Eyler Farmstead Agroforestry – Michael Judd & ecologia Design
We documented Michael Judd and Ecologia Design’s transformation of the historic Eyler Farmstead in the Blue Ridge Mountains into a regenerative agroforestry system.
- Client: Ecologia Design, Michael Judd
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Deliverables: Stills + video documentation for education, outreach, and promotional use
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Location: Eyler Farmstead, Blue Ridge Mountains
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Services Provided: Photography, video documentation, post-production
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Client Use: Ecologia Design education, outreach, and brand storytelling
Abstract
We provided still and video documentation for Ecologia Design and Michael Judd’s agroforestry project at the Eyler Farmstead in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This work captures the transition of a once-logged and grazed property into a diverse food forest designed to last for generations. Judd’s approach combines water-harvesting earthworks, soil restoration, and multi-layered planting of fruit, nut, and medicinal species. Northern pecans, hybrid chestnuts, hickories, persimmons, pawpaws, and other carefully sourced genetics form the overstory, while understory and mid-story plants—such as Juneberries, hawthorns, and redbuds—add habitat and diversity. Pollinators like mountain mint and false indigo bush, groundcovers, and organic mulch build a thriving ecosystem that regenerates itself over time. The design’s intent is abundance: ecological health, long-term food resilience, and a regional genetic resource that will spread far beyond the Eyler Farmstead.
Transcript
Here in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the old John Isler farmstead, we are planting the future with fruits and nuts, medicinal and useful plants in an agroforestry setting where we are taking these open, denuded landscapes that were used for cattle, logging, and agriculture—landscapes that caused erosion, loss of water, and topsoil.
We have designed water-harvesting systems on contour throughout the landscape. Basins and berms catch rainfall, slow erosion, and build soil, while plantings of large overstory nut trees—northern pecans, hybrid chestnuts, hickories, persimmons, pawpaws—introduce resilient genetics sourced from across the country. These trees, combined with understory and mid-story plantings like Juneberries, hawthorns, and redbuds, diversify habitat and food sources. Pollinator species such as false indigo bush and mountain mint ensure ecological health, while wood chips, straw, and green manure groundcovers jumpstart soil life and fungal networks.
The design is built for long-term resilience, requiring little intervention while seeds spread across the region. What was once eroded farmland is now a thriving food forest, designed to provide abundance for the Eyler Farmstead and the surrounding community for generations to come.
