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Egg-scuse Me

 
Here at Allmogegarden, each member of the WWOOFer family is responsible for preparing breakfast, fika, lunch and dinner on their designated kitchen day. The staple foods here right now are meat, potatoes, wheat and eggs. In the week before Midsummer, we needed to make sure we would have enough eggs to make the traditional strawberry cake...so chicken-responsible Meike banned the use of eggs in the kitchen! That didn't stop WWOOFer Aline from making pasta and chocolate cookies on her kitchen day. Here's her awesome recipe for eggless chocolate cookies. And let's not forget to wish her a bon anniversaire for today! 
 
Aline's Eggless Chocolate Cookies
250g plain flour
100g white sugar
2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
150g cold butter, cubed
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
 
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa and salt together. Add the butter, honey and vanilla sugar/extract, then knead the mixture until you have a homogeneous dough. 
 
Cover a plate with greaseproof paper. Scoop out a teaspoon of dough and roll into a small ball. Place the dough ball on the plate and flatten it lightly. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
 
Bake the cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes. They should still be a little soft in the middle when you take them out of the oven. Allow to cool before eating (this is hard, so let's make this step optional).

Hej hej

So much has happened on the farm since our last blog post. So let's see what's new...
 
 
Baby boom!
About 3 months ago, baby animals were popping out all over the place here at Allmogegarden! We welcomed piglets, ducklings, chicks, rabbits and lambs. They are all happy and healthy, and revelling in the long summer days here in the beautiful Swedish countryside.
 

New plant sauna
Thanks to WWOOFer Tobbe, Allmogegarden now has a new greenhouse. Tomato plants were moved in over a few days (a few cucumber plants snuck in too), and all inhabitants are now making the most of the warmer climate. 
 
 
How do you drive this thing?!
After sowing assorted seeds a little while ago, the fields are now in the process of being weeded. The first thing to do is drive the hacker between each row, which rips up the weeds underneath. This machine is horse-powered and is usually driven in teams of two, with one person leading the horse and the other working the machine. It takes a bit of time to learn how to work with the horse/machine/your fellow driver, but luckily there are lots of rows to practice on!
 
 
The Great Escape
Some of our rabbit residents have been enjoying "life on the outside" after breaking out of their enclosure...multiple times. This has kept the WWOOFers busy with almost daily rabbit hunts! But even though they can be hard to catch, at least they never run too far away. Word on the street is rabbits that stay inside their enclosure get to live a happy life...the others might not be so lucky...

Merry Christmas!

Hej Maria och Bengt!

We thought a normal Christmas card is way to boring so we wish you a merry Christmas on this way! We hope everything is fine at the farm and that you enjoy Christmas.
Also merry Christmas to the whole Allmogegarden- Community!

God jul, Hyvää joulua, frohe Weihnachten!

Hanni, Lena and Tapani




 
By the way, we are really sorry that we hacked your blog ;)
 
... and that we couldn't manage to take a better picture :D
 

Next step done!

Autumn started and a really big step towards completely self-sufficiency is done! We installed a new oven that heats up our tap water, the house and we use it for cooking- all at the same time!
 
 
 

But there are more changes going on here, for example we started to concrete the place for the new manure pile. 
 
 

Another one is that there are less Wwoofers now, just a cozy group!
 
 

Bengt got a really well working old harvesting machine, the work with it goes fast and efficient- even that its a little bit loud and dusty ;)
 

But we already harvestet ray, barley and two sorts of oat with it! (One of the oat sorts was mixed with peas)

Beside the work on "our" farm, we went now somedays to Bengts brothers farm to pick apples, relly nice! With "Fika" on the trailer between all the apple trees...

 

With the beginning of autumn the slaughtering season started as well and some of our sheep are in heaven now ;)

But just enjoy the pictures...!
 
Our little rabbit
(Dont be mad at me Hanni ;D )
Quality time!
Curious Alma
Who`s the chicken Mama?
Elvis high up in the trees
 
What a beautiful autumn morning!
 
 
 

Harvesting time!

After some weeks of work with hay, we finally managed to store all the hay in the top of our barn! It`s quite a lot and I`m sure that our cows, horses and sheep are looking forward to eat it all during winter!
And do you remember the picture from our first hay in the barn? (If not look at the blog “some impressions”)
Look at it now- you will not recognise it anymore!
 
