Tag: haymaking

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
Sárig Attila – farmer

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Attila Sárig lives in the village where he was born together with his Hungarian wife Reka and their young son Benedec. Like all or almost all houses in the village, their property is not visible from the gravel road passing through the village because it is hidden by high fences and a big gate. The gates were probably meant for letting a horse and cart pass through, but nowadays it could also be someone’s car, which should pass through it. During my stay, it felt like there were as many horse-drawn carts as cars passing outside. The village is surrounded by hills covered by meadows full of wildflowers and deciduous forests, making it ideal for those who want rural settings in a beautiful place.

Having entered the gate, there is a small house in which the Sárig family have a combined kitchen and dining room for themselves and for their guests. There is also a small house divided in two where one part is the living quarters for the Sárig family, while the other one is the combined bedroom and bathroom for their guests.

The Sárig family slaughter their own animals and they make almost all their food themselves. Having been their guest for two days, I can attest to their delicious and genuine food – a real culinary pleasure.

Just outside their property, there is a communal garden where each family have a plot for growing vegetables and both Attila and his wife spent lots of time there tending their vegetables. Moreover, Attila’s parents have a small farm outside the village where they have six cows, 2 of their own, 2 of Attila’s family and 2 of his brother’s family. When we arrived, the cows had been let out by Attila’s parents to go grazing and they had left fresh milk from the cows in a container. Actually, the cows are milked in the morning before they are let out to go grazing, then they return in the evening when they are milked again.

Attila made a fire and put a pot with the fresh milk above it. When the milk was hot enough, about 35°C, he poured rennet on the milk and waited about 30 minutes in order to let the milk start curdling. Then, he used a knife in order to cut the cheese mass into small parts (dairies use a device called a harp to obtain the same thing) before he started stirring the cheese mass continuously. When he could gradually feel that the cheese grains were becoming more solid, he put a porous cloth into the mass, collecting the cheese grains carefully inside the cloth. He joined the corners of the cloth and lifted it up, put it in a container with an opening. through which the whey could flow and fall down in a bucket. Next, he put the cloth in a large metal ring and compressed the cheese mass in order to let the whey flow out and finally he put some weights on it in order to press out more whey.

The remaining whey was reheated and he used a utensil to collect two dishes with cheese, the cheesemaker’s soup. – a real, tasty treat. Finally, he extracted the rest of the cheese mass, which is called ricotta because it is heated twice, and poured it into a porous cloth. When everything had been extracted, he hung up the cloth with the ricotta such that the whey could escape.

Having finished making cheese, Attila used a scythe to cut some nettles which he mixed with a part of the remaining whey and gave it to a sow which lived next to the cheesemaking cottage. The rest was collected in bottles in order to give it to the pig at their house.

Attila prefers to sell his cheeses to someone he knows because there are so many rules if he sells them at markets and he has to pay for lots of paperwork.

Attila’s family also grow vegetables at the second farm, but wild animals like deer and wild boar enter the garden. They have set up an electric fence around it, but he also plans to set up a wooden fence.

Having hiked back to the village via another path, we went to a small meadow where Attila asked me to help him bring some haystacks inside a barn because it started raining. Of course, we had to do it the Romanian way, which consisted of putting two poles below the haystack before carrying it inside. The thick end of the pole had to be inserted below the haystack first and it had to be lifted occasionally in order to create some space around it, then pushed again until it passed below the whole haystack. Although the haystacks looked small, they were surprisingly heavy.

Attila and his parents have a house in the village where they want to set up an agricultural school. They want to teach everyone how to grow vegetables organically. He thought it was impossible until he went to an agricultural school in Sogn, Norway where he saw that students of all ages really wanted to learn about organic agriculture.

Attila and some locals arrange a haymaking festival every August and about 20 participants were expected at the festival this year. The guests would be housed in various places in the village and they would mow different kinds of meadows, ranging from lowland ones near the village to highland ones in the mountains.

For those who want to know more, a journalist from National Geographic has written this article.

02/06/2015
Haymaking course at Ryghsetra

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Having watched the locals in Maramures in Romania haymaking and setting up huge haystacks, I gradually started thinking abut joining a haymaking course a short distance from where I live. It had been organised annually for the last 20 years by the local Friends of the Earth, but I never got around to joining it. Besides wanting a greater diversity of foods and drinks, I also very much want a greater diversity in nature. Although having just a superficial knowledge of biology, I knew well that meadows are disappearing together with biological diversity. Being better late than never, I joined this year in order to help keeping at least one meadow open.

This year, the course included about 70 participants, most of them from Norway and Sweden, but also groups from Romania and Spain. In all, there were 10 nationalities on the course. Naturally, the other participants came for various reasons, but for me, the haymaking course was a means to an end as explained above.

The meadow we should mow has never been fertilised with artificial fertilisers and it has only been used sparingly as a pasture. Since the depth of the soil is low, it has never been plowed. In fact, before the 1850s, only fields meant for growing food for human consumption were fertilised with animal dung, while saltpeter and artificial fertilisers were gradually put to use later.

A botanist and an entomologist followed us around the meadow before it was mowed, telling us about the local flora and fauna. In fact, this meadow has a huge variety of plants and insects together with various mushrooms and critters living in the soil. By mowing the meadow annually, all plants have to start from the same level such that fast-growing ones which consume lots of nutrients are prevented from out-competing small, slow-growing ones. While honey bees do an excellent job pollinating edible plants grown by man, wild bees, wasps, and bumblebees do a much better job pollinating wild flowers. Since there are so many insects on the meadow, there are also lots of birds feeding on them.

