The association Food and Flavors in Northern Stockholm, Orkesta local community association, Vallentuna Municipality and Upplandsbygd jointly organized an inspirational meeting about emergency farming.
”"It is very positive when several organizations join forces and everyone contributes in different ways," says My Sellberg, project manager in Upplandsbygd's project. We Planet Caretakers which aims to contribute to resilience in gardening and agriculture.
The Orkesta community center's beautiful meeting room was filled with a bubbling murmur and a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. There was room for children to do crafts in their own corner and Lise Nelzén from The Hawker's Nest, who is also the chairman of the local history association, offered delicious sandwiches and pastries and sausages with bread for the children. Several of the participants had started by exchanging, buying and selling plants in the yard outside as part of the local history association's plant exchange day.
The program began with Anette Holmberg, the municipality's development manager for civil defense, talking about how the municipality is working to strengthen preparedness. She caught the participants' attention with the "rule of three": we can survive three weeks without food, but only three seconds without hope. She also showed how the municipality is practicing to build the capacity to cook in the field and without electricity (watch the movie here).
The evening's main event was an inspiring and informative lecture by Valerie Hasler – a committed hobby grower who has delved deeply into contingency farming and written a book and started the platform beredskapsodling.se. Valerie is a skilled and educational lecturer who gave a good overview of the topic and managed to involve the participants with questions such as ”What are you going to eat for 10 days in February when there is a power outage and you can't shop at the grocery store? And finally: ”Who do you want to be during a longer social disruption?” Do you want to be someone who is stressed and worried, or do you want to be someone who stands firm and can help others? She shared practical tips on everything from growing corn and cabbage, taking your own seeds, storing the harvest and fixing your own soil, fertilization and collecting rainwater for irrigation.
”We could have more meetings to exchange experiences and delve deeper into different themes, such as underground cellars or rainwater harvesting,” said one of the participants afterwards, who is also a member of the Upplandsbygd board.
The participants headed home and it felt like everyone learned something new and was inspired, both the beginners and those who were more experienced in cultivation and preparedness. They also received a gift from Vallentuna Municipality – local almond-type seed potatoes that they could plant in the ground right away. They fit well with the slogan from the First World War food shortage that Valerie quoted: ”Everyone plants potatoes except the boring ones.”.
The inspiration meeting was part of Upplandsbygd's project We Planet Caretakers. Would your organization also like to participate in organizing a meeting about emergency cultivation? Contact My Sellberg, the project manager, with your request.