Spotlight - The Redbud Tree

The Redbud Tree is one of my favorites.  We have four of them in our front yard and they fill the space with beauty every spring.  They seem to be everywhere in this part of the state and thrive with very little attention.  With the tree being so plentiful, I had to wonder if there were any particular uses for it other than the most obvious – it being so lovely and pleasing to the eye. 

In the course of my research I found out that you can eat the flowers in the springtime and the new, soft green seedpods in the fall.  Wow.  It is a member of the legume family and shares many things in common with the pea.  The flowers, which have been described as having a sweet and slightly nutty flavor, can be eaten by themselves, mixed in with salads or other foods, or even made into jelly or relish.  In the fall when the seedpods are young and tender, they can be eaten raw or cooked like peas.   Like many legumes, the seedpods contain nutrients such as protein, iron and some complex carbohydrates.

 The picture above shows some young seedpods on one of the Redbud trees in our yard.  They look very similar to peas.

Since Redbud trees are usually under twenty feet tall, they makes a good under canopy tree in the forest.   That is not only true for the forests in parks, but also the food forest you might want to start at home.  Whether you’re just looking for an easy to grow tree to add some dimension to your yard, you’re trying to start a food forest and need some canopy trees, or you just want to something aesthetically pleasing, relatively long lived, and easy to care for that will come in handy if things every get really tough, you might consider the Redbud tree.

More on Edible Forest Gardens

I know that Jennifer has already posted several videos related to forest gardening, but while looking around at other topics, I stumbled back on some related articles.  After reading for a while, my enthusiasm was peaked and I’m going to bog you down with some more potential information on the subject. 

I spent a lot of the morning thinking about where on our property would be the ideal location.  We have eighteen acres, it shouldn’t be too hard, right?  What I have come up with (and not told my husband yet) is that our front yard is the perfect spot!  It is close enough for the kids and I to monitor and water easily, gets plenty of morning sun, some afternoon shade and must have decent soil because everything I stick out there seems to thrive.  The only problem is that we already have more than a dozen ornamental trees there and they’re just too lovely for me to dig up.  This is where our plum trees flourish though, as well as some mint (and roses, and irises, and chrysanthemums).   You may be getting the idea that the yard is pretty full.  I’m still working out the details in my mind, but am sure that it can be successfully done.  The result will be a combination of bountiful harvest and flowering beauty.  How’s that for a goal?

Do I have you interested yet?  Here are the links that energized my thoughts last night.  The reading is lengthy and can get a little heavy, but it’s well worth the time.

http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/about_gardening

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_gardening

I hope I have provided some food for thought! 

Tim Gamble: How To Make a Forest Garden, part two

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I just stumbled onto Tim's blog, which covers many topics, including gardening, homesteading, and prepping. He wrote a three part series on forest gardening that I just love. It does a fantastic job of describing how to build a food forest. Rather than retread ground that he has already covered, I'll post his series here, and blog myself about building a food forest specifically in Texoma at a future date. Dig around Tim's blog if you have time. There's lots more to read!

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