The self-containing garden

It is sustainable and healthy to eat organic and locally produced food. Tellus Think Tank meets Patrik Ytterholm, who runs a self-containing garden…
Text: Domi, Tellus Think Tank   Photo: Zoe Elims, Patrik Ytterholm & AnnVixen

During 2015 Tellus Think Tank began the search for what life might look like in a sustainable future. Our articles have since then investigated possibilities for a sustainable future, from different angles. Read more about Tellus Think Tank here.  

After almost a year of conversations with people from different parts of society we understand that one aspect of a sustainable future isthe move towards organic and locally cultivated food. Non-organic food that has travelled thousands of kilometres can never be sustainable.

The food that we buy in supermarkets is seldom both organic and local and is also perceived as relatively expensive. Is there a solution to this? Could it be to cultivate our own food?

Tellus Think Tank is happy to meet Patrik Ytterholm, who runs a self-containing garden. He lives and cultivates his crops in Skattungbyn in the Swedish district of Dalarna, Sweden. The climate in Skattungbyn is considered to be growth zone 4-5 (by Swedish standards 6-7, the same growth zone as star restaurant Fäviken, see article).

Patrik Ytterholm is self-containing when it comes to his food

Patrik Ytterholm cultivates almost all of his own food and he also works full-time as a “cultivation” teacher at Mora Folkhögskola. (Read more about Skattungbyn here) and he also runs his own self-containing garden.

He is a vegetarian that appreciates a healthy meal containing pulse foods such as beans or peas, potatoes and leafy greens. Patrik sometimes ads a glass of goat’s milk or an egg to his meal and says that he in no way lives an ascetic life and he eats both sweets and crisps.

In practise, however, Patrik and his family are totally self-contained when it comes to vegetables. They run a self-containing garden. If

they were to be cut off from the world they would survive a long time on the food they grow and produce themselves.

The family cultivates slightly more land than necessary for their personal needs. Altogether they cultivate two hectares (20 000 square meters). 1000 square meters is used to grow vegetables and the rest to grow potatoes and different grains. Their surplus potatoes, cabbage and garlic are often sold at local markets.

The family doesn’t only grow their own food but chop their own wood to heat their home. They also have goats, chickens and soon even geese on their property.

Advice to persons that want to run an all year self-containing garden

We ask Patrik: -Which crops should one cultivate to become self-containing?

-A good start is to begin with potatoes. The downside is that to be all year self-containing potatoes need an earth cellar to keep fresh until next year’s crops are ready, he answers. (Also read Patriks advice on how to keep food all year by fermentation).

Other easy-to-grow crops like pumpkins, onions and garlic are easier to keep. Room temperature in an apartment will do.

An important pre-requisite to become self-containing is to have enough land to cultivate. Patrik says 1000-2000 square metres per person would be needed. On this land one could then cultivate vegetables, potatoes and different grains.

Families who want to cultivate their own oil plants (such as rapeseed or flax) would need another 500 square metres per person.

One type of grain he recommends is ”naked oats” that can either be pressed to oats or replace rice in meals. Naked oats are also gluten free. Other good alternatives are the normal European grains: wheat, rye, barley and normal oats.

To persons with a confined space to cultivate Patrik recommends growing crops that are difficult to find in stores, for instance broad beans. He also recommends kale, as it is very nutritious.

Patrik comes back to potatoes that he finds are a diversely nutritious food containing fibres and vitamins and gives a feeling of satisfaction. He grows his own potatoes in sand rich land:

-My potatoes taste heavenly, he smiles!

Oil plants in a more northern growth zone

One oil plant that Patrik considers to be the most interesting is Sea-buckthorn. The Sea-buckthorn berry carries Omega 6, 9 and 11. Omega 11 is not easy to be found in any other plant. The berries are also full of other nutritious substances but Patrik is not sure how

the Sea-buckthorn oil would be suited in cooking.

Sea-buckthorn can be found wild along the coasts of Sweden. Patrik has cultivated five bushes in his garden that give him about 70 litres of berries per season!

Rapeseed is a widely spread crop throughout the southern parts of Sweden but is difficult to cultivate in Skattungbyn as it isn’t suited for the climate zone.

