Category: Norway

Fokhol farm

The farm with an onion field and a meadow in the foreground

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In spring 2021, I got a message from Biologisk dynamisk forening that bio-dynamic farms in Norway needed seasonal workers because of Covid-19 restrictions. Since Fokhol farm was the only farm with domestic animals, I decided to go there in the last week of August.

I was met by the farmer Rune, who showed me around the house where all the volunteers were living. All of them got separate rooms and there was a kitchen where we could prepare mostly dry food with delicious yogurt from the farm’s cows.

My room had a view towards a garden with some deciduous trees where various very chatty birds could be heard, especially early in the morning.

Fokhol farm is owned by a foundation called Stiftelsen Fokhol Gård, which is an ideal and non-profit foundation. The foundation has the following objectives:
– Versatile biological-dynamic agriculture.
– Development by means of cooperation with competent partners.
– Educational activities.

The farm has about 34 cows and some heifers. During my stay, I could see some male calves in a pen where they were quite often play-fighting. Another pen had a group of female calves, which were much more quiet.

Fokhol is a biodynamic farm producing grain, potatoes, vegetables, milk, meat and fodder. They also have a small greenhouse where they are growing tomatoes and they have some bushes of redcurrant and blackcurrant, some fruit trees and some rows of flowers.

My tasks during my stay included picking redcurrants, weeding a gravel path and picking onions. I joined two workers, one from Romania and one from Poland, to pick onions in three shifts, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. While the workers apparently never got tired and always picked all the onions, I got tired, especially in the back and I never managed to pick all of the onions. Anyway, I picked a lot of of them.

Each of us had a basket, which we should fill with onions and bring them back to a trailer where we emptied the contents of the basket. When the trailer was full, one of the workers drove the tractor with the trailer to a barn. Having emptied the trailer and returned to the onion field, we did the same work again.

During my stay it was common to hear trumpet-like sounds, which were caused by cranes. The farmer Rune, who told me he had been interested in birds since he was a teenager, said that they had a nest near the farm, but he didn’t know where. Besides cranes, he had also seen common buzzard and red kite during my stay, while barn swallows were flying over the field where we were picking onions, always looking for insects. In addition, he told me that a pair of common swifts had raised a second litter of chickens and they were getting ready to migrate southwards. The birds kept the number of flies low even though the cows continually spread manure on the meadows at the farm.

There was a lot of spare time in the evenings and I went for walks in the area around the farm. First, I had to pass various meadows, many of which were covered with a wide variety of plants. Rune told me that they seeded the meadows with a mixture of 10 seeds, amongst them vetches and clover.

I also passed a pen with Ardenner workhorses . Rune said that they were only used for work when he could teach someone to use them, but there were too few volunteers this year.

The area around Fokhol was lovely, especially in the evenings just before sunset. The lake of Mjøsa could be seen in the distance and there were lots of deciduous trees between the meadows. It was beautiful and serene and I really felt like home in this area. A local an told me that it’s called the Nordic Tuscany.

When we were picking onions, the cows were let out in the morning. Then, they walked very slowly and some even slower than the other ones to a nearby meadow where they could go grazing. Some time later they came back to be milked. Some volunteers worked with the cows, letting them enter the barn and go to their separate places, giving them hay and water, cleaning the barn, harvesting milk by means of milking machines and letting them outside again.

The last days during my stay at the farm, a farm shop was opened where the public could buy the onions we had picked. Depending on the time of year, they also sell potatoes from the farm.

I would recommend to work as a volunteer at Fokhol. Some of the volunteers stayed only a week or two, but some stayed for months. One volunteer was a student at an agricultural school and she would stay several months to get practice.

A summary of a climate report in Norwegian on Fokhol farm follows below.

House-holding with plant nutrients
Norwegian agriculture is constructed to produce livestock products for domestic consumption with self-sufficiency regarding hay and fodder plants and a large part of imported fodder in terms of concentrated feeds.

Climate impact of agriculture
The climate impact of the operation at Fokhol farm is nearly 40 % lower per area unit compared to Norwegian agriculture overall. This also applies when the climate impact is related to the amount of produced nutrients in the form of energy and protein.

Organic farms, like Fokhol farm, are based on circular production with a versatile crop rotation, self sufficiency if fodder and a major area of fields set aside for growing vegetables for human consumption.

The reduced climate impact is, as with reduced loss of plant nutrients, a direct consequence of the high degree of self-sufficiency with a small supply of external resources and a limited number of livestock adapted to the amount of fodder produced at the farm.

The soil as a carbon storage
Growing meadows and adding manure, plant residues and roots to the soil after harvesting leads to binding of carbon in the organic matter.

Production at Fokhol farm
Production of foods at Fokhol farm are at a high level when expressed as energy and protein in plant and animal products. To a certain degree, it can be ascribed to the good growing conditions at the farm, but it’s also a result of an operation combining growing plants and raising livestock and a crop rotation where nourishing and consuming plants replace each other. Such cycles, where composting of manure according to bio-dynamic principles also enter into the operation, take care of plant nutrients and increases the feritility of the soil.
Growing of vegetables, root vegetables and potatoes also contribute to the productivity of the farm.

Concluding remarks
By letting other farms follow the operation at Fokhol farm and others with similar activities, threats against soil and our common future will be reduced. This applies in particular to depletion of biological diversity and the weakening of the soil’s fertility in long-term perspective. Problems with manure runoff to watercourses and the sea will be reduced, likewise the consumption of non-renewable natural resources.

26/08/2021
Dacha preparedness garden

A detail of the preparedness garden with a small greenhouse

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I’ve known about the Dacha preparedness garden for several years, but because of Covid-19, I deferred contacting them until times were more tranquil. Then, we agreed to meet in August since the garden would be in full bloom at this time of year.

The word dacha is derived from Russian, meaning a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of Russian-speaking and other post-Soviet countries

The garden is driven by Anders and Barbro Nordrum and it is next to their house on the west side of the Strond fjord next to the town of Fagernes.

I was met by Anders and he let me know about his origins, his thoughts about the preparedness garden and preparedness in general. Eating a light meal together, consisting of amongst others of bread with home-made syrup made from beetroot, Anders told me that he and his wife had made the syrup themselves.

A glass with homemade syrup and a slice of bread with syrup

It was a time-consuming process, but at least it had showed that they didn’t need to buy sugar. In addition, although sugar is cheap and in plentiful supply now, it may not last.

During our meal, he talked about his father who was responsible for radio communication during catastrophes in very poor countries.

It’s naive to think that even though we are rich and live in Norway that we will always manage by buying what we need from other countries.

He has always had a small plot of land where he has been growing vegetables and he has worked as a gardener and horticulture teacher at a gardening school for many years. Now, he’s working with horticulture in a prison in Valdres.

We are particularly vulnerable to lack of artificial fertilisers, concentrated feeds, agricultural machinery, electrical power and fuel.

During the First World War, Norway was ill prepared for the blockade of imported food, which took place. Thus, in order to be better prepared next time, Norway had a depot of grain from 1928 to 1995 and it should cover one year’s national consumption of grain. From 1996, it was gradually reduced and closed down in 2003.

When Norway was invaded by Germany in 1940, the grain depot lasted till some time in 1941. In addition, there were many more farms than nowadays, farmers still had work horses and lots of people worked at the farms.

To help people survive, the state made a brochure, which was called Mother Norway’s food book (Mor Norges matbok) and sent it to all households in Norway in 1940. It can be viewed here.

Horticulture teacher Sverre Østlie published a book called ‘Cultivating potatoes and vegetables for amateurs‘ in 1942.

Food preparedness was not mentioned in the election campaign in the autumn of 2020. The government of Mrs Solberg is satisfied because they have stress tested the supply lines, and now they are relaxing.

What happens in case of another pandemic, drought, a huge sun storm, etc.?

The garden
Being sort of grown up with preparedness, Anders wants to have a plan B if the borders are closed and supplies run out. Anyway, in such cases he plans to stay on his property and cooperate with other people to help them with getting food too.

A preparedness garden uses areas which, in any case, are not suitable for farmers and it doesn’t require resources which may be lacking in a crisis like machines, fuel, electrical power, etc.

Initially, they used manure and artificial fertiliser to give nutrition to the vegetables, but they didn’t grow well. Meanwhile, their daughter Maria had studied Russian in Russa and even lived there for 5 years. At Easter in 2011, they went to visit her and her friends. On the tenth floor of a block of flats in Archangel, they could see shelves with fertilised vegetables, berries turned into jam and potatoes in sacks, all from their own dacha.

They visited Vitalij and Jekaterina in the village of Brin-Navolok in the vicinity of Archangel in 2015. They had a dacha where they were growing vegetables and potatoes without manure because they had stopped raising domestic animals due to old age. Instead, they covered the ground of their fields with compost and grass they had mown themselves.

After having returned from visiting the dacha of Vitalij and Jekaterina in Russia, they stopped applying both manure and artificial fertilisers and started instead to cover the ground with compost and grass, which they got from a nearby football field.

Onion plants in the preparedness garden

The grass cover amended the soil by keeping the soil humid and warm and reducing weeds. Just after a few weeks, it had another structure with more earthworms, which pull the grass down into the soil and leave behind nutritious waste. In fact, there were so many earthworms that birds started picking the soil to catch them, but Anders has covered the ground with insect nets to prevent the birds from taking earthworms.

They also apply urine, diluted with water in the ratio 1:10, and an infusion from nettles, which have been infused in water for some weeks, to fertilise the vegetables during sowing and planting. Both liquids contain nitrogen and lots of minerals that are beneficial to the vegetables.

Soil needs to protect itself against erosion, and there is no black ground in nature for a long time because it will be healed by letting weeds grow there.

Maria has written a book in Norwegian about preparedness gardens with her parents as helpers.

It’s common to tend the flowers, but the book instead tells us that it’s the soil we should tend.

Barren and compact soil can be amended and everything required is available in nature.

Good soil is made by dead organic material falling to the surface of the soil and earthworms pull it into the soil. However, we have to give the earthworms a helping hand in the beginning by laying organic material like branches, potato peel, leftovers and seaweed at least 20 cm below ground. Instead, grass and wizened leaves can be laid on the ground, while compost and manure can be worked into the upper layer of the soil. Biochar can be used both on top of and in the soil, while ash can be put on the ground.

In order to have a plan B for the lawn to turn it into a preparedness garden, it is necessary to have the following: spade, pitchfork, scythe, wheelbarrow, insect net, non-woven fabric to protect the plants against frost in cold countries and last, but not least seeds.

The distance from where one lives should be limited to what can be carried by a wheelbarrow. The area of the garden should be at least 2 square metres, while the preparedness garden has an area of 200 square metres. 15-20 types of vegetables are recommended, and greater diversity gives more resilience against changing weather and insects.

Crop rotation is highly recommended to reduce plant diseases.

Anders has used hügelkultur to make beds in the preparedness garden. First, he removed some of the topsoil, next he put rotten branches where the topsoil had been, finally he covered all of it with topsoil. Hügelkultur leads to less plant diseases, it keeps the heat of the soil to some degree and it improves drainage.

While Anders and Barbro were in Russia, they got two bulbs of garlic from a Russian monk. After having brought them back to Norway, the bulbs have given rise to about 15,000 garlic all over Norway to upwards of 1000 m above sea level.

They are also growing an ancient sort of wheat, which was brought from the highlands of Mexico, where there is a short growing season. Now, other growers in Norway have also started cultivating it in the highlands of Norway.

They are growing kohlrabi together with rocket or arugula . This is a good way of lessening the impact of attacks from caterpillars of the butterfly species white or garden white.

Anders and Barbro are also broadcasting how to do a preparedness garden on their web site. The web site is chock full of advice on making a preparedness garden, growing vegetables, keeping seeds and much more.

Seeds A package of 20 seeds, consisting of cucumber, cauliflower, broad bean, broccoli, dill, kale, carrot, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, parsley, rutabaga, turnip, leek, radish, beetroot, lettuce, squash, pea, a rye called svedjerug in Norwegian or slash and burn rye, and tomato is sold at beredskapshagen.

The Norwegian company Solhatt offers about 40 types of seed for sale, all of which have been grown in Norway.

The Svalbard global seed vault contains seeds from all over the world and its purpose is to ensure genetic diversity of seeds. The amount of each type of seed is too low to be used in a time of crises.

KVANN is a Norwegian NGO where the members take care of and grow seeds.

Norgro sells a variety of seeds.

Two sorts of peas
There are many vegetables in the garden and two of them are a sort of peas called ‘Jærert’ and ‘Lomsert’ in Norwegian, both of them named after where they have been cultivated: one at Jæren and the other one at Lom.

