little as an acre) turn their front-yards, back-yards, and abandoned fields and woods into gardens, orchards, pastures, even fish ponds.

Ben’s work with Whole Systems Design is aimed at folks that want bountiful harvests all season long and want to store food the way their grandparents did. These families are planning for the days when food and energy will be more expensive or less available. Ben and his clients are putting priority on the basics–food, warmth, and shelter. But these yards and landscapes also provide for today, introducing children to the fun and reward of working with the land, saving money on food bills, and inspiring others. His Mad River Valley Research Farm is Exhibit A for the possibilities.

Ben is one of the first people in this cold part of the country to grow rice. As you walk his property, you’ll see broiler chickens, weeder ducks, and a handful of Icelandic sheep all playing a part in a densely packed landscape that’s producing tons of food—peaches, plums, hazelnuts, pears, and a variety of vegetables!

Firewood is vital to Ben’s system. He burns wood to heat his house. He burns wood to heat his woodshop. He burns wood to heat his hot water tank, too. And when he’s got a quiet evening, he fires up a wood stove to take a sauna. Ben’s even experimenting with fast-growing hardwoods like Black Locust for future firewood crops! He says—”can we grow enough firewood to support a family winter after winter on as little as 10 acres? We think we can.”

Learn more about what you can do on your property and check out what Ben is doing on his at wholesystemsdesign.com