Hemp is an oil plant that could be of interest in more northern growth zones. Hempseed oil has comparable qualities and omega acids to olive oil. Swedish authorities are still very careful about issuing permits to grow hemp because of the risk of the plants being used illegally. Since the summer of 2016 hempseed oil can be bought in supermarkets through out the country.

Further oil plants recommended by Patrik are turnip rape, gold-of-pleasure (latin: Camelina Sativa) and sunflower.

How much time would one need to run a self-containing garden?

Another important aspect of becoming self-containing is how much time one needs to invest to become successful. Patrik walks us

through the summer half year:

April

April is normally spent preparing for the season to come but is far from the most busy month of the year.

May to June

Patrik spends all of his free time from May to the end of June sowing and planting pre-cultivated plants. During this period he and his family also prune their berry bushes and rebuild their greenhouse.

From about the 20th of May it is possible to put a spade into the ground for the first time after winter and that is when work with their cultivation becomes intense, it goes on until midsummer (about 20th of June).

July and August

From midsummer the workload is limited to normal garden upkeep such as watering and weeding.

In July the hay needs to be harvested (often herbs of clover and timothy. The hay is dried on traditional drying racks and will be feed to the family goats during winter.

August is one of the calmest months and the family continuously harvest crops like broccoli, peas, beans and other vegetables. One way of keeping busy during this period is to ferment and pickle the harvested vegetables, so that they can be enjoyed all year around.

End of the year

The really intense harvesting begins in the last week of September, when most of the crops need to be brought home. Patrik has a threshing machine and an old tractor to help him save time on his grain fields.

The lightweight tractor doesn’t press too hard on the ground, which could affect the growth power and earth climate for the important micro-organisms. It is old enough and mechanically driven and Patrik can fix it by himself.

The winter half year as a self-containing farmer is relatively quiet.

Patriks self-containing household is organically driven

Patrik tells us that the family only run organic cultivations. I wonder how they handle different pests and problems, when some farmers use chemicals and pesticides.

-Mechanical arrangements are the best, says Patrik, as they close the door to the problem from the beginning.

One pest that Patrik handles mechanically is the Carrot Psyllid flea and he does so by covering his carrot beds with a fibre cloth.

If the birds are eating his crops he covers them with a net.

Help good species live in the garden

Other ways to avoid pests are to invite predators like toads, birds and different insects and in this way create a natural balance. He says that invitations can be to put up birds nests or to keep trees, bushes and leave the grass high. Plant flowers in and around the cultivations and leave heaps of stone by the cultivations instead of cleaning them away. By taking these measures a gardener creates both protection and places for the right species to live in the garden.

Patrik says that ”biological” pesticides such as Turex, are supposedly environmental friendly. Turex is used to kill cabbage butterfly larvae on white cabbage and broccoli but unfortunately it also kills all kinds of butterfly larvae. He therefore try’s not to use these kind of biological pesticides at all.

Keeping vegetables all year

Patriks Sea-buckthorn bushes give 70 litres of produce and an array and huge amount of vegetables ripening during late summer and autumn. How does the family contain all the food they produce?

-We have an earth cellar and we have a really big freezer. We make herbal salts or dry our herbs to make tea or spices. Some of our vegetables are pickled and are preserved to last throughout the year.

Fermenting or pickling vegetables is a good way of containing vegetables with the help of a fermentation process that increases lacto acid in the vegetables. Patrik ferments white cabbage into sauerkraut and pickles all kinds of vegetables such as broccoli, cucumber and peas. In short the vegetables are salted and put into fermentation pots and preserved in the earth cellar or in the fridge.

Patrik’s favourite pickle is a mixture of carrots and turnips. (See Patrik’s recipes).

The earth cellar

They keep a lot of their vegetables in the earth cellar, root vegetables such as potatoes and turnips but even cabbage and leeks. The best way to keep cabbage fresh through the winter is to hang them by their roots, upside down, so that the fluid from the vegetables are contained in the leaves. As Patrik’s household produces large amounts of vegetables there is not always room to hang all the cabbage so they are kept in weave sacks in wooden boxes, a method that works well! They keep their leeks by a technique called “heel”.

