The Nutty Buddy Collective is an Asheville-based agroecological organization established in 2014 with the goal of working with community partners to bring native crops to local tables at an economically viable scale, in an ecologically viable way.

We’re working for the profit of our planet, our community, and future generations. While there are many branches to this effort, our primary work is the conversion of underutilized land in Western North Carolina to diverse, native nut-centered orchards, secured under long-term lease agreements.

As a collective, we are trying to emulate the forest ecosystem we so admire. Productive, generous, regenerative, interdependent, stable, low-input, non-exploitative. We share work, investment, and profit, and each of us fills a niche in the ecosystem of our organization. We work cooperatively with landowners and community members to secure land access and to build a culture and economy of perennial crops. We are dedicated to exploring the idea that forest agriculture can be a life-giving force for both community and ecology.

Our work:

• Establish and maintain long-term plantings of native and well-adapted nuts, fruits, and other perennial crops

• Partner with conservation-minded landowners who have underutilized land to develop long-term lease agreements
• Collect, cultivate, and breed improved varieties of underutilized native crops
• Explore and develop models of resilient, ecological, economically viable agriculture, agricultural training, and long-term land access