Market Spotlight: Munkebo Farm's Legacy

Munkebo is the village in Sweden where my great grandmother was from. I recently went to Sweden for a month and found my relatives (3rd cousins). The last communication was in 1907 between my great grandfather and his brother through a letter. The saved letters dating from 1884 are how I was able to find them. They still live on the family farm in a village called Basthult. The older folks are retired from a small dairy business (18 cows) and their children and grandchildren help with the timber business. They wait 100 years from the time they plant to harvest. The older lady, Sigrid, has a loom and made her own Swedish folk dress out of flax that her mother grew and wool for the skirt and vest. She hand hammered the sterling broach that holds the purse to her skirt and also hammered the decorations for her shoes. She likes to cook and has a special talent for cookies and pastries. Some of the family belong to a hunting club that splits the take of moose and deer, which they butcher themselves.

Throughout Sweden most homes are heated with radiant heat produced from running hot water through radiators in the rooms and pipes in or under the floor. My cousins use wood chips from their woods to feed their furnace twice a day (the hopper looked like it holds a feed sack's worth of chips). I noticed no soot coming out the stack, but of course there is CO2. The houses are built with very thick walls. They all have super efficient windows and because the sills are so deep; they always have plants on them.

The people that I met in Sweden and other places in my travels have one thing in common, most are not big consumers and keep appliances long periods of time through repair and proper maintenance. They don't redecorate or change out their furniture or car every few years either. They are frugal compared to most people in America. The cities have a definite delineation between them and the countryside, no sprawl or billboards. There are no big box stores, mostly family businesses. They have an excellent train system and in the cities most walk, ride the bus or bicycle.

I know that world travel isn't green, but when you look at the educational opportunities and cultural exchange it becomes acceptable to me in moderation.

Germaine
Munkebo Farm, Owner & Founder