The earth cellar needs to be 2 – 4 degrees Celsius or else the vegetables will sprout. During the last couple of years it has been difficult

to hold earth cellar temperatures as winters have been too warm.

Improving depleted soil

If you want to run your own self-containing garden this might interest you. Patrik mentions an example in Skattungbyn where a new farmer intends to cultivate her crops organically and expects that it will take up to 7 years before the depleted soil is giving a good amount of produce. Depleted soil comes from, among other things, bad crop rotation.

Patrik tells me that it is important to feed the micro-organisms in the depleted soil with both food and oxygen. The food of the micro-organisms is organic matter such as fertilised dung, grass cuttings or compost.

Green manuring

The soil also needs to have its oxygen levels increased, which can be done by “green manuring”. With the green manuring technique special crops are planted to help loosen the soil and reach for nutrients in the ground that other plants can’t reach. The green manuring plant clover also helps bring nitrogen out of the air and move it into the soil.

Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are three of the most important nutrients in soil that help the micro-organisms to thrive, but there are many more elements needed.

Swedish soil is very poor in selenium, which is a vital substance for the survival of both animals and humans. Selenium can be added to the soil in form of a stone dust, which will maturate during several years and be absorbed by the plants. Another way is to take selenium nutritional supports.

The value of being self-sufficient in vegetables

Patrik’s own rough estimate shows that the families self-containing garden annually grows crops for a store value of 70 000 Swedish kronor (about 7000 Euros/Dollars). It feels meaningful for the family to continue to grow their own food as it is not only organic but also locally and self-cultivated! It also tastes much better than food bought in a supermarket.

Mora Folkhögskola holds practical courses in cultivation

The cultivation course that Patrik teaches starts in January and continues through the year so that students can learn both theory and practise about sowing, harvesting and preserving food.

Each student has access to 150-200 square meters of land during training so they can grow cereals, potatoes and a variety of different types of vegetables.

Patrik has taught at the school for almost twenty years and says he sees a difference in today’s students compared with the students who attended in his early teaching days:

-The students of today aren’t used to hard labour and have little, or no, practical experience from chores such as chopping wood, forestry or gardening. In a theoretical sense they are very knowledgeable, thanks to the Internet.

The year attending the cultivation course gives many an opportunity to familiarise themselves with their own physical capacity. Patrik says that working with cultivations is not always a party, but it is always meaningful and worthwhile!

The start of Patrik’s interest in cultivating

Patrick grew up in a home that he calls old-fashioned. His parents used traditional ways to did most things with their food and tools by own hand. One of the things that still drives Patrik is to take responsibility for his life and footprint on Earth.

In his twenties, about 20 years ago, he realised that it was more fun to work towards something than be against something. He joined a

relief organisation aiding people in need. In this role he met many who were involved with farming and cultivation and became so interested that he signed up for a cultivation course.

Soon, he cultivated large amounts of his own food on 200 square meters of allotment plots. He also started working for an organic farm with a self-containing garden. Patrik felt from the start that he was cultivating his food for real, not just for fun and he soon had his own self-containing garden!

The move to Skattungbyn

Food cultivation was also a central motive when he moved to Skattungbyn in 1995. The village offered him the possibility to grow his own food. After a few years in the village the founder of the cultivating course at Mora Folkhögskola, Kåre Olsson, wanted to retire and Patrik was asked to replace him!

To Patrik it is important that he can create things himself including the food needed in his life. If he can’t do it himself he happily turns to a friend and only buys things in a shop as a last resort.

-It feels more meaningful when I have a relationship with the person who created the things I use or the food I eat, says Patrik.

Some final words from Patrik for this time

-For me it is valuable to be able to grow my own food, and if more people cultivated their own food it could help a lot to reduce the negative impact on the climate.

It would be great if we could reduce the number of hands (intermediates and transport) handling our food. We currently use more energy to transport food than the food feeds us, which isn’t environmentally friendly.

The best soils in Sweden are currently used for animal grazing instead of growing food. We need to think this through. Animals could successfully graze in forestlands instead of on the best farmlands so that we can use the farmlands to grow more food.