The first one was grown for many years in fields of oats, and it was a hardy and easily cultivated sort and adapted the soil and climate at Jæren. From the 1950s onward, agriculture was gradually mechanized and the pea began falling out of use. Fortunately, it was saved by the efforts of only one man, the former chief county agricultural officer Einar K. Time.

It is worth noting that ‘Jærert’ has been included in the Ark of Taste.

Pea plants in the preparedness garden

‘Lomsert’ is another old type of pea, which has been grown locally in Lom in the Gudbrand valley.

While ‘Jærert’ can grow to be 2-3 m tall, ‘Lomsert’ attains a height of tens of centimetres above ground.

Farewell
Being very hospitable and kind, Anders and Barbro gave me some leaves of kale and lots of pods of peas. As if that wasn’t enough, they also gave me a signed copy of the book which their daughter Maria has written with their help.

Let’s hope that they can keep the preparedness garden going and open for visitors for many more years to come.

The web site

Note that the web site of the preparedness garden is at https://www.datsja.no/.

21/08/2021
Lega farmhouse dairy and bakery

Pizza crusts

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While doing a course on chair-making at Raulandsakademiet, the director told us that we could buy various farm products like cheese and pizza crusts at the reception. Since I want to support local agriculture, I bought some cheese and kling before I left. Having come back some days later in order to go to a bird-watching course, I decided to contact the producer. Since she accepted my inquiry, I took some time off the course to do an interview instead.

Having arrived, I entered a small building and went upstairs where Gro Hommo and a female worker were making pizza crusts.

Gro picked the dough from a kneader and put it on a bench. She divided up the dough in small parts, weighed it, applied flour to the dough and kneaded it, forming a bun.

Next, the worker, who was from Ukraine, put the “buns” on a dough roller, which turned them flat. Then, Gro lifted them up one by one by means of a small wooden ruler and laid it on a workbench where she flattened both sides by means of a roller pin.

Next, she applied salt and sprayed water on the dough.

Finally, when the dough was ready, she put it on a hot electrical griddle and turned it upside down when it had been baked. Then, she baked the other side and put the finished pizza crust on another bench.

She had 5 griddles on which she could put the finished dough and all of them were quite hot and I had to be careful to avoid being burnt. This was really hard work in a warm room.

I asked Gro if they were growing wheat at the farm, but she told me it wasn’t possible since it was located at about 700 metres above sea level, making it too cold. Instead, she was using wheat flour from Kvelde flour mill. This made it possible to sell the bakery products with a mark of excellence: Spesialitet – unik smak . In addition, she used olive oil from Uliveti Castel San Martino. Incidentally, a man from Rauland was importing olive oil from that farm in Italy.

In fact, this way of making pizza crusts is Gro’s idea, but she has never applied for any kind of protection like a patent because it’s expensive and time-limited.

The pizza crusts would be sold to restaurants, but they are also sold in various shops in south-east Norway.

Gro and her husband bought the farm about 40 years ago. While he was working outside the farm, she was tending goats because they were manageable for one person. The milk from the goats were used to make cheese. Gradually, she has expanded the farm and now there are about 250 goats and some tens of kids.

Gro told me that about half the goats were on a mountain farm, while the kids, the young and the old goats were back home at the farm.

Artificial insemination is used at different times of the year such that some of the goats produce milk all year, making it possible to make cheese all year too.

Gro also showed me the farmhouse dairy where brown goat cheese was being made. Besides, she showed me two storerooms for storing cheese, being located next to the dairy.

I asked her about the simple sign on the road passing the farm: Raundalen, the place where the farm is located. In fact, she didn’t want lots of tourists to arrive at the farm, but she had a farmhouse shop where those in the know could buy the farm’s products.

Next, we went back to the bakery since there were more pizza crusts to make. Some time later, a young man entered the bakery and Gro told me that he was the husband of the woman with whom she was working. Getting workers from Norway is difficult and this was the reason for having workers from Ukraine. Gro asked me if I wanted to see the goats since he was tending them and I accepted, of course.

Wearing clothes and boots from the farm, I was allowed to enter the barn. Having entered, I could see the Ukrainian man let the goats enter a part of the barn, which was used for milking. Instead, they were fed concentrated feeds and when they were finished, they were allowed to go outside again.

Next, it was time to feed the kids. First, he opened a lid, letting the kids have access to a trough where he poured raw milk such that they could drink it.

Instead, the small kids were allowed to drink from a small cup filled with raw milk. Finally, the smallest kids were lifted and held up while drinking from the cup. The worker told me that he had to treat them with care because they could get diarhorea if they eat too much.

Next, he let the goats on the hill through two gates to the meadow below the house where they could enter the barn.

He told me that they prefer to stay inside at night even though they are allowed to go outside if they want. Anyway, the goats can go outside at daytime all year and the cold winters lead to that they get quite shaggy.

This farm is selling kid meat from male kids. Instead, most male kids are just finished off at birth and the meat is not eaten.

When I was about to leave, I could hear the sound of the rolling pin and the dough roller from the bakery. Obviously, being a farmer requires lots of hard work.

The last day at Raulandsakademiet, we were served kid meat from Lega farm. I can honestly say that it was delicious and the meat was the most tender I’ve ever tasted.

Both the farmhouse dairy and the bakery will move to Rauland because the present premises are too small. Economic support from Innovation Norway makes this possible.

As told in various radio programmes, goat and kid are separated soon after birth, most of the goat milk is sold to Tine, goats had another diet in bygone times, which added a very strong taste to the goat cheese, while it’s milder now, the goats are milked twice daily and they really appreciate being caressed after milking, Gro brings the goats she likes best to an annual outdoor market called Dyrskun in Seljord, Gro and her family use kid meat for sausages, pinnekjøtt and fårikål, Gro was running the farm on her own for many years, but now her son is running the farm.

This farm makes the following products:
brown goat cheese
white goat cheese called Stavsfjell
flatbread two of them are made from flour from Kvelde mill and one of them is made from whey and another one is made from mash instead of flour.
pizza crust
prim is a spreadable goat cheese with added sugar
cow cheese called Heimros made from cow milk from the neighbouring farm.
a cheese called knubbost corresponding to feta cheese
a blue cheese called Vehus
cream cheese
crispbread which is called knekkebrød
kling which is a local word for lefse
kid meat

On request, Lega can make yogurt, ice cream, sour cream and butter.

Last but not least, Lega is placed in a beautiful part of Telemark and it’s really worth going there.

24/07/2020
Solhatt organic seed producers

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Although the Norwegian government is funding the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, containing seeds from all over the world, the country itself is more or less totally dependent on importing vegetable seeds. However, two Dutch men, Jasper Kroon and Tom Boersma, founded a seed shop called Solhatt in 2011. Before describing the company, a short history of seed production and control will be presented.

Short history

At the beginning of the 1800s, the first seed shops were founded in the Netherlands and France. Increased knowledge of inheritance and systematic breeding led to that new plant varieties, which had a much higher yield than ones made by farmers, were developed. Slowly, but surely, new plant varieties were replacing the old ones. The first Norwegian seed shop was established by Johan Olsen in Oslo in 1833.

Before the seed shops were founded, farmers produced seeds themselves or they exchanged seeds with their neighbours, making their harvests adapted to local conditions, but also having a large genetic variation.

Seed controls were founded across Europe in the late 1800s in order to secure high quality seeds for farmers. There was a lot of cheating with seeds, which wouldn’t germinate, but also seeds which were mixed with seeds for other plant varieties or was of low quality in any other way.

The first seed control in Norway was founded by Bastian Larsen at the agricultural school at Haug in Vardal in 1884, but it was taken over by the Royal Norwegian Society for Development in 1889 and next by the Norwegian state in 1898. A private seed control company, called Kristiania Frøkontroll (Christiania Seed Control), was founded in 1887, while it was nationalised in 1899. and renamed to Statens Frøkontroll (Seed Control of the State).

Nowadays, seed control is done by Såvarelaboratoriet and Mattilsynet in Norway. Såvarelaboratoriet perform analysis of seeds in order to find the germination rate, the cleanliness and any infectious diseases of the seeds.

As the 1800s progressed, farmers in Norway started importing more and more vegetable seeds from the Netherlands and the UK. However, during the First World War, all imports of seeds were abruptly stopped, and the Norwegian government founded a committee for breeding seeds and the greatest production took place in the 1920s when various heirloom varieties were developed. In the 1930s, seed production was decreasing again. After the Second World War, the quality of the seeds was variable and the supply was uneven, making import of seeds more important. During the 1970s and 80s, seeds from abroad were cheaper than Norwegian ones such that farmers preferred to buy imported seeds instead.

F.C Schübeler, a professor at the Botanical garden in Christiania, published a book on seed production in Norway in 1889. Being a predecessor of Solhatt, he sent seeds to farmers who, in return, gave feedback on how good the seeds were.

The Royal Norwegian Society for Development founded a farm for testing and breeding seeds for meadows, lawns, but also seeds for root vegetables and various vegetables, at Hellerud in 1950. Due to reorganisation, the farm was closed down in 2001.

Speaking of seeds, it’s impossible to avoid mentioning the Russian and Soviet agronomist, botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, who collected seeds from many countries and who headed the Institute of Plant Industry from 1924 to 1936. In 1940, he was arrested for allegedly wrecking Soviet agriculture and he died of hunger in 1943. His co-workers at The Institute of Plant Industry preserved the seed bank through the 28-month Siege of Leningrad and in an act of incredible self-sacrifice, they refused to eat the seeds. Nine of them had died at the end of the siege in the spring of 1944.

According to Jasper Kroon, the Vavilov Institute still has seeds from the Nordic countries, but they are not well documented.

Origin of select vegetables

Having covered very briefly how seeds have been produced and controlled in the past, it’s also necessary to know where the seeds of vegetables come from. This will only cover a few of the vegetables being grown in Norway, but readers are encouraged to seek out more information elsewhere.

All the cereals and vegetables we are eating come from domesticated plant varieties because ancient peoples needed something to eat.

Peas

Cultivated peas have been found in Syria and date from about 9300 BCE.

Wild peas ripen over a long period of time, they grow near the ground and seeds arise all over the plant and peapods shatter on maturity. Ancient peoples, living in the Fertile Crescent about 11,000 years ago, domesticated wild peas by selecting those that had a soft shell and ripened during the wet season.

Carrots

Wild carrots were domesticated in present-day Iran and Afghanistan and they could be black, white, red and purple. Modern yellow or orange carrot may have been developed by selective breeding in the Netherlands in the 1600s as a tribute to the ruling House of Orange.

Originally, carrots were grown for their leaves and seeds rather than their roots. Selective breeding over centuries were required to reduce bitterness, increase sweetness and minimise the woody core.

Onions

Unfortunately, wild onion is extinct and there is no agreement of when and where onion was domesticated. Onions were grown in Ancient Egypt 5,500 years ago, in India and China 5,000 years ago and in Sumeria 4,500 years ago.

Cabbage

Cabbage still grows wild in Europe and peoples of the northern Mediterranean started domesticating it by means of selective breeding about 3000 years ago. The wide variety of cabbage seen today may have taken a few thousand years.

Rutabaga

Rutabaga arose in the 1500s when seeds from B. Napa and B. oleracea were interbred in Sweden.

The Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin discovered that the predecessors of cabbage, which were cultivated in the 1620s, were growing wild in the Swedish countryside.

The company

In 2011, both Tom and Jasper were working as organic gardeners in Norway when they were asked to take over a small company called Biofrø, which was importing and selling seeds for biodynamic agriculture. Having accepted the offer, they wanted to expand the company by selling to hobby gardeners. They started with selling seeds from Bingenheimer Saatgut in Germany, but they gradually expanded their product range by selling seeds from other seed shops and various garden tools and books on gardening. Next, they hired a piece of land on the farm Alm Østre, which is located in Stange. There, they grow organic vegetables practising a 5-year crop rotation. They started selling organic seeds produced in Norway from 2015.

Instead of selling hybrid F1-seeds, Tom and Jasper wanted to produce and sell seeds from heirloom vegetables. F1 hybrid seeds are produced by large companies and those who grow seeds from them have to buy seeds from them yearly. Instead, by growing heirloom varieties, the growers themselves can extract seeds and plant them the next season. Thus, Solhatt is maintaining a tradition which has been applied for tens of milllennia.

As regards pollination of the plants, seed producers need to keep plants which can pollinate each other far apart, amounting to at least 100 metres.

In 2012, when Solhatt started growing cabbage, rutabaga and peas using seeds from NordGen, none of the seeds were being used. If it hadn’t been for Solhatt, they would probably have disappeared.

