Autumn Harvest

You can really tell that the seasons are changing now. Even though the weather has been pretty good here on the farm, the nights and the mornings are getting really cold! It’s the perfect excuse to put some wood in the burner, smell that comforting, smoky smell and curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. Ah, the rock and roll lifestyle. It’s the only way to go!

Another plus side is, it means that I get to wake up to this kind of view...

I’m currently sleeping in a converted container behind the shop at the farm. It’s pretty basic, and the window that looks out over that view is badly cracked. I don’t care though. At night I get to curl up under a pile of blankets and if its clear, look at a sky thats filled to bursting with stars. They’re so bright and its so beautiful it reminds me of winter nights walking the dog with my dad, crunching through the frosty grass and trying to find identify the constellations. We only ever really saw Orion, the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. Here you could probably see any constellation you wanted, they’re that bright!

Right now, I’m sitting here...

I love this chair! It’s Saturday morning and today is a day off for me and the 4 other helpers on the farm. Which is handy as I managed to hurt my back this morning doing yoga (that’s C.H.I.R.O..) It’s nothing serious just a bad spasm, I guess I moved too quickly between postures. It’s annoying all the same.

I guess it would help if I gave you a bit of background on the farm? Rather than waffle away at you! Ok, here we go...

The farm is owned by Kåre (pronounce Koray) and Erandi, who live with their two adorable  children Mya and Sonya (what is it with farms having adorable children?). It’s 70 hectares of which 100 acres is pasture. This is the main farmhouse...

and there’s a huge barn...

a farmshop, our little cottage where we eat and chill out, along with a garden kitchen where we prepare and bottle food for selling or storage.

Here’s an idea of the kind of views you can see from the farm..

The farm is based in Gan, which is just outside of Oslo, it takes about 20 minutes via train.
click here for map

It’s such a different side of Norway’s nature to the kind I saw when staying with Scott and Emilia outside Bergen. For one it doesn’t rain half as much, and it’s more like the English rolling countryside that allows for good drainage. The soil also seems to have a higher clay content here, which makes digging a bit of a bitch actually, although it still produces a wide range of veg.

Everything on the farm is organic, whether that’s a specific decision for them or a natural way of farming here, I don’t really know. We’ve been so busy that I’ve not been badgering them to find out. Apart from the 100 hectares of pasture the rest is cultivated, either for hay to feed the 40 or so sheep...

the two cows with calves, and the three horses

or veg for themselves and to sell. There are also ducks and 4 or 5 hives of bees on the property too. It’s a great little self sufficient farm.

So far I’ve done a bit of everything, weeding, milking the cow (I was really bad at it but I’ve improved enormously!), taking the cows out to the field (and back), feeding the sheep (well the ones that aren’t very well and are in the barn), trying to catch ducks, picking tomatoes/aubergines/peppers/cucumbers/onions/zucchini, putting in posts for fences, cleaning out the animal barn, getting honey from the bees, making cheese and jam. It’s been busy!

I’ve even been to a ‘cultural’ day nearby with Kåre and the rest of the volunteers where we sold our produce and took some of the animals along for people to see...

It’s been really interesting stuff. Even with 5 of us here we’re never short of things to do!

This Monday was one of our days off  and Shu-ming, Paulina and I took a boat onto the lake to relax. It was beautiful weather and even though we’re not the most experienced of rowers, we thought it’d make a lovely day of relaxing fun. Kåre even said that initially we’d be fine as the water wasn’t that deep and we’d be able to stand up easily if we fell in.

What we didn’t realise was just how shallow that would actually be!

So after lifting the boat into it’s ‘docking’ channel and pushing it out, we all got in, paddled for about 10 yards and then got stuck as the boat grounded...

I’d have felt pretty pathetic if I hadn’t been laughing so much! Luckily the water wasn’t that cold,  so off with the boots and it was time to push into deeper water. At least we made pretty patterns in the mud...

