OUR FARM

: Ecological building with roof of sedum.

: The barn’s glass wall is like a piece of art.

: Beautiful room for yoga, meditation or meetings.

: Cosy accomodation in our four-bed rooms.

: Galder and the hens.

: Fruit and berries are pollinated by our own bees from Tiveden.

ecological BUILDINGS

Our farm is partly renovated, partly new. All solutions and materials, from energy to the outdoor toilets, are chosen from what is best for us and for Mother Earth. We have installed solar panels for heating water and solar cells to produce electricity. We have outdoor eco toilets where the urine is used to fertilize the fields.

All indoor painting is made with egg-oil tempera in colour combinations stimulating creativity and harmony. In addition the paint is free from all chemicals. The roof on our buildings are covered with sedum. It is not only beautiful, it will also last for more than hundred years.

cultivation

In our efforts to create a sustainable life our aim is to be self-sufficient and the cultivations are growing by the year. We have a newly established forest garden, in which we try to imitate nature’s well functioning systems. The purpose is to grow perennials, such as berry bushes, fruit trees, herbs and salads that give high output, increase the biodiversity and at the same time functions as a carbon sink.

We grow things we like to eat; potatoes and other root vegetables and a variety of cale – everything that is good to store for the winter and a lot of salads, tomatoes, peas, beans and strawberries that are a must in the summer. To grow squash and pumpkins, as well as sunchokes is a given and the most beautiful and useful area is probably the herbal garden.

food

The food we cook derive primarily from the farm or from local producers and is organic as far as possible. We go by the rhythm of the year and use the raw ingredients that are available for each season. We also catch fish from the beautiful clear water lake Unden and quite often we serve pike, perch and crayfish.

animals

The cats Tiger and Panter are accompanied by hens that are scratching and spreading manure to the cultivations. Apart from eggs they give, they also bring new chickens to the farm. In addition to the conventional bee keeping we have also started natural bee keeping, where the bees are allowed to build their own frames and get to keep their honey over the winter instead of being fed by unhealthy sugar. In the spring we harvest the honey that is left.

forests

Forests belonging to our farm are managed without making clear-fellings, which is the norm in Sweden. It is an old management practice in modern form where focus is on cutting the old mature trees and leave the rest to continue growing and maturing. The forest remains with trees in all sizes and ages and we aim for diversity. Some parts of the forest are becoming dense and in others we get small openings and the forest remains being a forest.

The advantage is that biological diversity is enriched and that carbon in the soil remains in the soil. A clear-felling releases a lot of carbon-dioxide and effects on climate change are negative. In the longer run we also expect that the economy will be better.