Keeping goats

Keeping goats, for milk, is a much more climate friendly choice than keeping cows. Goats find food everywhere and give a lot of food in relation to the energy that their keep demands. Goats don’t pull grass out by the roots as cows do, and can even serve as lawnmowers! Patrik’s goats have a schedule to visit different gardens around the village of Skattungbyn, to keep the goats fed and the grass short!

Our visit to Skattungbyn and our conversation with Patrik has been interesting, instructive and inspiring. Tellus Think Tank understands that even if not every city dweller can grow their food in a self-containing garden perhaps locally grown crops could still be a path towards a sustainable future!

We recommend further readings if you are interested in organic food or running your own organic and self-containing garden:

Patriks recipes on how to ferment vegetables for all year consumtion

Happy pigs 

Living in Tiny homes on wheels

Try an alternative way of living

Plantagon might soon produce locally grown food close to you

Star restaurant Fäviken serves organic meals 

 

 

 

 

 

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Keeping food all year by lactic fermentation

Lactic fermentation, or lactic acid fermentation, is a traditional way of preserving food for the winter; a method that refines the vegetables.
It is important for a self-containing gardener to preserve the harvest for as long as possible. Patrik Ytterholm tells us more about the process and shares his recipes.
Text: Patrik Ytterholm Pictures: Patrik Ytterholm Photo: AnnVixen

Tellus Think Tank shares inspiration, ideas and good examples for a more sustainable future, read more here.
Read more articles about a sustainable future here.

Patrik Ytterholm is not only a self-containing farmer but also works as a cultivation teacher at Mora Folk School in Sweden. Patrik shares what he believes is required to run a self-containing garden with Tellus Think Tank Patrik in a separate article. In this article Patrik shares his

knowledge of preserving vegetables with the lactic fermentation method.

The term “lactic” is not really an accurate description of the lactic fermentation method as it implies that there is milk involved. The name comes from the lactobacillus which is the same bacteria that make milk sour.

A more precise term would be to only use the word “fermentation”, a process that refines vegetables with help of microorganisms.

The lactic fermentation process gives food excellent properties for storage and has been known by humankind for a long time and has also helped ensure our survival.

In some cultures lacto fermented foods are still part of most meals, to mention some foods: fermented milk products, sourdough bread and fermented beverages and of course pickled vegetables.

The basics of lactic fermentation

The foundation in lactic fermentation is to create the optimal environment for the mixture to form lactic acid. It is important to encourage microorganisms, yeasts and bacteria to thrive, and these are the main tools at hand:

• Salt Concentration (water with 0.8 -1.5 % salt)
• The right temperature (18 -22 degrees Celsius)
• An oxygen-free environment (a container with a tight seal that prevents air, preferably with a water trap or a preserving glass jar with a rubber gasket in the lid).
• A weight to press down on the vegetables that are to be leavened.

This is what happens in the fermentation process

The salt’s role in lactic acid fermentation is to protect the vegetables from decay in the stage of the fermentation process before the lactic acid bacteria has expanded. Salt also draws cell juice out of the vegetables. Vegetable cell juice contains sugar and, together with other substances, becomes the nutritional base for the bacteria to process the sugar into lactic acid.

Stages in the fermentation process

Fermentation process first stage – the development of bacteria.

The mixture helps develop lactic acid-, acetic acid and gas. The mixture produces so much acid that bad bacteria and butyric acid do not develop. This first phase is crucial for the success of fermentation. The fermentation process should be started quickly and not be interrupted. Temperature plays an important role.

The right temperature is important in the fermentation process:
Cucumbers ferment best at 18 -20 degrees. Carrots ferment best at 20 degrees and cabbage at 20 -22 degrees.

The first stage lasts for 2-3 days.

Fermentation process second stage – acidification.

By now the bacteria producing lactic acid are the only ones producing new bacteria. These bacteria are now eating up the bacterial mix of the first stage, which preferably is done at a slow pace. It is therefore good to lower the temperature of the fermentation (cabbage to about 15 degrees Celsius, and other vegetables to about 18 degrees Celsius).

The acidification process continues until fermentation reaches the critical pH 4.1 where no acid and no spoilage bacteria can form.

The acidification part of the process takes between 10 -14 days.

Third stage, after the completion of fermentation process.

