Autumn at the farm 

Autumn season was very busy at the farm, with our volunteers processing large amounts of fresh produce from the land. We collected many apples, quinces, walnuts, chestnuts, goji berries and olive-willow berries. With the fruits, we made lots of jams, jellies and compotes. We also made some juice with quinces and berries. Some apples were dried in slices, others were transformed into delicious apple vinegar. 

Our ESC-ers Diane and Mathilde have made a nice vlog presenting the different home-made farm products in autumn. You can watch the video below!

This season was also a good moment for first-time experiments! Diane, Mathilde and Gea have used onion peels to naturally dye store-bought white fabric, using rubber bands to create nice shapes on the fabric. The dyed fabric, turned yellow-ish, was then transformed into bee wraps by the application of bee wax on one of the sides. A cheap and easy way to reduce our plastic consumption!

Art and Aarde-Werk de Stegge

As part of the “Kunstreise” initiative, two artists have exhibited their work at the farm in September-October and have attracted curious visitors from the local community.

Maria Neumann attached her art on a massive tree in the meadow. She declared about her work, named “Circus”: “Keep seeing and passing on the light, the colours and the love. Even in these dark times. That’s what art can do.” 

Leon Marie Dekker’s work, “Cut-up”, could be seen as a cut-up version of the national flag. This art work dates from 2019 and has thus nothing to do with the farmers’ protests. The artwork’s message is one of tolerance and acceptance of diversity. 

ESC volunteers

Currently living and working at the farm thanks to the European Solidarity Corps are Mathilde from France (arrived in October) and Fleur from Belgium (arrived in December), who replaced Anne and Diane. They will both stay until summer 2023 and will be joined in March by a third ESC-er, Nora from Germany!

If you’d like to know more about our ESC volunteers, their experience at the farm and the work they do, you are welcome to watch the “Meet Our Volunteers” short videos on YouTube or read our “Young Volunteers” article (still in progress) in the English section of the website.

The team at Münster’s Christmas market. Cheers!

Welcoming the returning of the sun

On December 21st, we celebrated the winter solstice with a ceremony inspired by Celtic traditions. In the early morning, we gathered at the centre of the vegetable garden, decorated for the event with ivy leaves, pine cones and holly branches. Around a fire, we witnessed together the sunrise and welcomed the returning of the light. 

Wintertime at the farm

Winter has brought us cold and freezing weather, but also all kinds of tasty vegetables! We have been able to harvest a large amount of beetroots, carrots, parsnips, leeks and all sorts of cabbages (Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli…). For our salads, we can also find easily postelein and winter salad in the food forest and the garden. 

To prepare the vegetable garden for winter, especially to protect it from the frost, the beds have been covered (mulched) with fallen leaves, straw and tall grass cut this summer in the orchard. 

Wintertime also gives us the opportunity to do some repair work and make the farm safer and more practical. We put wire on all the bridges on our land to make them less slippery, put up signs in the garden to better identify the beds, created a new door for the compost toilet, repaired the woodchip cover... Our ESC-ers are also working on adding new content to the website and creating an updated version of the magazines in English. 

Piano concert

On December 18th, professional pianist, singer and composer Erik Huele came to the farm to perform. The concert included works from Bach, Chopin, Debussy or Satie. The audience was also encouraged to join in on certain well-known songs. A nice afternoon full of emotions for everyone!

We plan to host four concerts per year, one for each season, so stay tuned to know when the next one will be! We will announce it on our website and social media.

New developments on the land

In December, the remaining larch trees in the food forest were cut because unfortunately, they had died during the summer droughts. As there is now more space in the canopy, this opens up a whole new phase of transformation for the food forest! The wood will be further processed by our neighbour for construction wood. We will use the smaller pieces for firewood to be used in the farmers’ house and the Stroyurt. Finally, the smaller branches have been transformed into wood chips by a machine and will be used on the land and to secure muddy paths. 

Our big greenhouse also sadly had to go! It was taken down in November and transported to its new destination in Almere. At the “Eemhoeve”, it will be in good hands with our former volunteer Simone, who lives there in a community of 80 households. 

Some of the plants growing in the greenhouse, such as parsley and St John’s wort, have been transplanted to the vegetable and herb garden. Next, a machine will come to restore the space where the greenhouse stood to its original state as part of the ‘es-field’.

Thanks to Ben for helping us with the machine to make wood chips!

Pruning the hawthorns: a once-in-a-decade experience!

Every ten years, it is important to prune the hawthorns by the entrance of the farm. Some of the trees are almost cut completely and put down horizontally on the ground, to create a natural fence that will be able to grow back over the years. The rest of the trees were cut and transformed into wood chips.

Learning permaculture at the farm!

Since the beginning of January,  a permaculture course is hosted every Wednesday night at the farm. The participants follow the official Permaculture Design Certificate course by Geoff Lawton, guided by Gea and our volunteer Dirk, a true expert in soils. Two of our students are farmers from the neighbourhood. As everyone is very engaged in learning more about permaculture, interesting questions and lively discussions are guaranteed.