Further, the large seed companies have been working to make the vegetables make more energy by means of sugar.

Speaking from experience, I can attest to that many vegetables and fruits bought from supermarkets and almost certainly made by F1 hybrids, don’t taste anything, removing the pleasure of eating.

Due to global heating, climate researchers expect more extreme weather, making it necessary to grow plants which are more resistant against drought, rain and diseases. Since the vegetables grown at Solhatt don’t get any help from pesticides and no soil treatment by machinery, they may be better than F1 hybrids at extracting nutrients from the ground and have a more robust root system.

In addition, all seeds sold by Solhatt will give new plants that resemble their parent plants and these properties will be led on to future generations.

The seeds produced by Solhatt have been selected among those plants, which have been most resistant against diseases and weeds, requiring least nutrients and giving a good and even harvest. In addition, the plants should be as nutritious as possible, taste good and flower late in the season. The last property ensures that the child plant is as big as possible before it starts flowering. Finally, the seeds should be able to be stored without degradation for some years, but they should be used within 12 years, else the germination rate will decrease.

Interbreeding of the plants have to be done over 6 to 8 generations before the harvest is more or less stable. Jasper said that most of the seeds aren’t suited for seed production and only a very few are approved for production. In addition, some plants are perennials like chives and they are grown on a field the first year, thereafter the seeds are extracted and sown in a greenhouse the next year. Then, interbreeding for 6-8 generations entails 12-16 years before, hopefully, the seeds are ready for certification and finally production. All the seeds made by Solhatt have been approved for sale by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.

Another feature of seed production is that seeds from seed banks often aren’t documented well and the germination rate of the seeds are quite low when they are planted. The seeds have to wake up somehow and this takes several generations.

The field at Alm Østre is open land, but Solhatt also grow vegetables in greenhouses and they work in partnership with other seed producers, 7 in all. Some of them are presented here.

In autumn, it’s time for harvesting seeds. Next, the seeds have to be cleaned by various means, like using a sieve, a berry winnower and even an air separator. After the seeds have been cleaned and controlled, they are put in small paper bags and put in boxes at the premises of Solhatt, ready for sale.

Jasper and Tom want to invite cooks and anyone who is working with food to discover if there is a market for their products. As of now, only a chosen few buy vegetables form farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture, food festivals and so on. They think there is a market for 2-3 types of rutabaga and white turnip.

Let’s hope that Solhatt will expand and get many more customers. They are the only ones in Norway who produce organic vegetable seeds as a profession and they are keeping alive an age-old activity, which may die out.

08/08/2019
Hyllest elderflower farm

Drawing by by Olga Lobareva, bought from Shutterstock

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Elder or elderberry is a bush with a rich variety of folklore as is shown here, here, here and here. Elders were considered the habitat of Freyja in Norse mythology and it was protected by the Elder Mother. Actually, this inspired the great writer H.C. Andersen to write a story called The elder-tree mother. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote a book about Germanic tribes for whom the elderberry was holy. Moreover, the Greek physician Hippocrates and the Roman historian Pliny the elder both wrote about elderberry as a herbal medicine.

Quotation from Edda: If you have elder, honey and cabbage, the doctor will be a poor man.

The Latin name Sambucus for elderberry is purportedly derived from a Greek string instrument, which was called sambuca and was made from elder wood.

My first encounter with elderberry was at a farmers’ market in Drammen where we could sample elderflower juice, making me buy a bottle. Ever since I have bought bottles of elderflower juice occasionally since they are quite dear, but the taste is delicious. Next, having found that someone needed money for planting elderberries on a field in Bø in Telemark on the crowdfunding site culturaflokk, I donated so much that I could have a guided visit with the owner Mie Dahlmann Jensen on her farm.

We met at the chuch in Bø from where it was a short drive to a field near Moland farm where 400 elderberry saplings had been planted in 2017. Before, the field had been used for organic growing of oats and grass for 20 years and it was ideal for growing elderberries. During my visit, I could see some of the saplings, some of which had the same height as the surrounding grass due to a drought which have lasted more or less continuously since May 2018. Unfortunately, this makes it more difficult to make the elderberries growing, but Mie remains optimistic.

She told me that roe deer were free to enter the field, but they didn’t like the elders. In addition, there were brown rats nearby, but by planting garlic around the saplings, they stayed away. Really brilliant to fight them with plants and not poison!

Next, we went to Akkerhaugen where Mie has planted 160 elders in cooperation with Rinde farm. Three rows of elders were located among rows of apple trees and all cultivation was organic. Sitting in the sun, drinking elderflower juice and eating strawberries with sour cream was a very nice experience, contributing to making slow pix worthwhile and enjoyable.

The owner of Rinde farm cuts grass around the elderberries and apply fertiliser to them since they require a large amount of nitrogen in order to thrive.

Mie has her first memories from her native Denmark where she hid behind elders when she was playing hide-and-seek with other children. As an adult, she had been to farms where elderflower juice was being produced and after having moved to Norway and working at the local agricultural office, she contacted Innovation Norway and local apple farmers regarding cultivation of elders. Since everyone was positive, she founded her company Hyllest in 2013 and this year is the fifth anniversary. Hyllest is a Norwegian pun on hyll, which means elder, while hyllest means homage. That is, Hyllest is a homage to hyll.

Harvest of elderflowers is done in June and July, always manually and always early in the morning until about 10 in the morning when all dew has evaporated. In addition to domestic elderflowers, Mie also picks elderflowers from wild elders, which have “escaped” from various nurseries and gardens. Having collected elderflowers for up to a month, Mie turns them into juice at Epleblomsten, a local apple press. She has developed her own way of doing it, but she is aided by the workers at Epleblomsten with the production. Fortunately, this occurs so early that no other activity takes place at the apple press such that all attention can be turned to the elder flowers.

After having bottled the elderflower juice, it is distributed to various well-assorted shops and it is sold at farmers’ markets. A nice addition to elderflower juice is beer with a taste of elderflower since a brewery called Eiker ølfabrikk started making beer with elderflower syrup this year.

Finally, it remains to wish Mie good luck with persuading more Norwegians to start drinking elderflower juice, which apparently is little known for now.

Since Mie invited everyone to join the harvest on a Saturday morning in June, I returned this year. Having arrived before 8, the air was filled with birdsong and the pleasant smell of the elderflowers. Rows of apple trees were standing next to the elderflower bushes, but the apples had to mature for a few months more before they could be harvested.

Some of the elderflower shoots had blossomed, while the other ones were perhaps waiting for warmer weather. The shoots looked like light green pinheads, while the flowers had white and light yellow petals.

Picking the elderflowers was done by cutting the stem below the flowers by the thumbnail, then putting them in an open plastic box. Some of the flowers were growing on branches high above us, but it was easy to bend them down such that we could reach the flowers.

While we were harvesting the elderflowers, Mie walked around with a spray, applying a mixture of soap and vegetable oil on insects which formed black clusters on the branches.

Having harvested the flowers for about 1 hour, we had harvested all the flowers, which had blossomed. Then, it was time to enjoy a delicious breakfast next to the elderflower trees and drinking elderflower juice. A really pleasant experience in beautiful surroundings.

Here is some information on how to grow and care for an elderberry bush.

22/06/2019
Sigdal milll

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Økologisk Buskerud recently arranged a visit to Økologisk spesialkorn in Sigdal in order to have a look at their flour mill. In fact, this was a very good way of complementing a visit to the same area almost 2 years before and documented here.

Being in late April, the farmers hadn’t even started seeding their fields, but the flour mill and the adjacent flour shop was open. Unfortunately, the flour mill wasn’t operating, but this was as expected since it’s used in autumn when the grain harvest has finished.

Obviously, bread has been a part of our diet for thousands of years and this article shows that people in the Middle East were making flour 14,000 years ago.

In addition, research has shown that life was incredibly hard and that women could spend 5 hours grinding grain daily.

From then to now, turning grain into flour has changed from a strenuous task to something done by machines driven by wind or water, but nowadays mostly by electricity and which very few people know anything about.

The company, Økologisk spesialkorn, have their own flour mill and it’s the first company in Norway, which is approved for producing, storing and selling seeds of more or less rare types of grain like emmer, einkorn, spelt, Nordic rye called svedjerug, Dala wheat (a type of wheat which has been selected by farmers for generations), a Norwegian barley called Domen and naked barley (that is, barley without hull) called Pirona.

Our guides were Anders Næss, organic farmer and former managing director of Økologisk spesialkorn, and the farmer Guttorm Tovsrud on whose land the field trial was done.

The mill was originally built by local farmers in Sigdal as a cooperative and it received grain from local farmers for many years until it was closed down. However, Økologisk spesialkorn bought it, restored the building and bought a new flour mill some years ago.

As we were told by Terje Nesje at Holli mill, there is no education for millers in Norway and Anders went to the Danish company Aurion, which is using Austrian stone flour mills, in order to learn about milling. In fact, there is an active association for millers and those who are interested in milling in Denmark.

Having entered the mill, it was obviously a building which had been made for a specific purpose although it was quite difficult to understand what at a first sight. Everything was made of wood, stairs led upwards and downwards and some machines were standing in various places. First, Anders led us to the base of the building where the flour mill had been installed. A machine with a diameter of, say, one metre, and a height of, say, one and a half metre, was the flour mill, while just above it was a tube and an open box full of grain. When the flour mill is in operation, grain from a silo is fed through this tube into the mill.

The millstones were inside the flour mill and they were not visible. As explained here: millstones come in pairs. The base or bedstone is stationary. Above the bedstone is the turning runner stone which actually does the grinding. The runner stone spins above the stationary bedstone creating the “scissoring” or grinding action of the stones. A runner stone is generally slightly concave, while the bedstone is slightly convex. This helps to channel the ground flour to the outer edges of the stones where it can be gathered up.

An animation of how scissoring works and a glossary of mill terms are included. A typical millstone is shown below.

By Stevegray at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=728078

Just like at Holli mill, the miller at this mill also has to use hearing and sense of smell in order to get the flour as wanted. It is possible for the miller to get samples of flour during milling such that it can be felt, touched and even tasted. Lastly, the miller can monitor the current consumption of the mill. Then, by using all 5 senses, the miller can vary the distance between the millstones by means of a handle on the mill. In this way, the miller can ensure that the temperature is less than 40°C avoiding excess heat during milling.

At the base of the flour mill there was an electric motor and a tube through which the motor would force the flour upwards to the top of the mill. From there, it would fall down into a sieve with various openings such that the miller could vary the size of the particles and get a specific flour.

Anders told us that their customers didn’t like their flour in the beginning, because it was beige due to bran, and not white as it should be. The following picture shows a wheat kernel, but other types of grain look similar.

By Wheat-kernel_nutrition.svg: Jkwchuiderivative work: Jon C (talk) – Wheat-kernel_nutrition.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12889006

This flour mill is not heated, leading to fewer problems with animals and insects trying to eat or contaminate the flour, which is a real problem in warmer countries. The only room, which is heated, is the packing room where a certain amount of flour is let into paper bags, which are put into cardboard boxes, ready to be shipped to customers.

Last but not least, this company doesn’t mix grain in any way such that there is full traceability from each farmer, field and time of harvest.

Having finished our visit in the mill, we were invited to eat freshly made pizza. Økologisk spesialkorn has a mobile, wood-fired oven and the present managing director, Rune Menninen, was busy tending the oven and folding pieces of dough, which consisted of a mixture of emmer and spelt and had been made the day before. He flattened pieces of dough manually, put on tomato sauce, pepperoni and cheese and put it in the oven. A few minutes later, he took it out again, having made a freshly made pizza. Since there were so many visitors, about 25 in all, he had a lot to do.

I also met Guttom Tovsrud, a farmer who was owning and running the field trial described in Field trial of growing cereals.

He had been doing organic farming for 15 years, and when he started, the farmers doing conventional farming thought he would get ever smaller harvests and more weeds. Instead, it was the opposite which happened, mainly because organic matter, in particular carbon, in their fields is decreasing according to Anders Næss.

Mr Tovsrud also told us that after having grown spelt 4-5 years on the same field he practised crop rotation, replacing the spelt with clover, which will add nitrogen to the soil, an essential nutrient for plants.

During 2018 when there was a drought in Norway, he lost very little of his spelt harvest. He attributed this to the the deep roots of the spelt and the porous structure of the soil due to an abundant micro-life in the soil. In addition, spelt has a long stem, placing it farther above ground and making it more difficult for parasites to reach the grains. Interestingly, this is the same advice I got from a wine farmer in Italy. That is, he wanted to keep the canes of the grapevines at least 50 cm above ground in order to avoid parasites from the ground.