We then took a leisurely row, well drift actually down the lake, enjoying the views..

It was so relaxing to hear the dip of oar into water and listen to the bird calls. Admittedly there was the uncoordinated splashing of oars on occasion and our route wasn’t exactly the straightest you’ll ever see, but all the same it was a great day, made even more enjoyable by the girls on board...

So that’s brought you pretty much up to date, other than yesterday. Which I have to say has been both one of the more stressful AND most enjoyable days I’ve had on the farm.

Now those of you that know me well, know that I can (and usually will) run from any insect that buzzes in my vicinity. I might have managed to grow out of the childish crying, but I can still get hysterical at the drop of hat if one comes too close, particularly if I’m trapped in a room with them. So when Kåre said, “So Cathi, today we’re doing the bees, I’d like you to show the students what to do” he was met with a “I’ll do it, if it means that I don’t have to anywhere near the actual bees”.  That’s pathetic really isn’t it.

Maybe that’s what prompted Kåre to try an experiment in his honey production with the decision to cut the combs and spin the honey outside? I’m hoping not as we lost quite a few bees in the resulting free for all, but that’s later.

So after I’d cleaned out the honey centrifuge and got everything ready, Kåre and Lukasz brought up the first hive, devoid of all but a couple of bees. The process if fairly simple, you take a frame...

cut the wax off both sides

and once that’s done

you put 4 frames in the centrifuge and spin it until the combs are empty. Easy huh? It’s meant to take about 2 minutes per side to take the wax off, and about 25 minutes spinning in the centrifuge to get the honey. Because I was so nervous and not experienced, it ended up taking about 10 minutes per side.

Now add in the fact that the few bees that came up with the hive, went back and told their mates that there was easy food to be had near the kitchen..

Yep that’s right we went from having about 2 bees to having a couple of hundred bees in about 5 minutes, in 15 minutes we had the equivalent of a couple of thousand bees, and over the hour it grew to about 10,000 bees. How long do you think I lasted at cutting the wax? Yep that’s right about 5 minutes! Still, there’s nothing better than a healthy dose of embarrassment to help you get over the urge to scream and hide in dark, silent room. Whilst I didn’t run, I was close to crying and becoming hysterical. If it hadn’t been for Kåre’s calm manner and Paulina’s kindness I probably would have done both! As it was I took a deep (if shaky) breath and walked back into the cloud. No overalls, no hat, no netting, just me and everyone’s chilled out support... 6 hours later, I’ve helped extract 35 kilos of autumn honey.

I’ve handled frames which have been covered in bees, cut more wax, eaten a lot of honey (well when its stuck to the wax, how else are you going to get it off?) spun the centrifuge till I thought my arms would fall off, picked out bees that were drowning or trying to go kamikazi in the honey stream, and had bees walk on my hands, face, ears, etc and not been stung once! Luckily for me, Kåre has very friendly bees, see....

I’m not saying I’m cured, but I am a lot more relaxed around them now and don’t feel the need to flail wildly in the air (something that’s bound to get you stung) or cry if one lands on me. I’m also not about to go running up to any hive without some kind of bee keeping net over my face and a pair of gloves. Unless they’re friendly bees of course...

So anyway, now is the time to relax, I’m thinking today is going to be a day of napping in sunspots and general relaxation. Hopefully tomorrow we’re going to explore the area a bit too. I’ll leave you with some more sunset, sky pictures...

Hope you’re all well x

Going south... again!

Another two weeks have passed and I’m sitting in a wooden cottage in Gan just outside of Oslo. The sun’s setting and I’m feeling a little sleepy. It’s been a relaxed yet busy day!

Since I last wrote I’ve been on one of the most uncomfortable train journeys I’ve had in a while (it was an overnight train with too much leg room for a shorty like me and weird plastic edges to the seats) although I did get to keep their ‘sleep’ pack which was kind of cool (fleece blanket, more eyemasks and earplugs).

