Cornell Plantations offers tour of MacDaniels Nut Grove on Sept. 26

Horticulture and natural resources students in last year's class, Practicum in Forest Farming, plant a young pawpaw tree among the older specimens in the recently reinvigorated MacDaniels Nut Grove, which will be the site of a Cornell Plantations tour this Sunday, Sept. 26. Kenneth Mudge/Provided

Cornell Plantations, in association with Cornell's Department of Horticulture, will offer a guided tour of the MacDaniels Nut Grove on Sunday, Sept. 26, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Kenneth Mudge, associate professor of horticulture, will lead the tour, which is free and open to the public.

The MacDaniels Nut Grove is a forest farming and agroforestry research and education site located in the Upper Cascadilla Natural Area of Cornell Plantations. This five-acre site adjacent to Cornell Orchards originally was established in the 1930s as a test site for temperate nut trees, such as hickory, walnut, chestnut and filbert, by pioneering horticulturist L.H. MacDaniels.

In 2002 researchers and students began renovating the neglected site with the expanded mission of developing a functioning forest farming teaching, research and demonstration center available to all. Forest farming at the MacDaniels Nut Grove includes not only studying nut tree culture, but also growing edible mushrooms, medicinal herbs, small fruits and native North American persimmon and pawpaw trees.

The tour will begin at the Mann Library Annex parking lot on Palm Road, off Route 366 near Cornell Orchards. Although the tour is free, advance registration is requested. To register, call Cornell Plantations at 255-2400.

More information about forest farming and the MacDaniels collection is at this Web site: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/mudge/macnut/.