Spelt has a hard hull, which has to be removed before milling. The hard hull also leads to that spelt has to be dried slowly, else only the hull will dry, while the endosperm remains humid.

It was a great pleasure to visit somebody who work so hard to make high quality products for consumers.

27/04/2019
Haymaking at Flåret in Lier

For the last 3 years, I have been helping with haymaking at Flåret near Sjåstad in the commune of Lier. During the haymaking course at Ryghsetra, I met the chairman of the Friends of the Earth in Lier and the son of the present owner of Flåret. Since they intended to do haymaking at Flåret one week after the haymaking course, I naturally joined them. The local Friends of the Earth association had also got a botanic survey (in Norwegian) of the meadows where 76 different types of plants were found and about 40 of them were characterised as typical for meadows.

As far as I know, Flåret was a small farm which became part of the big farm called Sjåstad, relatively speaking, in 1801. Thereafter, the land was cultivated, animals were raised and various kinds of vegetables and fruits were cultivated until the 1950s when marginal farmland was abandoned. For the next 60 years, the place was inhabited, but not maintained. However, from 2014 onwards, the most biologically diverse meadows at Flåret have been cut with scythes, while the ones with less diversity have been cut with a machine, and the hay has been put on hay racks for drying.

When the hay has dried, we return and pull the hay from the hay racks to the ground. Next, we gather it in rows by means of rakes. Then, a tractor pulls a machine which turns the hay into hay bales. Finally, we carry the hay bales up to a road passing through the property. After we have left, the hay bales will be brought to a barn where they will be stored and sold to farmers with domestic animals, which love eating this diverse type of fodder.

The first two years, we harvested hay on the second week of July, that is one week after the haymaking course at Ryghsetra, but this year it was deferred to the second weekend of August in order to ensure that the plants on the meadows had produced seeds.

The first year we started, the meadows were completely overgrown and garden flowers like lupinus were abundant. This year, they were all gone and lots of trees had been cut down such that more sunlight could enter. By continuing this work, we should be able to create a biologically diverse “island” in a forest where commercial forestry prevents it from occurring. In fact, there have been many meadows in the forest above the valley of Lier where people have raised animals and used the hay on the meadows to feed them in winter. However, since the 1950s, these places have, in general, not been maintained such that they will gradually disappear if nothing is done.

This year, 2018, we only put hay on hay racks, while the owner used a machine to cut the hay. A recording of the manual work can be listened to here. For the first time, I have pulled hay down from the hay racks and this work was surprisingly tiring. First, we had to grab a large piece of hay and throw it to the side of the hay rack, next we had to to do the same again along the whole length of the hay rack and we had to do the same on the other side. Next, we used rakes to get any hay, which had been left behind and we had to shape the two rows of hay more less regularly such that the hay bales would be regular. We also needed to pull the hay apart since it seemed like the individual parts were attached to each other.

The week before we were haymaking at Flåret, I was doing haymaking at another former homestead, called Myresetra. It was abandoned more than 100 years ago, but animals had been grazing there until the 1970s. More than 40 years with no grazing had led to that the meadows were being overgrown and trees had started turning the meadows into forest. Fortunately, the commune of Drammen recently bought the meadows and the surrounding area. In addition, locals are welcome to join haymaking on the meadows in August. On a rainy day, a small group of volunteers filled two hay racks with hay and used scythes to cut even more. Since the hay racks were full, we spread the excess hay evenly on the ground in order to let it dry.

After we had finished haymaking, the leader of the local history club told us about the last family who had been living there. A Swedish man, who had just arrived in Norway, was told that he could stay there. He and his wife brought up their children in this somewhat remote place and the children had to walk to school and back again daily. The family had some cows and they also cared for other people’s cows for payment. Since a brook is passing the meadows, the Swede set up a water-powered lathe on which he made various wooden products, which he could sell. Afterwards, he moved to the U.S. where he stayed for the rest of his life.

This year, 2018, I went back to Myresetra to cut hay again, but first we had to listen to another history lesson. We were told that this meadow had been in use at least since 1704 because there is a document from a trial regarding this place from that year. It was inhabited until the 1920s and livestock were grazing here until the 1970s. During all the time it was inhabited, it was common to let cattle stay on the meadow for a small charge.

Next, we cut hay and put it under trees because no farmers wanted to collect it. In order to keep the meadow open, it’s necessary to cut it every year and remove the cuttings, else they will fertilise the meadow.

21/08/2018
Taraldrud farm

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Last year, I listened to the radio while driving where a journalist was interviewing Ragnar Dahl, who had been breeding Smaalen geese for 30 years as a hobby. The county of Østfold was called Smaalenene until 1918 and, since this type of goose was living in the county of Smaalenene, the goose was called Smaalen goose. It has been bred since the 1600s and they are hardy, good at brooding and taking care of the chickens.

In the old days, a fine could e.g. consist of 2 geese and farmers could pay tax with geese. Ragnar Dahl’s mother got a cow and two geese-down duvets as a dowry in 1936; 6 geese were required to make one good duvet. In addition to duvets, goose feathers were used to make quills. In autumn, farmers walked with the geese to Oslo where they were kept inside pens and fattened up before being slaughtered and sold to wealthy people.

In 1969, there were only 7-9 Smaalen geese and 3 breeders left in the county of Østfold. Then the brother of Ragnar Dahl sent the geese to a foundation near Florø where the geese were bred and tested. 3 years later, they were sent to the breeding centre of Svein Nore at Jæren. Ragnar Dahl bought 10 Smaalen geese from Svein Nore in 1986 and he still has them, 30 years later. He said that Smaalen goose is a part of our cultural heritage, it contributes to a greater genetic diversity and it’s adapted to our climate.

There were about 60,000 geese in Norway in the 1950s and there was a breeding centre for Smaalen geese in Eidsberg. Geese and poultry were a common sight on farms in Norway and children grew up with them. In fact, the geese and poultry were allowed to roam freely, because they didn’t run away. Then, agriculture was mechanised and domestic breeds like Smaalen goose, a local turkey and the Jær hen were no longer wanted due to slower growth, less meat and fewer eggs than more modern races.

Having parked the car in the farmyard of Taraldrud farm, I could hear clearly the honking of a flock of geese nearby. Next, after I had met Camilla and her husband Kjartan, we went inside the combined brewery and dining hall where guests can enjoy food and drinks from the farm.

Kjartan is half Danish and he was used to eating goose meat at Saint Martin’s day and on Christmas eve when he grew up. He was breeding geese in the 80s and 90s as a hobby and he sold the meat to restaurants. Then, Norway joined the European Economic Area in 1994, which was followed by new rules for slaughtering domestic animals. Suddenly, an activity which had been done for centuries at home, was required to be done at certified slaugherhouses. This led to that many hobby breeders gave up breeding geese. Next, the swine flu pandemic in 2009 led to that geese had to be kept inside and this made even more hobby breeders give up.

In 2011, the County Governor of Østfold wanted to save the Smaalen goose and Kjartan and Camilla bought 30 Smaalen geese in 2012 and now they have in excess of 300 geese. They have one group of geese, which are allowed to live for several years, while the other group is born in April and slaughtered in September. The weight of adult geese vary from 3.5 kg to 5.5 kg, while the ganders weigh about 7 kg. Each goose lays about 4-5 eggs per week and the eggs are put in brooding machines, while only a few of them are eaten.

The ganders walk together with the geese and in the breeding season, the young ones fight to see which one is strongest, while the oldest and strongest one stay outside the fights.

Sometimes, geese are blown over the pen, but they don’t go away. They are able to fly, but the don’t do it because their parents don’t do it. Anyway, if they are flapping their wings and it’s windy at the same time, it happens that they are gone with the wind, surprising them that they are able to fly. They are also very curious when wild geese fly over them.

At the moment, all handling of the geese is manual, which requires a lot of space. However, Camilla and Kjartan have plans for buliding a barn for 1000 geese with a separate, warm room for the chickens. The chickens are first fed concentrated feeds, next they are fed grass and grain, which are grown at the farm. Unfortunately, spring and early summer have been very dry and the grass has grown poorly. On the contrary, the cold winter has led to that the geese have laid a lot of eggs, which just shows that farmers are totally dependent on the weather.

I asked Camilla and Kjartan if the geese had any diseases, but they told me that only the chickens are vulnerable to cold and damp and they may get a cold. Thus, they have to be kept in a warm and dry place until they have grown enough feathers to avoid freezing. Instead, the adolescents and grown-ups hardly get ill. Instead, there are dangers like fox, mink and badger, all of which may finish off the geese. Besides, the geese may have some mishap, which requires that they are helped by their owners.

The geese of Camilla and Kjartan are outside all year, but they have shelters which they can enter if they want. They need water all year and it’s difficult to provide it when it’s below zero and water starts freezing.

Nowadays, very few eat goose meat in Norway, while they are common in Catholic countries. Anyway, they have been popular in Protestant countries like Denmark, Sweden and northern Germany all the time and now the 3 commercial breeders of Smaalen goose, and Holte farm, which breeds white geese together with various hobby breeders hope that more people will start breeding geese and eating goose meat. In fact, we need to eat goose meat in order to let the producers be able to go on breeding geese. In addition, in case of diseases like swine flu, it will be easier to keep the Smaalen goose safe and sound if it’s being bred in many places such that if one group of geese get ill from swine flu, another group, which lives far away, may be healthy.

I was also shown some of their cured meat products like salami and bacon. In fact, after slaughter, the meat is brought to Felloni spekehus where it is cured by means of smoking, salting and aging and turned into various cold cuts.

SInce Kjartan made beer as a hobby and some of their customers asked for beer to the meat, he decided to build a brewery and start selling beer. He now produces two types of beer called Slåttekær, meaning someone who is cutting hay, and Fløtær, meaning someone who is releasing timber in rivers. In addition, he’s planning to introduce more types of beer in cooperation with local companies. In fact, Kjartan has a license to both make, sell and serve beer and he and Camilla arrange various events in the dining hall where customers are served food and beer from the farm.

There is a farm shop at Taraldrud farm where customers can buy parts of the geese and cook them themselves together with cured meats and beer. In addition, they sell their products at Mat og mer, Fru Blom and Matfatet Ørje.

After having got an introduction to the activities on the farm, it was time to go outside and have a look at the geese. The live animals, which are allowed to live for several years lived inside one pen, while the other ones lived in an adjacent one. Running water was continuously flowing out of a perforated metal tube such that the geese could drink water and clean their noses, beaks and heads. They apparanetly liked to stick together, always walking because a stranger was nearby. One goose had possibly been blown over the pen because it was very windy. Anyway, Kjartan brought it safely inside the pen where he released it and let it return to the flock.

Afterwards, we walked up to a hill overlooking the farm where Kjartan had cleared it of trees and set up an electrical fence. Inside were three woolen sows and one Mangalitsa sow. The pigs were very good at opening the landscape and tearing up roots. The pigs would be slaughtered in autumn, next goats from a neighbouring farm would be let loose insde the fence in order to clean up more. The aim was to make another field ready for geese by first cleaning it and then planting grass.

Walking a short distance further, we could see an old building in the valley. Kjartan told me that it had been used both as a hydroelectric power plant and a flour mill, but it had been abandoned a long time ago, probably in the 50s. Now, he wanted to restore the flour mill and make a road from the farm to the mill. He also said that he wanted to grow peas since they contain more protein than grain.

Obviously, Camilla and Kjartan are very active and full of ideas on how to expand their farm and have several ways of earning a living. Last but not least, they also have a country house for rent and guests can fish pike in a nearby lake. Of course, they have to accept the honking of the geese, but I got the impression that it hadn’t been a problem for their guests so far.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye after a very interesting and pleasant visit.

NB! Remember to eat Smaalen goose at St Martin’s mess and at Christmas eve.

15/06/2018
Course on culinary herbs

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Herbs have been used for food, medicine and for religious purposes for ages. Nowadays, people in rich countries can buy all sorts of edible plants, like fruits, vegetables and herbs all year. Until a few years ago, many of them were only available in summer and the range was rather limited, but then something happened which both extended availability to all year and a much wider range. Anyway, I feel a need to trust nature and not just buy plants cultivated by man, but plants growing wild in nature, never having been modified in any way by man because they have been and remain marginal.

Thus, I recently joined a course on culinary herbs arranged by the mushroom and culinary herbs association in Oslo at NaKuHel in Asker. The first two times, after having introduced ourselves and got a booklet on culinary herbs, we were shown a variety of herbs, all which were growing locally. Since our instructors had already collected them, we could use touch, sight, smell and taste to get to know them. We also learnt about their habitats, what part of the herbs we could eat, when we could them and herbs which looked almost the same. Besides, we were taught about poisonous herbs.