Met a couple of couchsurfing hosts, who were ok and spent some time in Oslo with my friend Hui. I’ve also been on the new farm in Gan for about a week now and it seems to be going well.

Since I’ve already covered Oslo a bit in here, it would be a bit boring to go through it all again for you. I will give you a quick run down of the bits that were new this time though.

First up is the City Hall..

It’s pretty hard to miss as it dominates the harbour where you get the boat to Bygdøy. Started in the 1930’s and not completed until after the end of WWII. It’s were the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held every year. Even though its in red brick I like its almost brutalist lines. It’s also filled with quite a lot of murals depicting various Norwegian legends and historic moments. A lot of the decoration, including the murals seem to focus on hard work and the importance of the ‘common man’ both within the city and the country side. Or at least that’s the impression I get. There’s even one by Munch. I think it might be this one...

I also found a couple of cool paintings in there of the Norwegian King and Queen...

I particularly love the King’s portrait. It looks like he’s striding purposefully out of a cobwebbed room.

Hui and I also managed to catch the changing of the guard at the Palace...

a little less drawn out than ours but still an overly long process for something that could take a minute to do!

We spent an afternoon on one of the islands in Oslo’s harbour, having a BBQ with the couchsurfing host we were staying with and a couple of Belgian surfers that were staying with us too. It was really lovely weather and I was gutted I’d forgotten to bring my swimming costume. Still it was great to just chill out, chat a bit and explore the shoreline.

There was also some fortifications on the island...

which we found, along with a really cool, old abbey that was on the island...

Those of you that have been dragged around the ruins of many a church/abbey/castle with me before, will know just how much childish glee I get from this kind of thing!

We also took a tram out to see a well known sight in Oslo, the Ski Jump Tower at Holmenkollen...

it’s 60m from the ground and an Austrian holds the current record of 139.5 meters from March 2010. It’s a pretty awesome piece of engineering.

There was also time to fit in a lesser known attraction (although it’s still quite famous) which is Vigeland’s Mausoleum. This time its Emanuel Vigeland (the older brother of the guy that did all the statues in the Vigeland Sculpture Park that I mentioned in the ‘Norway :)’ post).

It’s one of the places that I’d probably highly recommend you go, if you get a chance.  It’s just a barrel vaulted hall, which is covered with fresco’s depicting human life from birth to death. There’s minimal lighting in there and some of the fresco’s are quite explicit but its not really erotic. More... hmm.. well actually its difficult to explain.  Once you’re there and looking at the fresco’s. Watching what initially appears to be a few weak spot lights, slowly brighten as you get used to them and reveal more of the fresco’s. Listening to the acoustics that magnify the slight scuff of protective shoe covering against the floor, to almost gunshot loudness. Well... it’s impressive and slightly humbling, in a way.

Anyway, don’t just take my word for it, you should go and take a look!

Also because of the lighting and rules, you’re not allowed to take any photos, so I’ve borrowed this photo from the website...

in fact, thinking about it, you should probably check out the site it explains it better than I can...
click here!

I think it’s joined my top 3 list of things to do in Oslo!

We also spent a lovely couple of hours walking around some of the forest in the north of Oslo, there are tonnes of ‘trails’ to follow and we stumbled across this really cool piece of wood.

I think it looks a bit like a dragon..

Other than that, we went out a couple of evenings and spent our last night at a place called Blå. Typical that we find one of the best nights/places in Oslo on the night we leave. Blå is set in an old warehouse near the ‘hip’ area in Oslo. It reminded Hui and I of a mix between Shoreditch and Brick Lane. They have tonnes of things on, gigs, poetry etc  but Sundays is reserved for a Jazz night. Loads of different artists spend the day jamming with the band and then do their thing that night, it feels like one big jam session but very slick and really fun! If you’re looking for somewhere to hang out then I’d recommend Blå, even during the day.  Oh and they have the coolest outdoor chandelier I’ve even seen!

Farm stuff next. ooooo!