When the fermentation process is completed the pots (or glass jars) are placed in a cold place (0- 8 degrees) such as cellar, storeroom or refrigerator.

During the full fermentation process, it is important not to open the lid of the container because the carbon dioxide developed during fermentation prevents top yeast to form.

If fermentation pots are used it should be ensured that the water groove is filled with liquid. Do not be fooled if the water seems to have disappeared, it is usually still there and can be found by moving (but not lifting) the lid slightly. If there is only a little water left; fill the pot with cooled, boiled water.

The third stage, the maturation process, takes between 2 -8 weeks, depending on the vegetables that are being fermented.

Suitable pots for lactic fermentation

The best results, according to me, are made with water trap fermentations pots and stone.

7-10 litre pots are appropriate for a smaller household, and are easy to handle. Glass jars, the old-fashioned canning glass with a rubber ring, or modern honey / jam jars with a rubber ring in the metal cap may also work well.

Hygiene

To secure a successful lactic fermentation elementary hygiene needs to be applied to both ones personal hygiene and the treatment of pots and jars.

Make sure to clean your hands and arms before you begin to work with your vegetables and pots. Hands and even arms are sometimes used to stomp vegetables.

Do not mix dirty vegetables with already rinsed vegetables.

Do not use dirty utensils, with risk of contaminating the pot.

Wash pots in hot water and only use a mild detergent on the glazed surfaces, if necessary. Never wash the unglazed surfaces with detergent and do not use antibacterial or heavily scented detergent, since they can inhibit bacterial flora and destroy the flavour.

Rinse pots thoroughly in cold water and leave them to air dry.

The weight stones are boiled in pan for 1-2 hours. Let the stones cool down before they are used to stamp the vegetables in the pot.

Sterilise glass jars by placing them in a cold oven and heating them until they have been heated and standing in 120 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Let the jars cool before using them.

Metal lids are cooked in a pan and left to air dry.

What can go wrong?

Bad hygiene, an uneven or wrong temperature, vegetables of poor quality, the wrong amount of salt, too badly stomped vegetables or pots that let in air are all things that can lead to failure of the fermentation process.

A general rule is that if the fermented vegetables taste good you have succeeded with the fermentation. If the fermentation process has failed you will smell foul or strong scents such as acetic acid and butyric acid.

Vegetables & quality at the lactic fermentation

The vegetable quality is important, and half rotten and not fresh vegetables should not be used in the fermentation. How the vegetables are grown are also of importance as the lactic acid bacteria requires nutrients such as sugar, vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Hard-driven and chemically sprayed vegetables do not match the needs of the lactic acid bacteria and should not be used.

Recipes for lactic fermentation of vegetables

Recipe for fermenting root vegetables

For a 10-litre pot use:

• 4 kg of carrots
• 2 kg of turnips
• 6-7 normal sized onions
• 10-15 leafs of laurel
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
• 10-15 pennies of horseradish (a horseradish cut in pennies)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Dill
• 1-1.5% salt (80-120g)

Prepare the right measures of salt and spices. Peel and grate the carrot and turnip, slice the onions, peel the garlic clefts and horseradish.

For best results, carrot and turnip are to be grated and stirred and mixed with the right amount of salt. The vegetables are then stirred and stomped until they release their fluids.

Then add a layer of onions, garlic and spices.

Add a new layer with vegetables and then the onion, garlic and spices, etc.

Finish the whole mix with a layer of vegetables before the stones are laid in place. Make sure that the liquid covers the stones.

Clear the liquid from floating pieces and fragments of vegetable and clean dry the outside of the pot. Put a label on the pot with the ingredients and date of the fermentation.

Fermentation Stage 1: Place the pot in space with an even 20 degrees and put the lid on. Pour boiled, cooled water in the water groove of the pot.
Fermentation Stage 2: After 2-3 days, lower the temperature to 18 degrees, let stand for a further 7 days.
Third stage: Move the pot to an earth cellar or refrigerator. Let mature for 6-8 weeks.

Have a nice meal!

Recipe for fermentation of cabbage

If using a 10-liter pot, the following ingredients are required:

• 8 kg trimmed white cabbage
• 3 tablespoons of juniper berries
• 1 ½ tablespoons cumin
• 3-4 sour apples
• 1-1.5% salt (80-120g)

Start by putting aside a couple of large, healthy looking cabbage leaves.