The third time we should go for a short walk, collecting culinary herbs. Since NaKuHel is located near a lake called Semsvannet, which is protected as a conservation area. It’s a beautiful area, consisting of meadows, deciduous forests, ponds, wetlands and cultural landscapes. The instructors and the more experienced course participants had brought plastic bags, scissors, tools to dig up roots, baskets and gloves. Obviously, there is always something to learn! Actually, the booklet we got the first time recommends using one plastic bag for each type of plant. By keeping humidity inside the bag, it also aids in preventing the plants from withering. When we came to a meadow, the tools for digging up roots came in handy because there were lots of caraway, whose roots we should use for making soup, on the meadow. I also tasted fresh rowan leaves for the first time and they tasted like almonds. What a pleasant surprise! On our way next to the lake, we found an elm tree with lots of fruits called samaras, some of which we picked. In wet places near the lake, we could find large bitter-cress, while Good King-Henry was growing on the roadsides.

The fourth time, we should prepare salad, soup, omelette, vegetable balls and biscuits based on the herbs we had collected together with ingredients like eggs, flour, butter, vegetable oil, etc. The recipes are given in Norwegian here. The following list should hopefully show all the herbs, which were collected:

⦁ Good-King-Henry
⦁ Caraway
⦁ Rowan, only the smallest leaves
⦁ Elm, only the fruits, which are called samaras
⦁ False baby’s breath
⦁ Common nettle
⦁ Cicely
⦁ Ramson
⦁ Ground elder
⦁ Dandelion
⦁ Vetch
⦁ Large bitter-cress
⦁ Rosebay willowherb

The participants selected partners and which dish they would prepare, while I just picked samaras from branches of elm. Quite a few times small caterpillars and also some other critters emerged. Since there was a flower bed just outside the kitchen, it was easy to dispose of them there. Next, when all the dishes were prepared, we sat down to eat a group of delicious dishes together, a really nice way to finish the course.

Now and till the end of June, we can eat a large variety of culinary herbs, while they will gradually have a more coarse consistency and a bitter taste. Anyway, what I really like about them is that they are apparently growing and thriving whether it’s hot or cold, wet or dry contrary to domestic food plants, which require artificial irrigation, weeding, artificial fertilisers, etc.

Wild, edible herbs can also be found in Indonesia as described here.

24/05/2018
Skarrbo farm

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Since Biologisk dynamisk forening announced a course on making unpasteurised cheese not far from where I live, I naturually joined up. The course was being run by Markus Koot who had learnt cheesemaking from his father.

Before we arrived, Markus poured soured milk amounting to 1.5% of the total volume, into a cheese vat containing 120 litres raw cow’s milk at 29°C. He told us that adding soured milk has two purposes:

– prevent growth of unwanted bacteria.
– add important enzymes, which contribute to maturing the cheese and developing taste.

Enzymes are complex proteins that cause a specific chemical change in all parts of the body. For example, they can help break down the foods we eat so the body can use them.

After a delicious lunch, we entered the dairy where he told us what he had done and that he would next pour rennet into the milk, amounting to 25 ml per 100 litres milk, in order to start coagulating or curdling.

Rennet is an extract from the fourth stomach of young ruminants, such as cows, goats, and sheep. It contains a number of enzymes that are designed to help these animals digest their mother’s milk, and when added to milk, it will cause the milk to coagulate, forming the curds and whey that are so essential in the cheesemaking process.

Thereafter, he heated the milk to about 38°C, which is required to promote growth of the wanted bacteria, by means of hot water in the walls of the cheese vat. Next, we should wait for the milk to coagulate and form a gel, which would take about 45 minutes.

During the waiting time, we went to the barn which was located next to the dairy. About 5-6 cows were inside the barn, eating hay, while one tiny calf was standing alone. However, after a short time, its mother entered the barn and started staying with her offspring. The cows at this farm are a mixture of several more or less rare races among others Jarlsberg cattle in Norway and Markus told us that the cows are good mothers, they take care of their offspring, they bear calves on their own and they can stay outside all winter having fur to protect them against the cold. The calves stay with their mothers for 6 weeks, then they are separated but allowed to see each other. After 6 more weeks, the calf is brought to a shed where it stays with other calves until it’s sexually mature.

After our visit to the cows, we paid a visit to the hen house where about 250 hens were laying about 150 eggs per day. Next, we went back to the dairy and looked into the cheese vat. The milk had turned into a gel, that is it had curdled. Markus cut it with a knife, next he lowered it below the cut and turned it around such that it was parallel with the surface and lifted it up gently, making the cut look like an apple from which a spherical wedge had been cut out.

Next, it was time to cut it in 6 equally sized parts from top to bottom by means of a knife. Therafter, he assembled two metal devices called harps above the cheese vat and lowered them into the milk. Having started a machine, the harps started rotating, stirring the milk continually. After some time, he stopped the harps momentarily in order to check the state of the curds, that is the milk proteins (casein) tangle into solid masses. As always in cheesemaking, it’s necessary to separate the curds, which will be turned into cheese, from the whey , which forms the liquid part of the milk. He inspected the curds by lowering hs hand in the warm milk and collecting curds. Next, he brought them to the surface and squeezed them together. In the beginning, they were too soft and he started the harps again, but after some time and more sampling, enough whey had been separated from the curds that we could proceed.

Next, one third of the whey should be released and two thirds of it should be replaced by water in order to make the cheese less sour and more limber. Since he started with 120 litres of milk, he wanted to pour out 40 litres of whey and add about 26 litres of water in order to make gouda cheese. By placing a metal filter inside the vat in front of the release valve and opening it, only whey was let out while the curds had to stay. The whey was let into a couple of containers and it would be given to the calves afterwards.

After having stirred the mixture some time, it was time to take out the curds and transfer them to porous plastic baskets. Next, we should compress the curds in order to let out more whey. At the same time, the collection of curds are turned into cheese mass. Later, we should turn the cheese masses upside down and compress them again. Actually, Markus would turn them upside down some times more after we had left since we only stayed from 12 to 4. Thereafter, he would dip them in floating wax in order to protect them against mould.

As shown above, the curds, which have been collected together in plastic baskets look very different from cheese. In fact, they have to be matured or ripened before they are turned into cheese. Next, we entered the storeroom adjacent to the dairy where cheeses were lying on wooden shelves, being stored at a high relative humidity of about 80% and a low temperature. In addition, a cheese was being stored in brine, which is used to harden the crust, adding flavour and conserving the cheese. Mould was growing on some of the cheeses, and since we were attending a course, we were allowed to clean some of them by means of running water and a brush.

Markus told us that the cheeses have to mature for at least 3 months, but he doesn’t sell them before they have ripened for at least 6 months and maximum 1 year. As explained here, cheese ripening is “characterized by a series of complex physical, chemical and microbiological changes” that incorporates the agents of “baceria and enzymes of the milk, lactic culture, rennet, lipases, added moulds or yeasts, and environmental contaminants”.

After the course had finished, we could buy whatever we wanted from the farmshop next to the dairy. There, we could buy products like meat, cheese, eggs, yogurt and raw milk straight from the cows. I almost never drink milk, but if I had to, I would have preferred raw milk because it’s so tasty and it has a fatty consistency. Of course, this requires cows which are in excellent health and total cleanliness in order to avoid dangerous bacteria.

This farm has been run by Markus’ father since 1991 and Markus and his brother took over the farm in 2016. It’s a biodynamic farm and it’s located in a lovely area near the town of Holmestrand. If you call in advance, Markus can set aside products for you or you can buy them at select shops in Oslo like Ekte Vare and Mølleren Sylvia.

Markus arranges cheesemaking courses occasionally as shown on this Facebook page.

As for those who want to make their own cheese, there are many web sites, which offer advice. If you live in Norway, you can buy dairy equipment from Ystebui. Anyway, as one of the participants, who had already been making cheese for some time, said: “Making cheese is easy, but making the same cheese every time is very difficult.”

15/03/2018
Sausage-making course at Vippa
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About 25 persons went to a sausage course arranged by Indre Oslo matforedling at Vippa, a host of multiple food stands, located at Vippetangen in Oslo. We were met by Magnus Thorvik, one of the founders and owners of Indre Oslo Matforedling (IOm)

After having washed hands and being divided into groups of 5 people each, each group got a crate containing 5 kg of ground and very cold meat, which should be turned into sausages. First, we had to select which type of spice we wanted to use, next we added unrefined sea salt, amounting to 18g per kg of meat, together with paprika, common sage, chili and garlic which was crushed by means of a mortar and pestle. A list of our ingredients:
- 5 kg meat
- 90 g salt
- 50 g paprika
- Common sage
- 5.6 g chili
- 3 cloves of garlic in some red wine
The meat was from the farm of Heinrich Jung, a German farmer who has bought a farm in Norway. All the sows and piglets are free to go wherever they want as long as they stay within electrical fences and they stay outside all year, but they can enter metal sheds if they want. The farmer has to put dry straw on the ground of the sheds, else the sows take care of everything. As I was told at Virgenes farm, the pigs enter the sheds when the temperature is below -15°C(!). Instead, they don’t manage heat well, meaning they need shade and being able to roll in mud in summer.

As is stated on the web site of IOm, they stay in touch with the farmer and they visit the pigs as often as they can. The sows, whose bodies are destined for IOm, are allowed to live longer than most sows and also to weigh more, up to 350 kg(!). They are brought to the slaughterhouse separately where they will have their own rooms in order to let them be as relaxed as possible at the time of death. Not only because of animal welfare, but also because of less stress hormones and lactic acid in the meat. In addition, the meat tastes better. The meat is especially suited to both curing and making sausages, which is ideal for IOm.

Our next task was to knead the meat until it had the right consistency, which could be confirmed by forming a small bun of meat in your hand and holding the hand with the palm facing down. If it didn’t fall down, it was ready. A more nuanced test was to feel the meat manually and see that threads were formed and that the meat hung together like a uniform mass. IOm emphasises that the meat has to be kept cold during grinding and kneading such that the fat doesn’t melt, else the fat can be mixed with the meat particles such that they don’t join together.

The next step was to put all the meat in a sausage stuffer, which is a machine for stuffing ground meat into casings, and slip a hog casing onto the stuffing tube. While someone was turning a crank, which was compressing the meat, another one was holding the casing such that it was kept firm when meat starting flowing out of the stuffing tube and into the casing. We had to limit the speed of turning the crank, else the meat flowed out too quickly such that the casing broke. When a section of the casing was full of meat, one of us cut off the casing and closed it by means of a knot. Finally, Magnus showed us how to divide the long sausage into many small ones by pinching the casing and rotating it, forming joints about every 10 cm. Being beginners, the casing broke several times such that the above process had to be repeated some times.

Finally, when all the groups had finished making sausages, they were brought to the kitchen of Vippa where a cook fried all the sausages and prepared vegetables as well. Next, we gathered around some tables where we got to eat the sausages and the vegetables together with wine from NON DOS, a company which imports what they call naked wines. A perfect finish of a great course! As if that wasn’t enough, we also got about 1kg of our own sausages to bring home.

For those who want to make their own sausages, there is a very good explanation here.
01/03/2018
Bakery course at Aschim Vestre farm

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I recently went to a bakery course at Aschim Vestre, a bio-dynamic grain farm of 300 acres in Hadeland, Norway. The course was arranged by Biologisk dynamisk forening and led by Kristin and Johan Swärd, who are renowned in Norway for cultivating old types of vegetables, potatoes and grain. All the cultivation is organic and all the products are sold directly from the farm together with flour, which has been milled at the farm. Flour is also sold at Økologisk spesialkorn.

About 10 students with varied background, ranging from someone who had worked as a baker for several years, active home bakers and me, who have still not started baking at home even after having went to two bakery courses, arrived at the kitchen of Kristin and Johan where the bakery course would take place.

Ideally, the course should have lasted two days, but due to limited time, everything should take place on a Saturday. Upon arrival, we were served freshly made bread rolls, next we should start making one sourdough bread each. Kristin had prepared a bowl of sourdough starter the day before and bubbles appearing and disappearing continuously were clearly visible on the surface.

We should mix the starter with flour of our choice and water. Contrary to the other bakery courses I have attended, we could select whatever type of flour we wanted. Having weighed a fixed amount of Dala wheat and mixed it with sourdough starter and water, it was time to start kneading. The first thing I had forgotten was to have flour on my hands, else the mixture, which should become dough got stuck to my hands. Next, I also had to add some water, then go on kneading. The other students made it look very easy, while I had to struggle, but in the end I had some dough with a respectable appearance. Finally, we should put the dough in a banneton, cover it with a cloth and let it leaven for some time.

