Fruit and nut trees might be the best investment you can make.

How so?

Earlier this week I visited A Natural Farm down in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.

The owners, Luke and Sonia, showed me around the nursery and the food forest. The food forest is ten years old and has a few dozen trees in it. Luke shared that just one of his avocado trees gave him at least 300 fruits this year.

Can you imagine? What’s an organic avocado worth?

Well, I looked up what they cost at Whole Foods and found they were $2.99 each.

Think about that! $897 worth of fruit on a single tree… and that was just this year.

And it was just one of about a dozen avocado trees in their little food forest. They also grew mangos, lychee, improved loquats, mulberries, persimmons, peaches and a lot more.

They must harvest something like $20,000 per year in organic fruit. All because they planted those trees a decade ago.

This is possible in most climates. The fruit and nut species will vary, but the yields can be good even in colder climates.

Up north you can grow apples and pawpaws, lingonberries, blueberries, pears, plums, chestnuts, walnuts and many other good fruits.

Down south you can grow peaches and Japanese persimmons and pecans, or even further south, mangoes and bananas and sugar apples.

The trick is to actually do it. To start planting.

To make your soil work for you.

Do you think the cost of groceries is going to be less ten years from now, or more?

Spending $30-100 on a fruit tree is better than buying groceries.

Seriously!

How far does that go at the supermarket? That’s some pork chops, a watermelon, a bag of apples, some milk and eggs, a loaf of bread, and maybe some Cheez Doodles, if you’re the orange-fingered type.

And once you eat that food, it’s gone forever. You can’t leave an empty egg carton out on the counter and have it grow more eggs for you. And if your Cheez Doodles have babies, you probably need to call an exorcist.

Yet a fruit tree keeps producing year… after year… after year!

Just something to think about as we head into an uncertain future.

And remember, fall is a good time to plant fruit trees.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve helped over 50 people start food forests in my private community. If you’d like a complete gardening education and direct help getting your food supply secured, come and join us. It’s cheaper than taking a date to Wendy’s.

We have regular live Zoom teaching, a full video food forest course, exclusive videos, a plant swap and a lot more.

Even if you have a small yard, you can do this. Grow food for your future self – it’s one of the best investments you can make.

This month, you can even join for a free one-week trial and watch all the videos and ask all the questions you want.

See you there!

NOTE: If you missed Scrubfest III, I’ve now posted all the presentations in the community Classroom. If you sign up for an annual membership, you get 20% off the monthly subscription price, plus all the talks and the in-depth food forest course.

Here’s the complete video at A Natural Farm: