Summary:
No one ever fertilises a forest, no one ever removes weeds - heck, no one even waters a forest - but it all just seems to work, and these forests provide home and food for a vast majority of our planet’s species. A food forest is just what it sounds like -- an edible garden, comprised of different species, growing together with minimal intervention, just like a forest. Of course, since you are looking at building a forest which will provide food - you need to choose a lot of fruit plants, perennial vegetables, edible herbs and medicinal plants in your mix of plants. To summarise, when you are planning to create a food forest, you need to draw up a list of plants you want in your food forest, they should be diverse, they should have different heights, and they should ideally be species which are known to thrive well locally. Prepare the land with enough organic matter while setting up the food forest, instead of waiting for nature to take its course (which would take a long time)..