Food Forest Design Minnesota

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Food Forest Design Minnesota

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Food Forest Design Minnesota strives to convert as many existing lawns & farmlands into diverse, plentiful, and easy-to-maintain food forests.

FFDM has perfected an eco-design system that enables you to transform your space into a thriving edible oasis Hi, I'm Travis, a founding partner of Food Forest Abundance. We at FFA design and install food forests and edible landscapes. Our company helps individuals, communities, and organizations transform barren or underutilized land into thriving, sustainable food forests. We combine cutting-edge permaculture design techniques, sustainable growing practices, and a passion for nourishing the earth to create beautiful and productive ecosystems. Growing Freedom One Seed at a Time! We see a huge demand for sustainable food sources, as well as for green spaces that enhance the quality of our soil, enhance life, and promote community involvement. With our team of experts and a proven track record of successful installations, we're poised to meet this demand and make a positive impact on the world. Since our launch on Earth Day 2021, we have designed food forests for customers in 46 states and 17 countries, including resorts in Thailand, large farms in Africa, and single-family residences from Poland to Mexico and all around the United States. Our professional food forest designers can design in any location around the world. In 2023, investing in sustainable agriculture will be the smartest financial decision you can make, not only because it aligns with your values but also because it has the potential to yield high returns long term. Pricing is based on the desired size of your design (not your total lot size)

09/26/2026

What if our yards did more than just look good?

What if they actually fed our families?

Imagine walking through a Minnesota neighborhood where apple trees, cherries, plums, pears, berries, herbs, and pollinator plants are part of the landscape instead of endless stretches of grass.

That’s the idea behind edible landscaping and food forests.

Plant once. Build healthy soil. Design with nature. Then let the system become more productive year after year.

A well-designed food forest can provide:

🍎 Fresh fruit for years to come
🫐 Berries, herbs, and perennial foods
🐝 Habitat for bees and beneficial insects
🌳 Shade and cooler outdoor spaces
🌱 Healthier soil and greater biodiversity
👨‍👩‍👧 A place for kids to learn where food really comes from
🥕 Greater food security right outside your door

To me, landscaping should be more than decorative.

It should have a purpose.

It should feed people, support wildlife, improve the land, and reconnect families with the natural world around them.

That’s what we do at Food Forest Design Minnesota.

We turn ordinary landscapes into beautiful, productive ecosystems designed for Minnesota’s climate.

You don’t need a farm.

You just need a piece of ground and a better plan.

🌱 **Foodify Your Yard.**

If you’re ready to transform your property into something beautiful, productive, and edible, send Food Forest Design Minnesota a message.

09/22/2026

🎙️ AVAILABLE AS A GUEST

I’m currently looking to connect with podcast hosts who are interested in conversations around regenerative development, food security, sustainable communities, entrepreneurship, AI, and building scalable systems with real-world impact.

I’m Travis Holzem, founder of Food Forest Design Minnesota, creator of the Food Forest Design Network, and the developer behind Sovereign Acres, a 150-acre sustainable living concept in southern Minnesota.

Sovereign Acres is being designed as more than a real estate project. It brings together regenerative land development, sustainable housing, food forests, food security, intentional community design, and resilient infrastructure into one integrated model. The long-term vision is to create a proof of concept that can be replicated in other regions.

My background is a little different because it bridges both the physical and digital worlds. I’ve spent years designing and installing food forest systems, and I also bring more than 25 years of experience in web development, e-commerce, SEO, digital marketing, automation, and AI systems.

That combination has shaped how I think about scale: not just how to design better land, but how to build the technology, systems, networks, and infrastructure needed to expand a mission.

I’m also a Marine veteran and entrepreneur, so I can speak to resilience, reinvention, leadership, building from the ground up, and staying committed to a long-term vision.

Some of the conversations I’d enjoy exploring include Sovereign Acres, regenerative real estate, food security, food forest design, sustainable communities, the growth of the Food Forest Design Network, AI and automation, entrepreneurship, veteran perspectives, and how technology can support mission-driven development.

If you host a podcast, interview series, panel, or online show and think this would be a good fit for your audience, send me a DM. I’d be glad to connect and set up a conversation.

09/16/2026

DAY 7 - SOVEREIGN ACRES, AI AND THE BIGGER VISION

Founder Interview Series - Day 7

𝗤: 𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁. 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗮𝗽 𝘂𝗽, 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀?

I'll finish this series with where I ultimately hope all of this leads.

Food Forest Design Minnesota is a veteran-owned business, and many of the values I carried forward from my time in the Marine Corps, self-reliance, preparedness, resilience, service, and building something bigger than yourself are deeply connected to this mission.

