This month I am re-reading the most excellent book Overshoot by William R. Catton. If you have not read it yet, make a note to get a copy from your local library, and read and reflect. The predicament of our Civilization is long in the making …
read moreThis fall and winter, we have intermittently worked on our sunny room. It is the south-most room in the old part of our house, built in the 1800s. We chose to put in large new windows in the hitherto window-less south wall of our house …
read moreI would like to start with a winter story I heard a few times when I lived in Russia in the 1990s. It was an anecdote about the poor results of state-led allocation of resources.
"In the Soviet Union times, the government resource …
read moreIt was a month with record low sunshine. 29 hours, according to the statisticians. One hour per day. The rest of the time it was gray, and quite a few of those long, drizzling rain days.
We did get started on some outdoor projects. The most …
read moreIn October the walnuts and the chestnuts are ripe here in Southern Sweden. This summer, we have been biking around the villages in around here and talking to people with nut trees in their gardens to ask if we could come and harvest later. Everyone we …
read moreFrom times immemorial, there have been sayings in the style of: "as you sow, you shall reap". Ominous words, indicating that you get your just deserts when fall comes.
Those of us who are eager and optimistic infallibly sow more than is practical to harvest. Especially in …
read moreI want to share a few memories of my time with Joop Wantenaar, one of my best friends. Joop passed away on 31 august this year.
Joop played a key role in my life during the last eight years. Without the discussions with Joop and his generous …
read moreAugust came and went. It is usually the warmest month, but this year we had not a single day reaching 30C. After a very dry early summer, we have had for almost every day in both July and August. Very unusual weather. One day we had …
read moreThe summer is an exciting time, when the chestnuts that I seeded in March are growing out into small treses.
I built two airprune beds and they seem to work fine. One was weak in the bottom and fell out, so I fixed that one, and the other …
read moreI love trees. Trees are our friends and teachers. Trees have been around for millions of years. The oldest family that is still with us is the Ginkgo family, with small changes over the last 200 million years. They were around in the time of the dinosaurs …
read moreJune has been extraordinary dry. No rain for six weeks and 25-30 degrees most of the days. Neighbour farmers even ir!rigate the grassy hayfields, which I hear is new in this area. In the past, only vegetables and sometimes grains were irrigated. Since May I have been …
read moreOrganic growth in the early summer is amazing. We have warm and pleasant weather (20-25C at noon, 10C minimum), so everything that is planted out is growing like crazy.
Chestnut seedlings on an air-pruning table
The poly-tunnel is a mediterranean climate, of dry, warm weather. The figs …
read moreIt has been a crazy month. Very busy. Very good. Sometimes deeply sad, sometimes joyfully exuberant.
We give a ten day, whole year training on growing nuts, at Holma Folkhögskola, my friends Johanna, Anders and me.
Here we are at Anders' place Rydeholm.
Anders shows one of the …
Nut trees are the best, but I also like fruit trees. They all have a role to play in a diverse food ecosystem. Therefore I visited the nursery "Rögle Plantskola" between Ängelholm and Helsingborg. It is a 45 minute drive south from here, just on the …
read moreNow that the polytunnel is up, I can plant the chestnuts in a protected environment, without hard frosts and no wind chill.
The best roots develop when you plant a chestnut on the location where the tree will stand the rest of it's life. However, most …
read moreIn the end of the fall, I purchased a wood chipper that works as an attachment on the 2-wheel tractor. It is a sturdy wood chipper that uses the engine of the 2-wheel tractor in stand-still mode. Instead of servicing two engines, one for the tractor and …
read moreI have always been interested in cultures. In the past, I travelled a lot, and contributed an inordinate abount of carbon to our common atmosphere. Everywhere I came, I tried to learn some language, customs, traditions, norms and values. In some respects, people are people everywhere, but there …
read moreWe have had two weeks of splendid weather. Cold and dry and beautiful.
Some days the mercury dipped below -15C, which is quite unusual here in Southern Sweden. Therefore, we have taken every opportunity to enjoy the freshness of the snow and the silhouettes from the frost …
read moreBeing back in Sweden after 20 years living abroad, I notice some things that have improved and others that have degenerated or decayed. One of the disappointments flew in my face when I biked off to buy beer.
I realized that almost all beer in my local supermarket …
read moreTo grow healthy trees, it is good to remove rhizomatic weeds like quack grass before planting. I tried the method of "tarping". In September, I put large plastic sheets to cover blocks of the newly fertilized and tilled field. The plan was to solarize (block sunshine) the soil …
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