 

Now it continues with the harvesting on the fields; we already cut barley and oat and now these grains are drying on hässja or bound together and leant on sticks. It`s really nice to watch this “grain-mans” moving in the wind ;)
 
 

But don`t think that the harvesting is only on the fields, we have such a lot of vegetables in our garden now that not even our always-hungry group can eat them all, so we started to conserve them for the winter. A lot of beetroot, squashes, onions, garlic and peas are already in glass jars, frozen or dried. And there`s much more coming!
 
 
 
 

It`s also the time for animal moving!
Our sweet little calve Hanni moved to her friend Dean and they`re really happy together! Even when they have small arguments when the milk is coming for them ;)
 
 

The big pig lady Doris moved to her gentle husband Leffe to become pregnant. But like a real lady, she`s just interested in the food in his house. Hopefully he can manage to change her mind and be more important than potatoes… ;)

Horse riding!

Because of the daily training with Karamel we can already ride her and she`s a really good horse! Even though she`s a little bit clumsy sometimes, she`s fast and motivated and we started our evening-rides again- relax on horsebacks!
 

Happy birthday!
The “wwoofers Mum” Angela had her 21 birthday! (Or was it the 27?)
We spent a nice day with her with cake, Lasagne and a little bit of relaxing on the lake- congratulations again!

 
Have a look on our daily life, a visit on a friends festival and a very interesting butter-skulpture.. ;)
 
 
 



Blue hands and some baby-stuff

The baby-boom continuers!

Our sweet cow Anna gave birth to a weak girl named Hanni. Our wwoofer Hanni cares about her night and day and so she gets bigger and stronger every day!
 
 
Dean is quiet big now but sadly not a man anymore… And he has a new "room" so he can be outside on the grassland- he really likes it!
 

And here is the promised rabbit-baby’s picture- since a few days they live alone, without their mother Trio so she can have a little holiday from them ;)
 

Not a baby anymore but a new animal on the farm as well is our beautiful horse Caramell! She was a little bit shy in the beginning but now she is used to us and a really lovely horse!
 

The story behind the blue hands..

A week ago we all went to a beautiful place between two little lakes to pick up blueberry’s. It was a wonderful day in the forest and we had a delicious lunch with soup heated up over the fire! But we were working a lot, too because we picked up about 150 Liter of the berry’s and afterwards we had to clean them all. Nice work but some of us still have coloured hands ;)
 
 
 
 

Adventure time!
Some of us went to a really old watermill which is still at work and it was really impressive! It’s like a high- tech construction that works only with the power of the water and the man there could explain a lot about the work in former times and the technique how that all works so well. And on our way back home we ate a lot of raspberry’s- delicious!
 
 

Some Impressions...

Beautiful Hässja on the fields
 
 
 
 

The first hay coming in :)

 

We had a very cosy "Fika" on the field!
 
 
 

 

...and a nice evening on the lake!

 
The proud parents Maria and Bengt with Zita (who is very tired after her swimming-lesson)
 
 

As mentioned in the last Blog, our garden is as beautiful as never before in this season!
 
 
 
Alma trying to break into the wheat-store... ;)

 

Our little rabbits are going out of their nest now and a new calve is born, but I don`t want to tell you everything... the next blog is comming soon!
 

Summer has started!

On Friday 19th of June we celebrated Midsommar! It was a great day full of very good food, fun, games and a little bit of “Snaps” ;)
But let me explain the whole day: We had 3 different groups. The first one was the “food team” and they conjured us a meal full with fresh potatoes from our fields, salmon, our own-slaughtered pigs (read more about them at the last Blog) and delicious strawberry cakes!
The second team was responsible for the games and they surprised us with 5 really funny ones! (I don’t want to explain every single one- just let the pictures speak ;) )
 


And the last team was the decoration- group, they had to decorate everything and care about the “Midsommar-stång”. But in the end, everybody just helped where he was needed and it was a nice day full of team- work!
As the tradition wants it, all of us had flowers in the hair (even some animals…) and we danced around the stång singing midsommar songs. In the evening, we all sat together with beautiful Irish background music- thanks!
 

Baby- boom at Allmogegarden!
Our cow Alma finally gave birth to her calve- it’s a very strong boy called Dean. He’s just always hungry and we feed him 3 times a day with milk (and of course with a lot of love from all the wwoofers)!
 

But he’s not the only baby here on the farm, a few days ago our sweet puppy Zita arrived! Maria’s darling is full with energy and plays the whole day long-with little sleeping breaks of course. And she really likes the taste of toes... watch out!
 

And don’t think that that’s all about offspring here because our rabbit Trio born 8 little, blind, naked rabbit baby’s- we are really looking forward to the day, when they are leaving the nest so we can see them!
 
Some hot work...
 
