Visit at Rökstadtorpet

Posted on 26th January 2015 by Veronica

Welcome back to Hyperbrain.me! I took a break in January (and most of February) to recharge a bit and work on new material. Those tutorials I promised are coming. But first I would like to share with you a bit of what I did in January.

In early January I traveled up to Sweden to master the latest release from my music project V-kaos in Endarker Studio plus also take care of some other administration (there’s always some when you live abroad). Earlier I used to work in a handicraft shop called Korps (they sell fabrics, yarns and other products related to historical reenactment), so I took the chance to go visit my former boss and her family. Already when I worked there we became good friends and stayed in contact ever since, even if I live far away.

Korp, Robban and their children live on a small farm in the countryside outside Söderköping in Sweden. The farm is called Rökstadtorpet. They practically live a fully self-sufficient life where they produce their own meat and dairy products, grow vegetables, herbs and other crops, craft and sew clothes and make most things with their own hands. I look up to people that have this kind of knowledge and have always done so.

For myself I find a ”light” version of the life they live to be enough, since it’s not very easy. Having a lot of animals demands that you or someone else is at home to feed and take care of them at least once a day. Having a few chickens is one thing, but having cows and sheep demands quite another level of work.

That said, I do believe that society would have a lot to win from people working together to a larger extent to share this type of responsibility instead of handing over all of our food production on large-scale farmers. I think that people would appreciate their food more and really care about where it comes from and how it has been produced. I also believe that it would be healthy for most people to have more contact with animals and nature for some hours a week.

While visiting I got a quick look into how much actually has to be taken care of daily on a farm. There is always something needing to be done. At the same time you also have the time and possibility to just go out for a horse ride or sit watching the view for a bit. It’s incredibly beautiful around where they live so I understand why they are happy there.

For those of you who read Swedish you can have a look at this article to get to know a bit more about how they live in this family (or use Google translate – or at least have a look at the photos). Korp jokingly told me that people accept that they are a bit ”weird” since they have always been open about how they live from the start. I would rather say that people in general are strange when not realizing how short time ago it was that living the way they do was the norm.

Having knowledge about how to produce your own food or how to slaughter an animal when needing to is something you can always lean back on, even if your life would change in unexpected ways. This is knowledge that never grows old – even if there of course are better methods today than there was around 60-70 years ago.

In the next article I’ll get started on a mini series on the theme compact gardening. I take inspiration from Permaculture principles and urban gardening to show that everyone can get a bit more contact with nature through growing something of their own. All you need is a window, a small balcony or a few square meters of land to get started.

Hope you’ll join me and share what you are doing!

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Veronica

Veronica is the founder of Hyperbrain.me. With one foot in the past and one in the future she takes inspiration from older aesthetics and ideas to apply them in updated form today. She is passionate about teaching timeless skills and believes that the world needs more polymaths.