While we were waiting for the leavening, Johan told us a little about old grain types like spelt which has long roots being able to find nutrients and water deep down, while modern wheat has short roots and is dependent on artificial irrigation and getting nutrients from fertilizers located close to its roots. In addition, spelt has a long stem, making it more difficult for parasites to climb from the ground up to the ear. Modern grain types have been refined in order to give a large harvest per area, but valuable characteristics have been lost at the same time. For instance, it’s possible to make bread with Dala wheat flour using recipes from the 1850s, while this is simply not viable using modern wheat.

This article in Danish states that harvesting old grain types originating from a certain area like Dala wheat gave about 10 tons of hay and 4 tons of grain per hectare, while nowadays harvesting results in 4 tons of hay and 10 tons of grains in conventional agriculture. In addition, the old grain types were cultivated with much less fertilisers than nowadays and with no pesticides.

According to agronomist Hans Larsson at the Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences the changes are caused by crop scientists who have succeeded in shortening the stem of the wheat plants significantly. He also says that the percentage of proteins in the grains have fallen in accordance with the shortening of the stem because it’s the nitrogen in the stems, which gives protein in the grains.

The old grain types have, contrary to modern types of grain, large leaves which limit the amount of light which can be used for growth by unwanted weeds. The long stems also make it more difficult for diseases to spread. Besides, they have a larger genetic diversity, which is the best protection against diseases.

This article in Danish states that genetic diversity leads to that the plants can adapt to local conditions and it’s more difficult for plant diseases to harm all the plants when they are different.

Next, he talked about what’s happening in a dough and what it consists of. Two of the main parts of dough are gluten and starch.

Gluten (from Latin gluten, “glue”) is a composite of storage proteins termed prolamins and glutelins and stored together with starch in the endosperm (which nourishes the embryonic plant during germination) of various grass-related grains.

Gluten is appreciated for its viscoelastic properties. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.

Gluten enables dough with yeast to leaven because it forms a network of small walls which confines carbon dioxide and water vapour inside the dough. It also works as a binder in the dough, making it easier to work with.

Starch also interacts with gluten during baking. The gluten breaks down and gives up water which is quickly taken up by the starch. This makes the gluten set and become rigid, which is why our loaves of bread don’t collapse when they come out of the oven.

He also told us that we need to add salt to the dough amounting to about 1% of the weight of the flour. When salt is added, more flavour results and the speed of leavening is limited. This can also be obtained by cooling the dough during leavening.

As noted here in Norwegian, only grain types which normally aren’t cultivated any more, are grown on this farm. These types of grain aren’t actively refined and they are probably more or less identical to grain which was grown in the Bronze age. Old types of grain contain gluten which is much softer than the modern, hard gluten, and it’s better for many people’s digestion. All in all, 80 types of grain have been grown on this farm, some of which include einkorn wheat , emmer, spelt, Nordic rye called svedjerug Dala wheat (a type of wheat from Dalarna in Sweden), black oat (actually two types of oat which were brought by emigrants from Norway to Canada in the 1800s and back to Norway recently), naked barley (that is, barley without hull) and many others.

As told in this video essay, old grain types need to be grown and not stored in a seed bank. Living material in nature will develop, change and adapt to environmental conditions. Farmers have been developing grain for millennia, while now big companies do it, but it’s important that farmers together with consumers take back this control.

When Johan started growing old types of grain and brought it to a modern flour mill, it was rejected because a modern flour mill will only accept modern types of grain. The alternative was to buy his own flour mill and after a lot a of trial and error, he’s able to produce flour, which is much sought after. Anyway, before the grain can be turned into flour, it has to be threshed. That is, removing the seeds from the stalks and husks.

Johan told us that he could of course bring his grain to the nearest industrial flour mill and have it threshed there, but that would give a yield of only about 70%, which he can’t accept. Instead, he has bought some second-hand threshing machines: one from Belarus and another one from Sweden, both of them more than 70 years old. In addition, there were lots of machine parts lying around, which I guess may be used for assembling another one.

Actually, threshing the grain by means of those old machines entail a major part of turning grain into flour. A modern way of cleaning wheat can be found here. After having threshed the grain, Johan brings it to one of his three flour mills, while modern flour mills first have to measure the falling number, which gives an indication of the amount of sprout damage that has occurred in a wheat sample, before milling can start.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the relation between falling number and sprouting indication in a grain of wheat is the following:

Falling number (sec)

Sprouting indication

More than 300

No sprout damage

Between 200 and 300

Some sprouting

Less than 200

Severe sprout damage

A commercial flour mill can’t accept a low fall number, while a farmer like Johan doesn’t need to think of this because old grain types can withstand much more rain than modern ones. Thus, some years ago there was a very rainy summer and autumn in Norway where a large part of the wheat harvest had to be used as animal feed, while the old grain types could be turned into flour for human consumption.

Next, when the grain is ready for milling, three flour mills are ready for use. Two of them are stone mills with composite stones and one of them has three flour sifters such that the flour can be sorted according to the size of the particles. During milling, the flour is collected in paper bags and packaged, ready for sale.

In addition to the stone mills, there is a third flour mill at this farm. Interestingly, this is a vortex mill, which was invented by the Austrian Viktor Schauberger. According to this text in Norwegian, the grain is driven around in a rotating chamber where the grains are gradually ground to a finer size than is possible in a stone mill and the grain is kept at room temperature. Johan told us that when the grain particles are sufficiently small such that the force of an applied air pressure is greater than the centrifugal force, they will be blown into a sack of cloth and fall down into a paper bag. Unsurprisingly, this type of milling is slow and only 10-15 kg of flour are produced per hour.

We were also told that customers should ask the miller about advice on the flour and Johan sometimes receives phone calls from customers who tell him that the flour was good, but … Thus, in addition to cultivating old types of grain, threshing and milling it, Johan also has to advise his customers on making bread with his flour.

Having looked at the flour mills and the threshing machines, Johan also showed us the loft where he lets various old grain types dry. He’s cultivating areas of 100-200 square metres with old grain types and he’s harvesting them by means of a sickle. Since 1 kg of seeds may be turned into 15 kg grain, he’s able to multiply the number of seeds after a few years. For those who want to grow old types of grain, Johan sells 1 kg of seeds per person and sort. Note: Johan died some time ago, and to contact the present owners, go to this web site.

Afterwards, we went back to the kitchen where our bread dough were ready to be baked. Just before putting them in the oven, Kristin made a crossed cut in the dough in order to let the dough expand in a controlled way. When the finished breads were taken out of the oven, they all had a symmetric shape and they looked and smelled delicious, while mine had a quite irregular shape. Anyway, as long as the taste and fragrance were good, I was satisfied.

In the end, Johan drove us back to the railway station such that we could go home by train.

03/02/2018
Fermentation course

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I recently joined a fermentation course because being a part owner of a community supported agriculture, vegetables peter out at the end of October such that I need to buy from a supermarket or a company, which sells them all year. By fermenting wild edible plants and vegetables from a field, it should be possible to have locally grown vegetables available from November to April (ideally speaking).

Having entered the premises, everyone should give a short presentation of themselves and why they were taking this course. It turned out that most of them had digestion problems and they wanted fermented vegetables to improve their digestion. Next, Bente Brunvoll, who was arranging the course, gave a short introduction to fermentation and its beneficial effects on our health:

– Research has shown that 70-80% of our immune system is located in the bowels.
– Fermentation makes food contain beneficial bacteria, more vitamins, longer shelf life and easier to digest.
– Beneficial bacteria, particularly those in our gut, may improve digestion and boost immunity to diseases.
– The beneficial bacteria, which are called lactic acid bacteria can withstand salt and no fresh air, while harmful bacteria will die. Fermented food is good for our guts, immune system, skin, mood and health in general.

Next, each of us had a wooden board, a glass bowl and a big kitchen knife and we should start by making sauerkraut. This work was like the following:
– cutting up a cabbage and carrots, no peeling, just rinsing.
– taking off the outer leaves of the cabbage.
– putting the cabbage cuts in a bowl with the carrot parts.
– crushing the parts with a wooden stick and using fists and hands.
– putting everything into a jam glass and compressing the contents.
– adding sea salt.
– adding a leaf of cabbage on the top.
– adding boiled, but cool water.
– putting in a glass weight.
– putting on a lid.

Some liquid emerged when the cabbage was compressed in the bowl and it was poured into the glass together with the vegetable parts.

Next, we should prepare cucumber:
– divide it into 3 parts of about the same length.
– cut away the inner, soft part.
– divide a garlic bulb into garlic cloves, peel each clove and put them into a glass.
– lay leaves of laurel, seeds of coriander, pepper, horse radish and dill in the same glass.
– put the cucumbers in the glass.
– mix water, whey and salt and pour the mixture into the glass.
– lay a cabbage leaf on the top and put on a lid.

Then, we should prepare beet juice following this procedure:
– rinse the skin.
– cut off the root and stem and any stains on the surface.
– slice up a beet into quarters.
– put the beet quarters in a glass.
– add cinnamon, turmeric, ginger and whey.
– add a mixture of water and sea salt.
– put some cabbage leaves and a glass weight on the top.
– put on a lid.

Finally, we should prepare kefir by doing the following:
– lay some kefir grains in a small glass.
– pour some milk into the glass such that it covers the grains.
– put on a lid.

Having got three big glasses and a small one, it was time to carry everything home. Bente advised us to open the lids carefully and let out cabon dioxide, which is formed during fermentation. This is necessary in order to prevent excess pressure from forming inside the glass. While the glasses with cucumber and beet hardly contained any cabon dioxide, the sauerkraut was very active. Just barely opening the lid, made gas escape with a wheezing sound toghether with liquid, which flowed out.

Now I’ve let all the glasses stay in a fridge, just waiting a week or two more before everything should be ready. I found preparation of the vegs for fermentation very easy and I recommend doing it for everyone who wants to eat fermented vegs.

There are several web sites which promote fermentation of vegetables:

EatingWell
Wellness Mama
Mercola
ConsumerHealthDigest
Cooking God’s Way

13/01/2018
Growing oyster mushrooms course
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I joined a course on how to grow oyster mushrooms in late November 2017 at Gruten in Oslo. Gruten, meaning the coffee grounds, was founded by Siri Mittet, who also held the course. Her business idea is to use the large amounts of coffee grounds, which would be given to compost and retrieved by a renovation company in the best case or thrown in the garbage in the worst case, for something useful. Having a bike with a large container, she cycles around in Oslo, visiting coffee bars and collecting coffee grounds. As she told us, the coffee grounds are pasteurised when coffee is made and ready for use. We also save time and energy if we use it as soon as possible after making coffee.

Gruten offers the following products:
- skin care (based on recycled coffee grounds)
- oyster mushroom spores
- chopstick art soap dish and soap (based on recycled coffee grounds)
- coffee cups (based on recycled coffee grounds)
The following courses are offered:
When Siri Mittet started the mushroom course, she presented a handout called: ‘From coffee cup to oyster mushrooms – how to grow mushrooms in coffee grounds’ with the most important points as follows:
- Many mushrooms, including oyster mushrooms, consist of hypha, which often form a network, which is called mycelium.
- The mycelium grows outwards, searching for nutrients and it uses enzymes to break down organic materials, next nutrients are absorbed through the cell walls. When the mycelium is sated or there is no more food, it will produce one or more fruitbodies (what most people regard as a mushroom) in order to spread spores.
- Coffee beans contain nutrients, which the mycelium needs: cellulose, lignin, nitrogen and various minerals.
- Used coffee grounds are hardly used, while they are in abundant supply at coffee shops and they can be gotten at a very low price.
- Oyster mushrooms are fond of coffee grounds. The mycelium is able to extract nutrients from semi-sterile grounds at the right temperature range.
- After growing of the mushrooms has finished, the growing medium can be used as compost or fertiliser.
- Use only fresh and clean coffee grounds, to be mixed within 48 hours to minimise risk of mould.
After having learned a little about how to use coffee grounds as a growing medium, we set about preparing one bag for each participant in the premises of Gruten.

After having washed hands, we should disinfect a bucket with soap and water. Next, we used a digital scales to get 800g – 1kg coffee grounds, which we put in the buckets. 200g of spores was added to the grounds together with some water before mixing everything thoroughly. We also tore up cardboard into small pieces and mixed them with the coffee grounds and the spores. A thin layer of limestone was laid on the top because it leads to higher pH (less acidity) and a lower risk of contamination. Finally, the mixture was poured into a small, transparent plastic bag and the opening was closed by means of a piece of tape. However, since the mycelium has to be able to breathe, a permeable filter had already been attached near the top of each bag.