 

As usual in this time of the year, the grass is ready to cut! That means a lot of work for the horses and the people, we have to cut the grass at the even fields with the horses and on the hills or where a lots of stones are with hand. After that, we put it on the “hässja” to dry it. Then there’s work for the horses again to rake the rest of the grass so we can put it on the hässja, too. But it’s a good feeling when you finally see all the ready hey and the beautiful hässja standing on the fields!
 
 

And it’s not only the right time for hey, our garden is just full with delicious vegetables, herbs and beautiful flowers- just see it by yourself!
 
 


Strawberry’s, strawberry’s, strawberry’s..!
One day, half of us were allowed to pick a lot of strawberry’s at a friend’s farm and the other half processed them to delicate jam and juice, it was a big mess in the kitchen and it looked like somebody was murdered there, because of all the red liquid everywhere! And the cleaning day we had before? We would need one again!
And for everyone who hadn’t seen enough pictures from Allmogegarden yet, we have a great film made from our wwoofer Malthe! I’m sure you will enjoy it! https://vimeo.com/129645659
 

Crazy bees everywhere!

All wwoofers are working in silence, side by side weeding, corn planting or separating plants. A lot of wonderful flowers are in bloom around them and the sun shines with full power, a beautiful picture here in Allmogegarden! But… what’s that? Suddenly a dark, buzzing cloud arrives in the sky-the bees are swarming!
After they sat down on a tree, Bengt put them with all his knowledge (and some help ;) ) back to their home, hopefully they will stay there! (Otherwise the 10 stitches in Bengt’s hand would have been for nothing)
 
 
 

But there’s much more going on here…!

We moved Doris and her piglets away from the barn to a new field where they can stretch their legs and have new dirt to dig in! The last two of Doris’s Grown offspring were slaughtered to provide for the Midsummer BBQ. They will be missed, but the meat will be much appreciated!!
And not only these two pigs are dead now, we’ve slaughtered the mean black rooster, too- he should have acted more like a gentleman!

Because of the nice weather here, we opened the first outdoor kitchen in Allmogegarden! We have a very nicely working rocket stove and we can do our dishes out there too.

 

Our holy Cheesy Princess left a secret message for you- pssst!
“For a few months I’m taking over the duties of our beloved Milk Majesty who is in charge of all the milk.
As the Cheesy Princess I’m not only making softcheese or feta cheese with our precious milk, but also yoghurt, butter, messmör or sourmilk. It is really important to plan what is needed and to work with hygienic devices.
Since processing the milk is a lot of work- especially soon when more than one cow can be milked- I share the secrets of working with the milk and teach all the other wwoofers how to make our delicious home-made dairy products.”

 
 
 

Last but not least, we have a little story from our sheep manager Yeji about her work- enjoy it and dream about the beautiful Swedish landscape!
“My responsibility is very simple: go and count sheep. It’s really enjoyable to walk around the sheep pasture, see the beautiful scenery all around, especially the forest and rocky field, wide-wide sky of Sweden and hearing little lambs’ cute voices…
But usually they are scattered all over the pasture!

 
 
So the thing is:

We have 15 mother sheep and 22 lambs now, and some of them are so independent that they never stay with the herd. I could find one family (mother and 2 lambs) at the end of the road, behind some rocks or next to a lonely tree.
Sometimes sitting or lying sheep make just the same shape of rocks or bushes. So counting the sheep becomes hide-and-seek!
But after finishing counting them, the sheep manager feels just as after solving a big puzzle.”

Welcome back Summer !

With the return of The Sun King, comes the season of summer festivals, and Allmogegarden had its own ! The "Self-sufficiancy Festival" took place in Tolarp the 30th of May, and all the woofing family was part of it. We had the pleasure to welcome a lot of farming friendly people coming from ALL OVER THE WORLD !
 
 
The festival's planning took a lot of time and energy but the result was worth it ! Every woofer presented a different work shop and transmitted his knowledge to new people. The practical stations went from "strawcraft" to "beekeeping", through "timbering", "slaughtering","making soap", "meat smoking" and of course, the ancestral art of building "rocketstoves" !
 
 Unfortunatly, the only one missing was the Sun King, but our open scene warmed everyone up ! Our guest learnt Irish dances, "cinamon roll dances" and African/self defence dances !
 
Once the fever of the festival calmed down, everyone got back to work. The new woofer's hobby being taking care of the new members of our big loving family ! Doris finally gave birth and we welcomed two female rabbits who were directly adopted by their news caring parents !  

