Staffan Börjesson weeding at Tillsammansodlingen. In the background Christian Gustavsson. Photo: Sara Jeswani.
If you’re looking for the seeds of a more local food future, Tillsammansodlingen just south of Gothenburg [map] is a good place to start.
“Tillsammansodlingen” (meaning something like “the together plantation”) came out of the Transition group in Gothenburg. When they started in 2009 many of the group members saw food-growing as a natural starting point in the work to make their local community less dependant on fossil fuels.
When they heard of an elderly organic farmer wanting someone to take over the land he had rented, the idea started taking shape and about one year ago the first seeds made their way into the soil.
Now Tillsammansodlingen consists of a core group of 5 to 6 persons, and around 20 more who come in and work occasionally. As a member in the association you pay 500 Swedish kronor (about 52 Euro) per year and then you get to pick the vegetables you need for household requirements every time you participate in the cultivation work.
The surplus harvest is sold at a market stand by the plantation and by an organic food shop in Gothenburg.
- Personally it’s both about the environment and about my love for food. It’s simply fantastic to be able to harvest your own spinage and eat as much salad as you want, says Christian Gustavsson.
He sees this as a way of putting less of his time on paid work.
- I think it gives new ways of thinking about economics and food, and we need that.
Looking out at the European highway just a bit further away, he says:
- Right now a lot of the vegetables feeding Gothenburg comes in on this road, with trucks from the South of Europe. And this strip of land along the highway used to be what provided a big part of the city with food in earlier years. Now there are practically no plantations left, but the soil is really fertile so there’s a good potential.
When they heard of an elderly organic farmer wanting someone to take over the land he had rented, the idea started taking shape and about one year ago the first seeds made their way into the soil.
Now Tillsammansodlingen consists of a core group of 5 to 6 persons, and around 20 more who come in and work occasionally. As a member in the association you pay 500 Swedish kronor (about 52 Euro) per year and then you get to pick the vegetables you need for household requirements every time you participate in the cultivation work.
The surplus harvest is sold at a market stand by the plantation and at an organic food shop in Gothenburg.
- Personally it’s both about the environment and about my love for food. It’s simply fantastic to be able to harvest your own spinage and eat as much salad as you want, says Christian Gustavsson. He sees this as a way of putting less of his time on paid work. - I think it gives new ways of thinking about economics and food, and we need that.
Looking out at the European highway just a bit further away, he says: - Right now a lot of the vegetables feeding Gothenburg comes in on this road, with trucks from the South of Europe. And this strip of land along the highway used to be what provided a big part of the city with food in earlier years. Now there are practically no plantations left, but the soil is really fertile so there’s a good potential.
