Transition Town Plants Up Nut Trees for Food Security
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA 
on 05.10.08
Our readers will have to stop us if they get bored of hearing about Transition Towns because we find it hard to stop writing about them. While Oily Cassandra might be busy educating the world about peak oil in her own scantily-clad (and perhaps slightly pessimistic) way, the folks involved in the Transition movement are busy pioneering a path towards reduced fossil fuel dependence. So far we’ve interviewed Rob Hopkins, the founder of the movement, about peak oil and community resilience, we’ve seen how whole cities are stepping up to plan for power down, we’ve heard about the launch of the Transition Handbook, and we’ve celebrated as Transition Towns reach Australia. But the positive news from over the pond just keeps on coming. The latest transition-related initiative that’s caught our eye is efforts by the Totnes group to make the town the ‘Nut Tree Capital of Britain’. Much like Transition City Bristol’s ‘virtual orchard’, the idea is to use town-wide plantings to create a stock of healthy, productive trees that can serve as a great source of local food, and a buffer in times of scarcity.
The reason that the group is concentrating on nut trees is their potential to outgrow cereal crops in terms of carbohydrates, and to utilise poorer soils with fewer inputs. The group has already planted hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds across the town, and is engaging the support of both the local authorities and the surrounding community for funding, people-power and protection from vandals. It also looks like the project is proving to be a great opportunity for community building:
“We had even more volunteers on this day, 35 or so, including several children, and people who had come from surrounding towns and villages to lend a hand. We realised what enthusiasm there is for this project, how many people’s imaginations it is firing. During the planting at Bridgetown, we involved 3 boys playing nearby who undertook to be unofficial guardians of the trees. Good luck to them!. The trees at the edge of playing fields are most at the mercy of footballs and drunken revellers. We also had with us an extended family, of 4 generations, who brought with them a nut sapling they had grown from a walnut, and involved the youngest to the oldest in the planting.”
Further Reading on Transition Towns
Interview with Rob Hopkins, founder of the movement
Transition City Bristol
The Transition Handbook
Transition Towns Reach Australia
The Virtual Orchard Project
::Transition Culture::via site visit::
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I love reading about stuff like this. It makes me sad that I live in Japan... a country that most people would think to be a very community-based society. Not the case at all. In fact, my wife's parents were just discussing how terrible it is that people take food w/o permission from other peoples' farms/gardens. There is SO MUCH WASTE that there is no reason that excess vegetables shouldn't be shared with neighbors. Try even saying a friendly "konnichiwa" to your neighbor here and they look at you like you are from outer space... oh wait, I am a foreigner so that is EXACTLY what I look like! Why the heck I go off onto rants like that is beyond me....
Anyways, I love the idea of communities coming together and sharing the wealth. Make friends with your neighbor. Invite them over for dinner. Share stuff. Give people things with no expectation of receiving something back. I can't wait to have a garden back in the states -- and I plan to give away anything that my family can't consume on our own.
I look forward to more inspirational stories such as this nutty one.
I just made another note on my growing list of Things Dallas Could Do To Be Better.
I plan to be the squeaky wheel just as soon as I figure out who to squeak at...
nuts are brilliant, we should all plant more of these in public spaces...
although the council must be groaning at the thought of the autumn cleanup!