Having arrived at home, I kept the bag in a cupboard in my kitchen. The first 7 days are critical until the mycelium has got the upper hand on mould. After 3-5 weeks, the mycelium has colonised the growing medium and is ready to produce a fruit-body in order to make spores.

Next, the fruit phase where the following procedure should be followed:
- lay the bag with a cut in a bucket with cold water and let it stay for 10 hours in order to trigger growth of the fruit body.
- temperature around 20°C.
- spray the growing medium with water 2-3 times a day.
- the nascent fruit-body needs light, but not direct sunlight.
- enough air – open the windows 2-3 times a day.
- after 7-10 days the fruit-body starts getting formed, the first oyster mushrooms can be harvested abut one week later. the rest of growing medium is a good fertiliser.
Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed in making mushrooms, but the most important thing for me was to make it known that used coffee grounds have many useful purposes and that they should not be thrown in the garbage.

References:
If you want to grow your own oyster mushrooms and you live in Norway, please consider buying growth bags and mushroom spores from Gruten!
21/11/2017
Byspire – producer of hydroponic vegetables and herbs

Photo by Fornebu Foto (Srdjan Popovic).

I first got to know about BySpire when I got an email from Funde, which is a Norwegian crowdfunding site. As usual, we could give various amounts of money and we would get a reward in return, depending on how much we gave. I noticed that they would reduce import of vegetables and herbs and grow them inside all year using hi-tech vertical cultivation aka vertical gardening. Since the growing season in Norway lasts roughly from May to October, I really want to grow my own greenery in winter or buy it from someone who does it in my country instead of importing it from a temperate country, like the Mediterranean countries, from which it’s far from easy to know how it has been produced. Next, I gave them enough to get 3 herbs a week for 10 weeks from August to December 2017.

Since late September, I have been to Byspire weekly or biweekly to get my share of delicious salads and basil. Of course, I have looked at their vertical garden, consisting of wooden shelves and trays with herbs lit by blue, green and red LED lamps for 18 hours a day in order to make the plants grow. Besides, they add tap water and nutrients consisting of a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The seeds are sowed in small pieces of either mineral wool or coir and put in a nursery where they stay for three weeks. Next, they are put in plastic trays, each one having small holes in which one herb is put for growing. This way of growing plants is called hydroponics and surprisingly, the earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book Sylva Sylvarum or A Natural History by Francis Bacon.

Byspire was started when four like-minded persons met at MESH, the Nordic Creators’ Community in Oslo in January 2017. Afterwards, they have participated in Startupmatcher where investors and entrepeneurs meet, getting to the final. They started crowdfunding in March 2017 and they reached their goal in April. In October the same year, they were listed as Top 10 startups to watch in Norway. BySpire mention the following advantages using hydroponics:

production in urban environments lead to little transport.
90% lower water consumption compared to conventional agriculture.
it requires 85% less arable land.
no pesticides.
production all year.
very little negative impact on seas and forests compared to conventional agriculture.

However, I read recently one critical article where the author Øystein Heggedal calls hydroponic salad an urban myth due to high energy requirements, in particular lighting, but also heating. Just by calculating how much energy which is required, he concludes with certainty that transporting vegetables by truck from Spain to Oslo will require much less energy than producing the same amount by means of hydroponic gardening in Oslo. I can’t contradict him on the required amount of energy in each case, but he doesn’t mention that it’s increasingly likely that there will be more droughts in southern Europe and less in northern Europe where we live. This will have a marked impact on agriculture across Europe, making it more difficult to grow edible plants because of lack of water in southern Europe and because of too much water in northern Europe.

Mr. Heggedal also refers to this article: Why Growing Vegetables in High-Rises is Wrong on So Many Levels where it is stated that “with every kilogram of food we produce under artificial lighting, we will have passed up an opportunity to harvest free sunlight, and will thereby contribute to the Earth’s warming.” Finally, he refers to an article called Comparison of Land, Water, and Energy Requirements of Lettuce Grown Using Hydroponic vs. Conventional Agricultural Methods where it is stated: In summary, hydroponic gardening of lettuce uses land and water more efficiently than conventional farming and could become a strategy for sustainably feeding the world’s growing population, if the high energy consumption can be overcome through improved efficiency and/or cost-effective renewables.

Since only the last article has been written by a group of researchers, I tend to believe most in what they are saying. For my own part, I only want to grow herbs for private use in the off-season, while Byspire wants to expand from a trial production to a full-scale production. How they are going to solve the energy problem outlined in the above-mentioned articles will be interesting to follow. Now, they pay reduced-rate rent, but they will have to pay market-rate rent when they move to a place where they can sell so much vegetables and herbs that at least one person can be paid for working full time.

Doing a web search on hydroponics, an “endless” number of sites pop up, and here is one of them. Browsing this article and the wikipedia article give me the impression that hydroponics is a huge subject, requiring experts on edible plants and chemistry, but probably many more subjects too. I really hope the people at BySpire will succeed in spite of Mr. Heggedal’s claim.

Regarding LED lamps, I have included an extract from NASA growing food in space: An amazing technological feat:

NASA tests have determined that LED lights are the optimum single source lights for plant growth on Earth as well as in space.

Why the different colors? NASA research findings include the following:

Red Light (630-660 nm) is essential for the growth of stems, as well as the expansion of leaves. This wavelength also regulates flowering, dormancy periods, and seed germination.

Blue Light (400-520 nm) needs to be carefully mixed with light in other spectra since overexposure to light in this wavelength may stunt the growth of certain plant species. Light in the blue range also affects the chlorophyll content present in the plant as well as leaf thickness.

Green Light (500-600 nm) was once thought not to be necessary for plants, but recent studies have discovered this wavelength penetrates through thick top canopies to support the leaves in the lower canopy.

Far Red Light (720-740 nm) also passes through dense upper canopies to support the growth of leaves located lower on the plants. In addition, exposure to IR light reduces the time a plant needs to flower.

Another benefit of far red light is that plants exposed to this wavelength tend to produce larger leaves than those not exposed to light in this spectrum.

Scientists have found that including white LED light mixes in arrays serve as a way to ensure plants cultivated indoors receive all the photosynthetically active radiation needed to optimize their health, growth, and yield.

Finally, for those who want an introduction to hydroponics, this web site, this web site and this web site may be of interest. Likewise, an introduction to microgreens can be found here.

31/10/2017
Gulburet – bakery and farm shop

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I recently joined a workshop called Visual storytelling – creating compelling multimedia pieces at NORDphotography on Inderøy in Norway with Bob Sacha as a teacher. The director of NORDphotography, Elisabeth Nordeng Aanes, asked us before the course started what we wanted to make a video about. Since there are many small-scale producers of foods and drinks nearby, I told her that I wanted to go to Gulburet – a combined cattle farm, brewery, farm shop and bakery.

Having arrived at 6 a.m. one morning, I was met by the friendly owner of the bakery, Liv Elin Olsen, who had just said goodbye to one of her employees who would bring fresh bakery products to a food fair in the city of Trondheim.

Gulburet has got its name because it was painted yellow ages ago and gul in Norwegian means yellow, while bur is short for stabbur, which was used for storing food. It is located at the Værdal Østre farm where Liv Elin and her husband have about 20 cows, a brewery, a bakery, a farm shop and a cafe. The three last ones face the idyllic courtyard of the farm where the barn is located on the left and the farmhouse on the right, while in the middle, guests at the cafe can enjoy fresh bakery products with tea or coffee in the sun or in the shade of big trees according to their wishes. Inside the farm shop, both Liv Elin’s bakery products and products from many other small-scale producers can be found.

Liv Elin told me that although she has been making bakery products for many years, she’s still not a baker, she’s just baking, having never finished an apprenticeship. However, she has been baking for more than 20 years at this farm and served home-made bread to their guests. Since they wanted to buy the bread, she started baking bread in the farmhouse and selling it at Gulburet in 2010, while the bakery next to the farm shop was built in the winter of 2015/2016. Consequently, when customers enter the shop, they are surrounded by pleasant fragrances from the bakery, making them want to stay longer and enjoy dishes like sandwiches, pastries and confectionery from the cafe. Beer made by Liv Elin’s husband Arve and aquavit , a dry Scandinavian liquor flavored with caraway, made at another farm, are also available.

When Liv Elin had started preparing dough, she went out to the barn and returned with a bucket of milk from the cows, which had been milked just before. She poured milk with no pasteurisation or homogenisation onto the dough. The bread would be baked at a temperature of about 180C and there were no requirements for any processing of the milk.

After the dough had been kneaded and leavened, she weighed certain amounts of dough and formed them into sausage shapes. Next, she put them in a tray filled with water, rolled them in a tray filled with a mixture of flaxseeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds and finally put them in bread tins. After leavening, she put the bread tins in an oven and took them out again when they had been baked, filling the bakery with a pleasant fragrance.

In fact, she had let wholemeal wheat flour and the seeds be immersed in water since the evening before. This is an old technique, which has apparently been forgotten by most bakers, where the grains and the seeds absorb humidity such that the resulting bread gets more tasty and has a longer shelf life. The next day, she would mix it with broth, finely milled flour, salt, water and yeast, making dough in a kneader.

Liv Elin let me know that you have to let the dough know who’s the boss and use a firm grip, treating the dough like a living creature. Actually, baker’s yeast consist of myriads of tiny organisms, which she instead presumably thinks of as one. When she had placed a large clump of dough in a plastic box and put a lid on it, I forgot about it until she said that the dough was in bad mood. In fact, the yeast had increased the volume of the dough so much that the lid had been lifted up and dough was very slowly falling towards the table. It was interesting to watch the dough forming lots of bonds, trying to prevent the dough from falling down. In order to let it get in good mood again, she applied finely milled flour to the dough and kneaded it by hand such that the flour entered the dough and the yeast would have something to eat.

She made a bread called Jessenkak where Jessen is the last name of an auctioneer who bought large amounts of the same type of bread and gave them as gifts to family and friends, while kak is a local word for bread. A recipe in Norwegian can be found here.

Liv Elin worked as a confectioner too, using a wooden roller to flatten the dough, next she used a spatula to apply a thin layer of chocolate on the top of the dough, folding the dough and flattening it again by means of the wooden roller. Then, cutting it into stripes by means of a roller cutter. Finally, she tied the stripes of dough in knots, forming a flat, figure-of-eight-shape, which is called kringle in Norwegian. Another time, she treated the dough in the same way until she had cut it into stripes. Then, she formed into Danish pastries, instead.

As I’ve experienced so many times before, it’s always a great pleasure to enter a bakery where an artisan makes bakery products manually, almost always wth attention to detail and with loving care. Not surprisingly, I once viisted a baker who had forgotten to add salt to his breads and Liv Elin had once forgotten to add sugar to her pastries. The next day she found a note in the farm shop: tired baker equals pastries with no sugar. Liv Elin preferred to use a pun in Norwegian: annsleiskringle instead of aniskringle.

After Liv Elin had finished baking aroud noon, I went to the arts shop located a few minutes walk from the bakery where there was a small exhibition of paintings, glassware and textiles, all of it for sale.

In the evening, I showed parts of what I had done to Bob, who told me that I needed to film some of Liv Elin’s work from other angles, nearer, further away and so on. I went back the next day, following his advice in order to make as good a visual story as possible.

Everyone who’s travelling between Trondheim and Steinkjer are advised to go to Gulburet, enter the farm shop, sense pleasant fragrances from the bakery, buy various dishes in the cafe and sit outside in the garden if the weather permits, alternatively sit inside on the floor above the farm shop. Beer tastings and dinners are occasionally arranged for groups. A special type of dinner is called 905 and 1905, where the last number is the year when Norway got independent and 905 is 1000 years before. Then, guests are served typical dishes from 905 when Scandinavian vikings imported exotic foods from the Levant and from 1905.

Both Saga and Gulburet are members of Den gyldne omvei, meaning the Golden detour, where visitors can find accommodation, places to eat, art exhibitions, farm shops and even more.

06/08/2017
Sourdough bread course

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A small bakery called «Ille bakeri» recently arranged a course on how to make a sourdough bread in 4 hours. Upon arrival at Mølleren Sylvia , the baker Martin Hveem Fjeld had put 11 bowls, one for each participant, on a table. Before starting the course, each of us should make a short presentation. Some of us had already made sourdough breads, but with very variable success. I had tried it once at another course, but I didn’t go on afterwards. Anyway, when we started baking, we were all on more or less the same level.