Sun King

Finally! The Sun King has been victorious and is now shining on us in all its pride. This means that the hotpants season startet early this year, and that sun caps is now an official part of our uniform (also for the animals). 
 
The summer feel exploded with barbecue outside, two times in one day!!! Now we just miss one thing to make it true summer:… Bengt in his man-kini!… but we must “wait little”.
 
Since we have only one cow milking, we had to think out of the box. So now we also milk trees. Three birch trees has delivered many liters of clear sweat juice full of vitamins, minerals etc. etc. There is no such thing that it cannot cure. Some even says that it gives wisdom and long age. So some were seduced to drink greedily directly from the tree and was therefore abandoned from paradise…



Speaking of God… Jehovas Witnesses drove by and tried to capture our lost souls, but none of us saw the light… we were to busy working. Or maybe the list of our sins was simply to long for Jehova? Who cares anyway.

A seemingly normal morning meeting suddenly turned into a history lesson about the farm, reaching more than 200 years back in time. And finally we saw a picture of the person who is suspected to be the farm ghost. Here he is (the bald man to the right):


Major events happened to all the animals of the farms.
The sheeps gave birth to little lambs. Brown, black and white. The horses has all been working plowing and raking the fields. La-Jacob has had his coming of age and moved outside with Laura and Max, and now he tries to prove himself by bullying innocent wwoofers. Anna-Mai is playing rude and acting as if she was a bull. Maybe she's the first transvestite cow?


Leffe was looking forward to a short sex-vacation away from his pregnant wife Doris, but things turned out badly. The confusion of being in a new place, with not only one but TWO young and fat ladies became too much, and he ended up hurting one of them, and was sent home directly. Poor Leffe…:( It must have been a misunderstanding, because we all know Leffe as a true gentleman. What a shame! But Leffe’s moral is strong. He trains now everyday on his favourite stone, to be in perfect shape when Doris returns home. That’s a real man…ehhh…Pig i mean.



The “Chicken Missions” was highlights in the previous weeks. In the dusk of night the chickens were kidnapped one by one, by the wwofers, blindfolded and moved to their new summer residens. They deserves sun and green grass as much as us. These were happy days in the hens flok.
But some days later four roosters where caught and beheaded, in what is now known as “the Bloodbath of Tolarp”.

The Chicken Mission Team. From left to right: 
(Back row) Iris, Dean, Djamilia aka Her Milk Majesty, Tessa, Erika, Helena, Tapani
(Front row) Angela, Luiza, Jordan, Bengt.
(behind the camera) the writer aka Rasse 
 
A miracle has happened in Tolarp: The cows have suddenly learned how to write!! They left this message in the barn:



And Jehova tells us that evolution is a myth. Here in Tolarp nothing is impossible. What will be the next? We could let Tammi write the blog:

Hey there, Tammi’s in da house.

Shout out to all dawgs out there.
I’m keep’n it cool ‘round here. Chill’n’ with ma new homeboy Zaza. Gnawing some pig feet. No big deal. Happy that i’m f’ck’n deaf with all these new wwoofers ‘round here. Christ sake…

well…I have to go bark at the cows.

Keep it real
xoxo Tammi-Dawg


And then a short chapter of “A Game of Thrones Dairy”:

The realm of Tolarp was about to explode under The Milk Majesty, but she cleverly avoided an uproar, by giving back minor rights to the common folks. An election about the use of a one-day ration of cream, was held to prove her good intentions, but still her power is supreme. She even tried to extend her supremacy by deciding the exact number of eggs that should be cooked every day. Once again the crowd turned against her in rage, but then fortunately the eggs ran out and things calmed down. Queen Maria has been her close support during the crisis, and some folks whispers of a secret alliance between the two of them. But which interests does Queen Maria have in the cream power? And what does her Milk Majesty gives in return for this support?
 
 
All this and much more in next chapter of “A Game of Dairy”! dadadadum!
 
 

En episod ur Allmogegårdens historia är slut!

Idag lämnade de sista russen: Solina, Affarell och Farito Allmogegården! De känns både sorgligt men också roligt att de får komma till ett så bra hem. De kommer att få det jättebra och får komma till användning.

Välkommen till min nya blogg!

Ja eftersom d e så himla inne med att blogga och Bengt han gör inget annat än att tjata om blogg hit och dit så då får vi väl skaffa oss en vi med!

De kan ju vara kul att skriva om vad som händer på gården, om planer, tankar och idéer. Vi kan berätta om kommande aktiviteter och om de som har varit. Nu har vi även en kalender på vår hemsida som ni kan kika på!


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