A long, cold, snowy winter

Our climate is in increasing chaos. The polar air circulation is in imbalance. Even though the planet had one of the top ten hottest February months ever recorded, in our small town, it was colder than any of the neighbours remember. We had almost all of January with a dry, cold, eastern wind, without snow, so the soil froze solid, deeper every day. Since February 10, snow has covered the ground, keeping the frozen soil under a protective white carpet. These are tough conditions for small trees, when their entire root system is frozen solid. It is too early to tell the losses, but some casualties are certain. Last winter we only had a few days below freezing, now two months.

Society is changing too.

Here in Europe, "natural resources", a.k.a. mineral deposits are running low. Unsurprising, since corporations are valued for extracting the good stuff as fast as possible. Not much left of high quality deposits anywhere across the old continent where mining started in earnest a couple of hundred years ago. Not much gold, silver, copper, coal, oil, cod, salmon, old growth forests left.

Even though political shouting is loud and hot, we are in for a long winter here up north.

Despite eloquent talk about sustainability, the main political focus is to borrow money, buy missiles and remove environmental regulation that currently make the worst mining practices unprofitable. In EU, we got a "Critical raw materials act" in 2024, which is a red carpet for global mining businesses to come and extract the last scraps here, with minimal regard to the rivers, forests and people who happen to live on top of the mineral ore seams.

I often wonder if our "leaders" are incompetent or malicious, but until proven wrong, I follow the maxim of Hanlon's Razor - incompetence is more probable. In this case, maybe social posturing is a better explanation. Pretending that everything is fine, and downplaying risks was taught at leadership courses I followed when working in commercial Industry. Always exude confidence and excellent future opportunities, even when the company is bleeding money, was the mantra. I suspect that political leaders are trained in the same media-management school. Maybe this explains the impulse of our political and industrial leaders to charge ahead for "green growth"?

Fifty years ago, after a referendum to phase out nuclear power stations, there was a broad parliamentary committee devoted to Energy Conservation in Sweden. During a brief ten years of existence, they introduced a series of proposals that ended up in laws, including mandatory insulation of new buildings. Unfortunately, in 1991, the committee was dissolved by a young and arrogant prime minister who wanted more "optimism". It seems very unlikely that we will restart something that sensible these days...

So, the last week, I have been cutting up and splitting firewood to replenish the energy bank account. We have enough for at least one more winter, so this will dry and cure until the 2028-2029 winter season. Who knows what kind of winter we will have then?

Anyways, the last day of the month is the last day of winter. Now comes the sun.

Snow and frost is beautiful on the beech trees.

Our garage work area is covered in white magic.

When we moved here, we fenced the farm to keep hares, rabbits and voles out. It seems to work.

Hare tracks come to our fence and turn back.

The poly tunnels have been great to shelter our layers over the winter. Especially in January when we had lots of cold wind coming in, but also now in the snow.

Some days I had to shovel my way into the polytunnel.

The hens are happy in the tunnel, where there is no wind.

Our courtyard is very quiet when the snow is dampening all noises.

We took several walks on the beach this winter. It was quite something to see the sea frozen. The water is a part of the Atlantic, so the salt level is quite high. It is not often the sea freezes here.

The bay of the sea was all covered in ice.

Unsurprisingly, the nude beach was empty.

Growing the farm

Nuts

The soil has been frozen deep this year, so I have a long period of rest from shoveling. That is good for my elbow where I got some pains last year.

We started the fourth year-long nut growing course at Holma community college, with a new group of 21 people.

A great group at the nut growing course.

We looked at the air-pruning beds for nut seedlings.

Fabian is starting another nut tree nursery at the South-South-East corner of our country, near Kivik.

Nuts are great for so many things. In November, I met a woman who was making buttons from nut shells.

Hazelnut shell buttons.

I also could purchase four kilos of seed nuts from the excellent walnut grower Lars Olesen in Denmark. I store all nuts in moist sand until April, when it is time to sprout and sow.

About half-sand, half nuts by volume.

Trees

We run a chestnut development project, with a test site in Sinarpsdalen, about 20 km from our place.

Samuel helped to cut down some 20 small and 2 large trees.

A lot of work to clean up the place and move the firewood to the outside.

Here, we have room for the next generation of the chestnut project.

Some trees are just generous with flowers.

Pear branches that we cut a couple of weeks back, now in white flowers.

Food

I am growing a nut that is not a nut, but called a nut. Apios americana - the american groundnut. It is a legume climber with beautiful purple flowers and an edible tuber.

The tubers are located along an underground string.

Fried groundnuts are delicious. Somewhere between chestnuts and potatoes.

At the nut-course, we had a cooking session with the amazing chef Anna M. She taught me a new way of cooking dried chestnuts. Soak overnight and fry with oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Delicious! Actually even better than frying deep-frozen chestnuts, which we trialled side by side. Dried chestnuts are so much simpler to handle than deep-frozen, so I know what I will do more of coming October.

Frying chestnuts in oil, salt and pepper is great.