October is the month of chestnuts. Maybe October even means chestnut in latin? No, it means eighth month, which was true a long time back, but no longer. Like many truths that were true in old times long time gone but no longer accurate. Statements like "growth is …
read moreApples are the quintessential fruit in Scandinavia. It was introduced all the way from Central Asia to Sweden more than 4500 years ago, during the stone age. The oldest archeological finds are from 2500 BCE. Apples are still the most grown fruit, present in many private …
read moreI like peppers. They grow great in our hoop house and they look amazing. We have several varieties, from 'Long slim' to 'Cayenne' and a few that have long lost their providence, but we keep seeding. They change over time, of course, due to cross-pollination with each other …
read moreOnce upon a time, we taught our children that there are consequences for our actions. The debts we took on had to be paid back. There was a lot of talk about responsibility (in the personal kind, not the blame-someone-else type of responsibility rants …
read moreIn the entertaining book "Fruit for Life" by Tim Foster, he tells about the old rhyme to prune the prunes (e.g. plums, cherries, abricots etc.) in June. The old cherry tree gave two cherries this year, and they are long gone, so now would be a good …
read moreWe live in a time of slow and inevitable collapse, as the most excellent blogger Chris eloquently describes from his small-farm, small-business perspective from the other side of the planet. We have been overloading the planet for fifty years and the ecosystems start to unravel. At the …
read moreWho is the greater fool? Probably me.
Many of my old friends think that we are crazy who moved to a farm, just outside a forgotten small town. What could possibly be interesting out there?, they scoff.
When I talk to old buddies, from my engineering past, they …
read moreAll over Europe, farmers protest. The tension between the central urban power and the weakened periphery is growing. For decades, the cities have amassed wealth, power and privilege, while ignoring and exploiting the countryside folks.
The urban elites with academic diplomas have taken over most political parties. Even …
read moreThis 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 more