We learnt how to use a scythe and how to keep it sharp besides setting up hay racks. However, I left grinding the scythes to the experts, just using a whetstone to keep my scythe sharp. A big part of the job also consisted of raking the justly cut hay in heaps and bringing them to the hay racks. This was done efficiently by laying a tarpaulin on the ground, raking the hay onto the tarp, and pulling it to the hay rack. The donkey Picasso was also used for this purpose.

The hay racks consisted of a row of vertical, wooden poles standing on the ground and connected by horizonal steel wires. We were asked to shake the hay before we put it on the steel wire in order to make the hay uniform, else parts of it would not dry and start rotting. A secondary reason was spreading seeds of the local flowers on the ground. When the whole row was filled with hay, a new steel wire was attached to the poles about 30 cm higher up and the whole procedure was repeated until the hay rack reached a maximum height of about 1.75 m.

Haymaking has been practised since tools of iron started being made 1500(?) years ago, but animal husbandry has been practised much longer. Since winters in Norway are generally long and cold and the growing season is short, pollarding was used to feed the animals. That is, branches from trees like elm, ash and willow were cut every 5-7 years, collected in bundles, hung up to dry in a draughty place and given to the animals in winter and early spring.

Since there was an old elm tree next to the meadow and the branches on the top of the tree were ready for pollarding, we were given a demonstration on how to do it. After having cut some branches with leaves, the longest ones were laid in parallel on the ground, while the short ones were laid perpendicularly on top. When enough branches had been collected, bark from the branches was taken off and used as a rope to tie the branches together. Afterwards, two volunteers cut the branches, while others were collecting the branches in bundles until the whole tree had been pollarded.

Trees which have been pollarded start rotting inside and become hollow. A large range of mosses, lichens and insects live in these trees, while birds may find nesting places there.

All in all, I liked this course very much and it gave me a good feeling making a small contribution to biological diversity. The invitation to this year’s course can be found here.

For an alternative view of the same course, another participant called Neil Diment, wrote an article which appeared in The Windrow no. 9, 2015 on pages 10 and 11.

Another haymaking course was arranged in 2015 where participants from 14 countries worked together for 3 days. Photos from the course are shown below.

Although haymaking is done the same way every year, it was nice sensing the smell of freshly cut hay again, listening to the scythe cutting hay, trying to move my whole body while scything in order to avoid getting tired easily, raking the hay and shaking it before putting in on the hay racks. I also liked watching swallows flying dexterously, while catching insects, above the meadow. Besides, it was great when an entomologist showed us various types of small creatures, like grasshoppers, insects which look like wasps to scare off predators and another one, which encloses itself in foam.

We also did pollarding this year, but the elm tree, which was pollarded last year was left in peace even though it looked like it had recovered completely. Instead, we pollarded an ash tree and a willow tree and we bound bunches of branches together by means of bark, forming bundles. After having dried, they would be given to sheep in winter as high quality food.

Like last year, we cleared a part of the forest adjacent to the meadow using saws and garden cutters. Actually, this work was the most physically demanding part of the course, first sawing trees, then pulling them further into the forest.

July 2018: the haymaking course was arranged for the 25th and last time by the Friends of the Earth in the county of Buskerud. Since it was an open day on Saturday, I went back again, but only bringing an audio recorder and a microphone. As always, there was a live performance by two musicians together with a group of people who were mowing a meadow, one person after the other, forming a diagonal. The recording can be listened to here.

13/07/2014
Haymaking in Maramures

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When travelling around Maramures near the border with Ukraine, people doing manual work in the meadows and tall, round haystacks are a common sight. Workers, men and women, girls and boys, walking along the road with wooden pitchforks and scythes on their shoulders on hot summer days wearing nothing on their heads to protect themselves from the fierce sun are also commonly seen. Having let industrial agriculture, which has swept across the whole of Western Europe, pass them by they still work as farmers were doing 100 years ago.

The hay is used to feed their horses and cows from late autumn to early spring and it requires huge amounts of work. From mowing the meadows with a scythe to raking the hay into small heaps and turning it around to make it dry to making huge haystacks to filling a cart with hay and bringing it back to the farm is a type of work which most of our great-grandparents had left behind.

Having joined a haymaking course and worked as a volunteer on an overgrown meadow, I can confirm that haymaking is hard work. You have to work on a field with no shade, you need to sharpen your scythe regularly, the ground may be uneven making scything difficult, you may need to scythe or rake upwards, you need to drink water regularly, and preferably take a break occasionally. However, everyone is working towards a common goal, there is no boss such that everyone is equal, everyone works as hard as he/she is capable of. All these factors contribute to that you feel you are a part of a group and your work is appreciated.

As regards the haystacks, they are really big. Before making one, three poles are bound together at one point and the opposite ends are driven into the ground. Then, hay is stacked around the poles such that the height of the haystack may reach heights of 3(?) metres. The workers use ladders to get on top of the haystacks and put even more hay on the top. Being an outsider, it was a beautiful sight to see rows upon rows of haystacks on the meadows, enriching my visual experience. For the locals, it may be something completely different. However, having been haymaking myself, I still think haystacks and hayracks on a freshly mowed meadow look lovely.

Incidentally, the great Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel painted The Corn Harvest in 1565. Judging from this painting, the characters in the painting would have felt at home at haymaking in Maramures.

For those who want to know more, this article is highly recommended.

18/06/2013