Martin had already made a sourdough starter, and having poured a fixed amount of water and sourdough starter in each bowl, we should first stir the mixture well. Next, he poured a fixed amount of wheat flour from Holli mill into each bowl, which we should stir until both water, starter and flour was mixed well together. Martin‘s only using wholemeal flour meaning that it contains both endosperm, germ and bran, keeping both taste and nutrients.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereal_germ#/media/File:Wheat-kernel_nutrition.png

Gluten (from Latin gluten, “glue”) is a composite of storage proteins termed prolamins and glutelins and stored together with starch in the endosperm (which nourishes the embryonic plant during germination) of various grass-related grains.

Gluten is appreciated for its viscoelastic properties. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.

Gluten enables dough with yeast to leaven because it forms a network of small walls which confines carbon dioxide and water vapour inside the dough. It also works as a binder in the dough, making it easier to work with.

Holli mill grinds grain by means of millstones where the germ is ground into the flour such that it contains more fat than grinding by means of a roller mill, which is used for industrial production of flour.

Sourdough starters contain yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. While the yeasts expand bread by leaving air pockets after baking, the lactic acid bacteria improve taste, sight, smell and touch of bread as well as their shelf life, nutritional value and wholesomeness. A sourdough starter contains thousands of different microorganisms, which will leaven the bread much slower than when using baker’s yeast.

After about half an hour, we were told to pull the dough away from the wall of the bowl, then let it fall back again. After we had completed this task, we should let the dough rest for about one hour before repeating the same procedure. Since the dough was very wet, we needed to scrape off the dough from our hands and inside the bowls by means of a spatula. During the stay inside the bowl, we could observe formation of bubbles appearing in the dough, which was a sure sign that the yeasts were turning sugars into carbon dioxide. After a break, we restricted the fermentation by adding unrefined salt.

Besides, by adding salt, the gluten network in the dough is broken up such that it will be arranged anew and form stronger and more bonds. Since we added unrefined salt, which contains some essential trace elements in very small concentrations. The main ones are calcium, magnesium and sulphate, which, while they are there in tiny concentrations (parts per million), they are important to human health and to bread production.

Next, we should turn the bowl such that the opening faced downwards and scrape the dough out of the bowl, letting it fall down on a wooden table on which we had applied flour in advance. We tightened up the dough by means of a dough scraper. This consisted of holding the scraper obliquely and pushing it below the dough, forcing it upwards, then pulling the scraper out. It seemed very easy when Martin did it, but when I should do it, the dough was so sticky that it got attached to the scraper. Unsurprisingly, several of us needed help to finish this task.

After a break, we watched Martin turn the dough into a sausage-shape, folding the dough onto itself, pulling the far end of the dough left and right, braiding the parts of the dough and folding them back on the dough. Having done the same at the middle and near end, he put the dough into a basket called a banneton in which he first poured a small amount of rice flour. They are called hevekurv in Norwegian, meaning leavening basket, because they are used to let the dough leaven.

Next, we should do the same as he did, but almost all of us asked Martin to help us with this work, which seemed easy when he did it, but not so easy when we should do it. Finally, everyone had a banneton with sourdough and having got both sourdough starter, flour, spatulas, a razor blade with a wooden handle and a dough scraper, we left the premises. We were told to let the dough stay in a fridge for at least 12 hours before baking it and we should use the razor blade to make some cuts in the dough such it could expand through the cracks during baking.

I baked the bread, but I had to lower the temperature from the recommended 250ºC to about 175ºC because the crust was getting burnt. After baking, I had a delicious sourdough bread for a few days.

For those who are interested in knowing more Martin’s breads, he has made a book on the breads with a couple of friends. It can be found in Norwegian here and in English here. He arranges courses occasionally and they can be found at his web page.

Making a sourdough bread or any other bakery product from sourdough entails using the same procedure for baking as was done from the dawn of civilisation to about 1900 when baker’s yeast started replacing sourdough.

As a follow-up, The Ultimate Guide to Sourdough Bread might come in handy.

21/05/2017
A course on edible weeds

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I went to a course on wild, edible plants in May last year, but I never got around to start collecting and eating them. However, I saw that Rita Amundsen was going to hold a similar course, and having known her exceptional capabilities as a herbalist for several years, I knew that it would be a good course.

After the microgreens course, I’ve been thinking about buying a small growth system in order to grow vegetables in my apartment, but after another course on wild, edible plants, I have changed my mind. Why spend money on a growth system when you can collect edible plants outside for free? Besides, they are robust and nobody is spraying them. Since we have a wet and cold spring in Norway, even plants inside greenhouses grow slowly, while wild plants seemingly don’t notice that they should do the same. Having been here since the last ice age about 10.000 years ago, they have adapted to our unpredictable weather.

Having introduced ourselves, we went just outside the property of the Amundsen family in order to collect plants like ground elder, common nettle, ground-ivy, Turkish wartycabbage and garlic mustard, while inside the garden Rita had planted ramson, which we also collected. In addition, she had collected seeds of elm, rowan leaves, dandelion and meadowsweet/meadow wort beforehand.

After having finished collecting, we entered the living room and sat around a table. Next, Rita put some herbs she had collected in a jar and poured water into it. She also passed around a tray with herbs, which we were asked to put in a cup and pour boiling water into it. After waiting for some minutes, all of us could enjoy fresh, herbal tea. She told us that we should start collecting only a few plants and know as many recipes as possible and gradually increasing our range of edible weeds. Or, as I would have preferred, just do whatever you want without using any recipe. She let us know about ways of preservation like drying, making lemonades and deep-freezing. She highly recommended labelling the jars before storing them. Next, she read aloud tasks to be done, ranging from making pancakes and omelettes to herbal butter, frying dandelions and many other courses. I selected making herbal butter, which consisted of chopping herbs into small pieces, putting them in a bowl with butter and mixing everything by means of a fork.

Finally, we had a tasty, delicious and wholesome meal together. Rita told us that she’s only using weeds for food and not medicine, but she referred us to Rolv Hjlemstad, maybe our country’s foremost expert on medicinal use of weeds.

After having finished the course, I’ve started looking for edible weeds, in particular common nettle, because it’s so easy to recognise. Having been burnt by this plant many times, I’ve always avoided them, but now I want to eat them instead!

13/05/2017
Microgreens course

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I recently went to a course in growing microgreens arranged by nabolagshager, meaning neighbourhood gardens. Microgreens are young seedlings of edible vegetables and herbs harvested less than 14 days after germination.

Our teacher, Christopher Rodriguez, has recently founded a company called Tåsen microgreens. Interestingly, he and his wife grow microgreens for a living in a former storeroom , which should nornally be inhospitable to plants in general. Instead, by means of artificial light and irrigation, they are able to make a living by selling microgreens to restaurants, catering companies, etc. Before we started the course, Christopher showed us a well-assorted range of microgreens, ranging in colour from bluish to various shades of green, while the sizes were on the order of 10×10 cm². Surprisingly, the microgreens looked like small fertile gardens completely covered with greenery, which had accidentally ended up in a classroom.

After having given us a short description of his background, his company and microgreens in general, we were given small plastic boxes in which we should fill a layer of vermiculite. According to this website, vermiculite is used as a soilless growing medium, which allows gardeners to grow healthier plants without the threat of soil-borne diseases. Plants grown in soilless mixes are also less likely to be bothered by pests. He also informed us about other types of soilless growing media, like perlite, sand and coconut coir.

Next, we could select which types of seeds we wanted to grow like broccoli, celery, clover, leek, mizuna, pak choi, ruccola, etc. I selected ruccola and a type of Brassica oleracea because we were told that they are easy to grow. Christopher showed us how to disperse the seeds by holding a small amount of seeds and shaking our hands above the boxes with vermiculite. Finally, we sprayed each box with a generous amount of water. Besides, each box had been perforated in the lower corners and we were advised to let the boxes stay for some time in shallow water such that water would enter through the holes.

Back at home, I put the boxes in a bucket filled with a little water twice daily and I applied water carefully on the surface of the growing media. Actually, a spray would have been better, but I only wanted to do this once. After just a few days, tiny sprouts appeared among the grains of vermiculite and after two weeks, the microgreens were ready to be harvested. Then, I cut off one of the walls of the plastic boxes and I cut the microgreens with scissors. Using them as garnish added a delicious touch to each meal.

I recently got an email from someone who’s reading this blog and he let me know that growing (edible) plants in boxes is called container gardening. For those who want to know more about it, I recommend having a look at his blog.

Having tried growing microgreens, I would definitely recommend doing it for those who like growing their own food with very little effort. An introduction can be found here.

09/03/2017
Eve’s community garden
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I joined Eve’s garden in 2015 because the objective was to help local small-scale producers of foods and drinks by selling their products under one roof. Besides, visits to some of the producers who deliver their products to Eve’s garden, like Ånerud farm are arranged occasionally.

When Eve’s community garden was to be established in winter 2016, I naturally joined and bought a part. 40 parts were up for sale, but there are still a few left. The part owners are called grønnskollinger meaning greenheads where grønn in Norwegian means both the colour green and someone who is inexperienced. Since all of the part owners, as far as I know, have no or very little experience with growing edible plants, it is an apt description.

As stated on the website of Eve’s community garden, there are several reasons for growing our own food, like:
- total control of what we eat and no residues of pesticides.
- fresh vegetables are tasty and nutritious.
- a large selection since we can grow what we want.
- we take care of the soil by using it for producing food and letting it remain fertile.
- less transport is good for the environment.
- we get more knowledgeable about cultivation and nature.
After having founded the community garden, a closed Facebook page was set up and groups were founded, like one for carpenting, compost and herbs, while I joined the photography group and the beekeeper’s group. Unfortunately, another beekeeper has a storeroom nearby such that we can’t have any beehives in the community garden.

Since we started in the middle of winter, all of us were asked to raise tomato plants at home where volunteers got some pots, soil and seeds. Naturally, I also wanted to raise tomatoes and after having put seeds in soil and waiting for, say, a week where nothing seemed to happen, suddenly tiny shoots appeared. Next, tiny leaves appeared as well. Thereafter, the tomato plants grew steadily bigger until I brought them to the community garden in the middle of June for participating in preparing the garden. When I had last been there, the garden looked like a greenfield, but now rows covered by a layer of grasses in order to prevent weeds from growing and wooden cases partly covered by windows in order to create miniature greenhouses were visible.

Next, we prepared another row for planting, which was really hard work because the soil was so hard. Finally, after having broken up the soil, some part owners started planting tomato plants and suspending them by a piece of string attached to vertical poles at both ends of the row.

Later, I have also been watering, weeding, putting hay bales into wooden cases and cutting bamboo poles in fixed lengths for use as holders of signs, showing what is grown where besides making a visual reportage of the community garden.

In return for all this work, we get weekly messages telling us about what we can harvest whenever we want.

Since this community garden started from scratch this year, I’m still a part owner at Ødeverp farm where edible plants have been grown since 1990. As I had expected at the start of the season, it takes time to grow a community garden and we have to be patient.

As regards next year, mixed cropping will be practised. In particular, maize (a tall grass), beans (a nitrogen-fixing legume) and squash (a low-lying creeper plant) will be grown together. This kind of agriculture was practised by Native Americans for ages and they called the three plants the Three Sisters. Growing more herbs and fruit trees are also planned.

A greenhouse is very high on our wishlist, but may still be beyond our means.What’s for sure is that there will always be something we would like to get hold of, but which we can’t afford.

Eve’s community garden exchanges seeds, plants and experiences with Sylling Andellandbruk and Kirkerud Andelsgård. In addition, the researcher from Lindum who was conducting a field trial of growing cereals has a container, where he makes compost by means of earthworms, next to the community garden, Since there are also several organic farms with cattle and horses nearby, there is a ready supply of organic fertilisers and compost. Some of the part owners also make compost from residues in the community garden. As shown on this web site, there is a lot to learn about composting too. Here is another web site on composting and here is a third one, a fourth one, a fifth one and a sixth one. Here’s a website on the science of composting.

We moved the community garden to Renskaug vertsgård in late winter of 2017 because we got better conditions and even help from the resident farmer. This year, we didn’t need to break up the soil because the farmer plowed for us instead. By working together, we have planted a wide variety of edible plants. We still don’t have a greenhouse, but as last year, we have had great success with growing plants in wooden cases. Now, one reader of this blog has told me that this is called container gardening and, as is explained in that blog, there is a lot to learn about it.

Being a part owner in a community garden also contributes to reducing food waste.

A guide on growing squash is included here.

A web site called Thank Your Garden can be found here.

Here you can find out something about how composting works.
14/08/2016

Falling number (sec)	Sprouting indication
More than 300	No sprout damage
Between 200 and 300	Some sprouting
Less than 200	Severe sprout damage