Measure the salt and add all the spices.

Cut apple into pieces and mix with salt and spices.

Slice or grate the cabbage heads, the stump can also be used.

Add a little of the ingredients at a time and alternate putting in the apple/salt/spice and the cabbage in the pot / jar. Mix considerably and then stomp the vegetables so that they release their fluids.

Put the fine, large cabbage leaves as a lid on top of the vegetable mixture and then place the stones on top of the leaves.

If the liquid does not cover the stones fill the jar up with boiled, cooled water with 15 grams of salt per litre of water so that the stones are completely covered.

Fermentation Stage 1: Place the pot in a warm place 2-3 days at a temperature of 20-22 degrees Celsius.
Fermentation Stage 2: Place the pot in a cooler place, about 15 degrees, for 10-12 days. The cooler temperature makes the fermentation process continue more slowly.
Stage 3: Place the pot in an earth cellar or refrigerator at 0-8 degrees. The vegetables will be ready to eat after 4-6 weeks.

Patrik recommends the following authors for books on fermentation

Annelies Schoeneck and Inga-Britta Sundqvist.

Good luck and best regards from Patrik Ytterholm!

 

 

 

 

 

Find the article about Patriks self-containing garden here!

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Thank you for contributing to the Tellus Think Tank quest of sharing ideas to inspire others!
We gathered 22 voices on Doing It Yourself – Saving Earth.

Can we continue living in this way?

In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, about 1815, Earth was inhabited by one billion people.
Two hundred years later, there is currently seven billion people on Earth, a number still increasing.
Humanity is using more and more of Earths resources in not altogether constructive ways.

READ ABOUT TELLUS THINK TANK

The current human way of life is causing problems such as “Global Warming” but also decreasing the diversity on our planet. Many animal- and plant species are already extinct and many more are on the road towards the same unfortunate future.

In December 2015, at the COP21 UN climate conference in Paris, an international environmental agreement was reached. It shows that our politicians are working on finding environmental solutions. However, they are often also part of the vast amount of environment problems we need to tackle:

1. Green house gas emissions are still increasing:

   

   -The amount of fossil fuelled transports causing massive carbon dioxide emissions.
   -The growing market for beef and lamm meat are causing massive methan emissions.

2. The lacking of clean, natural land and nature, that give people, animals and plants the possibility to thrive and grow.
3. The pollution of our lands and oceans because of waste and toxic contamination.
4. The Depleting of agricultural land, allowing the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers.
5. The list goes on, read more about the challenges of Earth here…

22 voices – Do It Yourself – Save Earth
What if it’s up to You and me? Not everybody can do everything, but together we believe we can save our planet!

DIY #001 – Ashish, 21 years old, from Gujarat, India: I have worked for several NGO’s to try and help people in different ways and today I often take the role as a mentor at my workplaces to help people by visualising how to do things in a good way and avoid mistakes and waste.

DIY #002 –Vincent, 12 years, Stockholm, Sweden: I sort all my waste in piles; food, plastic, paper and metal.

Then once a week I take all that has been sorted to the recycle bins on our block.

DIY #003 – Kate Raworth, founder of Doughnut Economics, 45 years, Oxford, United Kingdom: I am a vegetarian for sustainability reasons. I try not to fly for privately. I try and influence the way people understand the world but providing them with new pictures and paradigms. I try to inspire my children by talking to them on why we don’t fly and why we don’t fill our house with plastic toys and why we rather take the bike than the car and why we have solar panels on our house.

DIY #004 – Josefina Skerk, vice president in the native Swedes parliament/Sametinget, 28 years: I moved back to the back-country / country side to be able to learn about traditional Sami ways of living – how to gather food in nature, fishing etc. And I support anyone to look further than to strive for a glamorous looking urban life. I question what is considered normal and promote slow living. Work is not the purpose of my life.  

DIY #005 – Niclas, 28 years, Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden: I have chosen not to buy or drive a car. I do the

usual stuff like recycle and I also eat both organically branded food and locally produced food. I sometimes feel it is difficult to chose between the two – which one is best from a sustainable perspective? I also try to eat less meat.