My other background is technology.

I began building websites and working with SEO in 1998 and have spent nearly three decades watching technology evolve from hand-coded websites to WordPress, automation, CRM systems, and now artificial intelligence.

I don't believe regenerative living requires rejecting technology.

I believe we can use the most advanced technology available to help us reconnect with something incredibly fundamental:

Land. Food. Community. Self-reliance.

That's part of the thinking behind Sovereign Acres, a regenerative community concept I'm developing for southern Minnesota.

The larger vision brings together food forests, regenerative agriculture, sustainable and alternative housing, renewable energy, water management, education, technology, and community into one integrated system.

Sovereign Acres can also become a living laboratory and demonstration site for the Food Forest Design Network showing what these ideas look like when they're implemented at community scale.

And we're beginning to use the newest AI, automation, digital design, and mapping technologies to help make that vision more efficient, accessible, and scalable.

My goal is ambitious but simple:

Use everything I've learned from the Marines, from technology, from business, and from regenerative design to help build a healthier, more resilient, more self-reliant Minnesota.

Then build a model others can replicate.

Minnesota can be the proving ground.

But it doesn't have to be the finish line.

#𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗱 #𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘁𝗮 #𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 #𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 #𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 #𝗦𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘀

09/15/2026

DAY 6 - BUILDING THE FOOD FOREST DESIGN NETWORK

Founder Interview Series - Day 6

𝗤: 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱, 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲? 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻?

Food Forest Design Minnesota was never intended to be the end of the idea.
It's becoming the starting point.

One of the projects I'm developing is the Food Forest Design Network—a nationwide network of qualified designers and installers supported by shared infrastructure.

Training.
Design standards.
Technology.
Business systems.
Lead generation.
Education.

Regional professionals who actually understand their climate.

My goal is to help professionalize and expand food forest design so homeowners don't have to hope they happen to find the right permaculture designer nearby.

Minnesota can become the proving ground.

The Food Forest Design Network is how we begin taking what works here and helping people build similar systems throughout the country.

Imagine food forest professionals serving communities across every growing region in America.

That's where I want to take this.

09/15/2026

Foodify Our Schools

What if more schools turned part of their unused land into food forest ecosystems?

Instead of students only learning about food, nutrition, science, and the environment from a textbook, they could actually grow food, build healthy soil, plant fruit trees and berries, learn about pollinators, harvest produce, compost, and understand where their food comes from.

A school food forest can become a living outdoor classroom while also producing fresh, nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, herbs, and berries that could help supplement school meals.

This is the kind of practical education that can stay with children for the rest of their lives. They learn how ecosystems work, how to grow food, how to care for the land, and how much can be produced from even a relatively small space.

If you have children in school, consider bringing this idea to your school board, superintendent, teachers, or parent organization. Ask them to look at unused or underused areas of the school property and imagine what those spaces could become.

We have an opportunity to teach the next generation skills that improve health, strengthen local food security, and reconnect children with the food they eat.

Let’s turn more schoolyards into living classrooms. Food Forest Design Minnesota

09/14/2026

DAY 5 - FOOD FORESTS AREN'T JUST WILD GARDENS

Founder Interview Series - Day 5

𝗤: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲?

Probably how intentional they are.

A food forest isn't simply letting the yard grow wild.

A properly designed system considers:

Canopy layers.
Root systems.
Pollination.
Nitrogen fixation.
Water movement.
Soil biology.
Pest pressure.
Harvest timing.
Access.
Plant relationships.

And how the entire system changes as it matures.

The other surprise is scale.

These principles can work in a small urban yard, a suburban property, a school, a community site, a farm, or hundreds of acres.

The goal isn't simply to grow food.

It's to design an ecosystem that becomes increasingly established, productive, and resilient with time.

That's when your property stops being something you simply maintain.
It becomes a productive asset.

09/12/2026

DAY 4 - DESIGNING FOOD FORESTS IN MINNESOTA

Founder Interview Series - Day 4

Q: 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘁𝗮?

Minnesota forces you to respect the seasons.

Spring through fall is our primary installation season, with spring and early fall being especially valuable planting windows.

But winter isn't really the off-season.

It's the planning season.

That's when we can work through designs, property analysis, plant selections, sourcing strategies, and installation planning.

When the ground thaws, we're ready.

Spring becomes site preparation and planting.

Summer becomes establishment and water management.

Fall gives us another excellent opportunity for trees and shrubs to begin establishing roots before winter.

So winter doesn't stop the food forest business.

It simply changes what part of the system we're building.

Address

13137 Gable Lane
Apple Valley, MN
55118

Telephone

+16513500979

Website

https://foodforestdesignmn.com/

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