Specialty Crop

SFF was created to provide ‘Public Food in Public Places.’ Local residents harvest—at no cost—perennial fruits, vegetables, and herbs, including strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears, cherries, plums, asparagus, and garlic.

A thicket has been established to mimic the flowering plum, serviceberry, and chokecherry bushes that populate draws and gullies in and around Sheridan.

SFF has also established a native elderberry patch and pollinator gardens (including one with all native plants) and performs a census each year to track bees and other beneficial insects that pollinate the fruit trees and berry bushes. The forest provides food and habitat for birds, frogs, toads, and other wildlife.

Piney Island Native Plants and Sheridan Food Forest volunteers collaborated with Northern Cheyenne tribal member Linwood Tall Bull and his son, Randall, to create a traditional medicinal and plant food garden in the Food Forest. Participants hope that this becomes a meeting place to share cultural activities and local foods.