DIY #006 – Juste, 18 years, Kaunas, Lithuania: I recycle trash at home and do not to throw rubbish in the streets. I would really like to know how to live more sustainable and I would like our government to help provide more sustainable ways of living.

DIY #007 – Johan, 15 years, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. One thing I do to be conscious about the environment is turn off the water from running in the sink, while I brush my teeth. This can waste over a gallon of water and is a huge waste of energy. To reuse materials, I recycle paper materials I am done using.  When I am out camping, I use newspaper clippings for fires (to keep warm), which I got from the newspaper I read.

DIY #008 – Max 12 years, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. Our family is really good at recycling items in our home, such as empty food containers, loose papers, metal in cans and cardboard boxes etc. Every week we have a completely full and even overflowing recycling can. While our trash can is usually only filled about ¼ of the way with trash.

DIY #009 – Bonny, 8 years, Stockholm, Sweden: I sort all food scraps that can be composted in a special bin and take it out to the family compost. I encourage my

parents to take me to school by foot and not by car, even when it is raining.

DIY #010 – Faith, 44 years, Taiwan, Taiwan: I recycle trash and food and I don’t use plastic bags.

DIY #011 – Rebecca, 25 years, Stockholm, Sweden: I ride my bicycle to work, spend a lot of my free time in nature and I try to live healthy by eating healthy food and exercising and meeting friends.

DIY #012 – Mikael, 45 years, Stockholm, Sweden: I try only to eat locally produced food when available.

DIY #013 – Kerstin, 25 years, Tullinge, Stockholm: I knit my own dish cloths of linen wool, instead of using dish cloths of plastic!

DIY #014 – Agata, 38 years, Södertälje, Sweden: I try to live a minimalistic life and use my stuff, such as Jeans and

mobile phones, until they break or are teared and don’t worka anymore. I prefer sustainable meat from organic free-cage poultry and use the public transport to the furthes extent.

DIY #015 – Alexandra, 42 years, Stockholm, Sweden: When shopping home and clothes cleaning products or body- and hair products our family normally tries to find products with an official environment trademark on – here in Sweden we often choose from “Svanmärkt”, “Astma & Allergiförbundet” or “Bra Miljöval” to mention some. Classifications like this give us the impression that the product substances are easily recycled!

DIY #016 – Yasmine, 25 years, Christchurch, New Zealand: I use my bicycle to avoid using vehicles that run on petrol!

DIY #017 – Margareta, 62 years, Vallentuna, Sweden: I have down-sized my living quarters from 75 to 47 square meters and I buy organic food. In the process of down-sizing I took all the stuff I wanted rid of to Starcycle as they distribute everything to organisations like the Red Cross or Womens Aids etc. I prefer to buy services from company’s that have a green- or peoples rights profile. 

DIY #018 – Eric, 51 years, Edinburgh, Scotland. I don’t waste food or eat meat, and I

cycle or walk around my home city.

DIY #019 – Matilda, 12 years, Stockholm, Sweden: I recycle paper and other things at home, take my bottles back to the shop and I don’t litter! 

DIY #020 – Raz State, 43 years, Stockholm, Sweden. I avoid products containing uncertified palm-oil, to give some examples Nutella and Palmolive products. They use palm-oil from uncertified plantations mainly in Indonesia and are the direct cause of the diminishing habitat of the organutangs. I have also taught my children to be ambassadors, among their friends and in school, for CERTIFIED palm-oil.

DIY #021 – Maja, 68 years, The Old City of Stockholm, Sweden: I recycle trash and avoid wasting more than necessary and I try to consume and buy as little stuff as possible.

DIY #022 – Frida, 26 years, Lund, Sweden: I make an effort to choose food of good quality and not just buy the cheapest alternative available. I also try and buy food from smaller producers and not just from big-chain-brands.

 

Join in – Save Earth by sharing ideas!

Send us your contribution:

1) What you are doing to save the planet
2) your name
3) your age
4) your country of residence
5) picture

Read about one of Swedens first eco villages, Understenshöjden! Built by people that actively have chosen to live in a more sustainable way!

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