Thirty-one-year-old Adam Rutsch lives in southern Hungary and is the founder of the Fangorn Tree Nursery.
Can you tell us how you came up with the name for the tree nursery?
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fangorn is the name of the forest where the Ents live. Ents are ‘trees’ that can walk and talk. Treebeard is their leader, the oldest living thing in Middle Earth. Ents fascinated me as a child and they still do, so this is why I picked the name for the nursery/orchard.
What is your background in planting and growing trees?
My love of nature is as old as I am. Growing up with grandparents who spent most of their days on the land, growing vegetables, fruits and grape for wine highly impacted me. When they died, my urge to continue/do something similar got stronger, so I decided to get a small piece of land using my savings and to start farming. I was always fascinated by pecan trees for unknown reasons, so I decided to establish the second pecan orchard in Hungary.
How large an area are you working with? What are the climate, soil conditions?
The land is 0,86 hectare and I can farm on around 0,8. This means I can accommodate 50 pecan seedlings and roughly five rows 80 to 100 meters long and 7 meters wide. The soil is mainly loess and clay with a rich topsoil (around 50 cm). Due to climate change, winters are shorter than they used to be, and the temperature is higher. The summers are usually dry with lots of sun. I am working on ideas for a water-capture system so I can collect and store rainwater for the summer watering.
What are your long-term plans?
I have a lot of plans for the future, including creating a public food source—a forest—to help local people achieve food security and improve their health. One day I hope to hire someone as a full-time worker on an actual living wage, a situation that is currently nonexistent in the agricultural sector. Workers are usually underpaid. A more long-term plan is to run for mayor in my village, because all the former leadership did nothing for the people or for nature. Other goals include expanding my orchard, getting more land and growing other species like sweet chestnuts and walnuts—all this in permaculture settings.
What are your short-term plans?
Until the pecans start producing nuts, I will grow vegetables between the rows. Already in the ground are 40 kg of garlic and two short rows of spinach. In the spring I will add pumpkins, gourds, and peppers. Under the pecan trees, I hope to grow pecan truffles, which I am still waiting to receive. Hopefully, I can find markets for these products and generate an income to support my future plans.
I also plan to set up a small tree nursery next spring, with coniferous species. I really love pines, so establishing a pinetum—arboretum for pines—is among my plans. For food I wish to grow various nuts, as they need no or very minimal pruning and care—very easy to grow. The nursery will sell these seedlings while also distributing them for free to those in need and planting them in public spaces/unused lands.
Where do you get your seeds and seedlings?
Getting the seeds can be tricky. I get them from webshops and with the help of my friends in different countries. At the moment, I am waiting for an order of two varieties of hazelnut and pecan seeds. In the future I wish to establish and maintain a seed-sharing network.
If I want to donate $50, what can that buy you?
With $50 I can buy hundreds of seeds from most species; there are some not on my list because they are expensive. Luckily, the currency exchange works in my favor.
Everyone interested in supporting Adam Rutsch’s efforts to help his community grow and become healthier can donate at PayPal or ko-fi.com. Reach him at fangorntreenursery@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter.
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