{"id":3495136,"date":"2023-01-31T12:27:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T12:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2023-01-31\/the-good-work-in-urban-rural\/"},"modified":"2023-03-23T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T16:58:09","slug":"the-good-work-in-urban-rural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.resilience.org\/stories\/2023-01-31\/the-good-work-in-urban-rural\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Work In Urban-Rural"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0new course<\/a>\u00a0in Sweden poses the question, \u201cwhat will a self-sufficient H\u00e4llefors Municipality taste like in 2030?\u201d<\/p>\n

Students on the course act like talent scouts. They search for unrealised food-growing potential across the region \u2013 people, unused land, forgotten traditions.<\/p>\n

An example could be a farmer who\u2019s started to grow heritage wheat, but cannot find customers. Or a school teacher who wants to connect his students with a working farm.<\/p>\n

A student might spot an abandoned field near her home and and explore new ways to grow food there. Another might develop snacks to sell to a mountain bike business in the forest.<\/p>\n

At the end of each course, students pitch their ideas to real-world professionals \u2013 for example, chefs, farmers, or food production businesses.<\/p>\n

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Chef\u00a0Paul Svensson<\/a>, who\u2019s teaching on the course, is a \u2018connector\u2019 between the course and potential partners. The best ideas will be developed as product and service prototypes with help from \u00d6rebro County and other local food system actors.<\/p>\n

For course leader\u00a0Annika G\u00f6ran Rodell<\/a>, a priority is to develop new collaborations between academia, municipality and business. She is optimistic that the best student proposals can generate new livelihoods or be developed into new companies.<\/p>\n

The course prepares Orebro County for the near the future \u2013 but it also takes inspiration from the past.<\/p>\n

Students explore what was grown or eaten 250 years ago \u2013 and how \u2013 and come up with new ways to grow, prepare and serve forgotten staple foods.<\/p>\n

Mathias Lindberg<\/a>, a local entrepreneur, has prepared the ground by \u201clooking in the rear view mirror. What did it look like here 250 years ago? We see a plate that was rich in fish, poultry and vegetables from the municipality\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this way, inspired by how people lived the end of the 18th century, students are enabled to compare that time with today\u2019s conditions. Students work on the gastronomic potential of unfamiliar or disliked foods \u2013 many of which used to be staples in local diets.<\/p>\n

More recent history can also be an inspiration. In the early twentieth century, the area around H\u00e4llefors was a mining region. As one local historian told this writer \u201cback then, everyone grew\u201d.<\/p>\n

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On a pilot of the course last year in\u00a0Grythyttan<\/a>, students came up with new ways to cook roach fish. Roach is a delicacy in other countries, but has fallen out of favour in Sweden.<\/p>\n

Students did not only develop new ways to serve roach. They also used the meal to\u00a0celebrate the ecological restoration<\/a>\u00a0of the region\u2019s lakes.<\/p>\n

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Peas, too, were a staple crop for millenia before the global food system arrived. Making these staple crops delicious is an important contribution to food resilience.<\/p>\n

Dr Magnus Westling, a noted expert on the history and potential\u00a0future of the pea<\/a> is working with the founder of a food lab, designer Corina Akner<\/a>, on hummous made with yellow peas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWine people pay close attention to the \u2019terroir\u2019 where a grape is grown\u201d says Westling, \u201cThe influence of climate, landscape, soil, and geology on how a wine finally tastes. We are developing a similar appreciation for cereals, or peas \u2013 and the new course is part of that innovation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with food is a life-giving process. By training as chefs and sommeliers, our students play an active role in ecological restoration\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hjulsj\u00f6 103<\/h3>\n

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Magnus Westling is a chef with several hats. Together with his partner Marta Westling, a prize-winning baker (see photo) he also runs\u00a0Hjulsj\u00f6 103<\/a>\u00a0a small family run cider house, sourdough bakery and coffee roastery<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Bergslagen forest as our closest neighbour, we explore what can be created out of a selected few, regionally-sourced products\u201d, Marta explains. \u201cThe grain, the apple, the cheese<\/a>: they have longstanding history of cultivation and rich taste\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In their ongoing exploration of traditional food varieties, Marta and Magnus have learned about historical patterns of agriculture, meal cultures, craftsmanship, traditions, and biodiversity in food production and consumption.<\/p>\n

Her constant search for new ingredients also brings Marta in contact with farmers across the region. She is also active in a growing network of fifty \u2018real bread\u2019 bakers around the country.<\/p>\n

In only a few years, Hjulsj\u00f6 103 has become a de facto rural innovation hub.<\/p>\n

Non-Timber Forest Experiences<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Christina Schaffer<\/a>, at Sweden\u2019s University of Agricultural Sciences, has been investigating an\u00a0ecosystem-based approach<\/a>\u00a0to the forest economy for her PhD. Schaffer\u2019 applies an ecological vision to sustainable forest management. Her approach involves adopting the natural forest as a model, and creating a managed forest that helps maintain biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Sweden used to have thousands of \u2018forest farmers\u2019 \u2013 and that tradition is emerging once again. Forest farming, silvopasture (grazing livestock), forest gardens, and alley cropping, can all be viable alternatives to a timber extraction economy, Schaffer has found.<\/p>\n

As students in H\u00e4llefors Municipality develop new uses for berries, leaves, elk, and boar, the hope is that their interest will encourage a new generation of forest farmers to try other experiments, too \u2013 by growing new kinds of nuts, fibers, and dyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, forest farming was always multi-use\u201d Schaffer explains. She has concluded, now, that the economic category \u201cNon-Timber Forest Products\u201d could be much more varied than it is at present.<\/p>\n

Back To The Land 2.0<\/h3>\n

Schaffer poses this potential as a challenge to designers on a summer course called\u00a0Back To The Land 2.0.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hosted by the design school Konstfack, in Stockholm, designers on the the six week course develop a variety of service and product ideas ideas to do with Non Timber Forest Experiences.<\/p>\n

As these diverse experiments diversify, and deepen, the vision of a resilient cluster of municipalities on \u00d6rebro County is coming into focus.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not not just a vision. By turning \u2018would-be-nice\u2019 ideas into tangible prototypes and scenarios, design has shown that it can catalyse the emergence of new livelihoods and jobs. This turns the notion of a just transition from an aspiration into a practice.<\/p>\n

A missing element in Back To The Land, until now, has been a \u2018client\u2019 in the region, to whom the design proposals are given when each the course ends.<\/p>\n

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the good work in urban-rural<\/h3>\n