winter in Minnesota

Dear Readers,
It's been a long time. I have really missed being in touch with all of you and sharing bits of my life through this little blog. But I don't have a computer where I'm now living, and it just dropped out of my life routines. I hope to be back a bit more frequently now though. So much has happened in my life, and I am sure you can say the same about yours!

Where shall i start? My sister and her hubby (Becca and Joe, whom I live with) got a puppy who has charmed all our hearts in a short time. Her name is Tato, short for potato, and she is also known to be called tato puff, tortado, tortanion...the list keeps growing.


Even bigger news...Becca is pregnant! She is due in mid-April, around her own birthday. This will be my first niece or nephew so I'm so excited. (no one knows the gender, it'll be a surprise) This baby is already loved so much, and already owns many knitted items of course, as what could be more fun to do than knit baby things inside on these cold winter days?

The weather has been a lovely, classic winter. Lots of snow with lots of sunshine, cold temperatures, and a white landscape everywhere. Winter chores involve: lots of wood cutting, both for the woodstove and the basement furnace. Knocking the ice out of the animals' water dishes every morning and refilling them. Splitting wood, stoking fires, and buying seeds in anticipation of spring. Inside the kitchen window we have a small greenhouse of citrus trees growing. It's amazing how warm a south-facing window can warm a room, even on a 0 degree day.

I had a birthday. I'm a quarter-century old now! Becca fixed a lovely breakfast for the 4 of us. The table was set with candles, homemade heart-shaped biscuits, and grapefruit, and my coffee was ready to be poured when i got in from chores. She definitely has the gift of making things beautiful and special with her detailed touch. In the evening, a special someone took me out for Spanish tapas in town. It was a beautiful day filled with all the special things you'd hope for on a birthday.


Daniel and I bought a milk cow! This has changed our lives quite dramatically. Every day, morning and night, we hand milk her into stainless steel pails, getting 3 gallons or so a day. We love her rich, creamy milk, and have been busy making butter, cream cheese, keifer, and sharing with friends. This isn't the greatest picture of her...she's not very photogenic but looks aren't everything and we think it improves her character.

If you have a minute, write back (in svenska in welcome too!) and let me know how you your winter is treating you!

10 things i'm loving right now

1.living life alongside my sister

inspirational knitting conversations in the sugar snap pea rows
dressing like twins without intending to
spending precious weekend time cooking up a storm... and kitchen boycotts

2. picking flowers and making bouquets for market



3. Sofia Karlsson
Our favorite Swedish singer, an absolute must-have in the cd player while doing those flower bouquets on friday afternoons. check out "Norr om Eden" on her site.

4. Spending every moment of my time (minus sleeping) outside, in the garden.


5. knitting

specifically, stripes seem to be the summer theme.

this pattern is the current project on the needles:



6. watching his belly grow bigger every day with all that grass


7. A visit from 2 very special "family" members from Sweden


8. Dancing

And having the joy of introducing something new to an old friend.


9. flea market finds


10. mountain lakes

i have some good excuses

I really do. I have been meaning to blog, wanting to blog, seeing a million moments every day i want to capture on camera and share with you all, but here is my schedule: up at 4 am. eat. work. eat. work. eat. bed at 9. and a slow computer. But life has been happening. Real life. Real, raw-milk-straight-from-our-organic-dairy-farmer-friend's-tank life. Life that includes popping sugar snap peas into your mouth while you're picking, and one that makes time for putting up strawberry jam. One in which your body grows strong, skin gets tan, and yes, maybe a little tan-looking from the dirt.



And we even make time for fun. Mostly fun centered around food. How could food NOT be the main excitement and subject of conversation as we work in the fields all day, surrounded by delicious inspiration?



I wonder how everyone's summers are going. I hear Uppsala had some rainy weather in the beginning of June, but hopefully it's nicer now? I know how important a nice summer is when the winter can be so....well, depressing? Not every day, but i remember those cloudy, dark, slushy days as being a bit tough to get through.

But let's not talk about winter. SUMMER is here, and on the farm things are in full swing. I am loving this lifestyle and learning so so much every day. And my convictions are growing even stronger that I deeply desire to raise chickens and grow food, perhaps sell flowers, and do bees? honey and candles? I'm not sure of the specifics, but it sure feels good to be a producer and not just a consumer. Here is a link with more farm pictures....they are from june when i was dropped off in Minnesota by my mom and little sister.

Minnesota news

Well, I meant to write about 3 weeks ago to say that I was moving yet again, and give all you precious readers a heads up. But the night before the 22 hour car ride just wasn't the time. And then I got here and it's all been a whirlwind. So this post will hopefully catch you up on the basics of where I am and what I'm doing. Then I can share smaller details of my life here every now and then. Which is all I'll have time to do I'm afraid. The blog most definitely must take the back seat to other things happening this summer.

So....way back in the middle of the cold, dark Swedish winter I decided that when I moved back to the United States I wanted to live with my older sister and dear friend Rebecca on her and her husband's farm in Southeastern Minnesota. Beautiful rolling hills, covered-in farmland Minnesota. I couldn't picture a better place to transition to life back in the States than to enjoy their friendship and work hard to help them realize their vegetable-growing dreams. They bought their 40 acre farm just a few months ago, and there is much to be done.

We wake up just a few minutes before 4 am (the 3:something is significant psychologically) nearly every day to be in the garden harvesting by 5 am. They grow an amazing diversity of vegetables, herbs, and flowers to sell at 2 farmers markets and through a CSA (community supported agriculture). No chemicals are used, just lots of hand labor, hand tools, and diligent weeding.

I hope everyone had a wonderful midsummer! I'd love to hear from my Swedish readers how you celebrated. Sadly I didn't get to dance this year or see little girls with flower wreaths in their hair, but I thought about Sweden a lot that day. I am teaching Rebecca a lot of Swedish this summer. She is a language lover and eager learner. It's very fun for me to keep speaking!

"To be of use"

To be of use
by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

"Magic Foot" makes for a magical night

Contra dance. If you don't know about it, or have never tried it, you must. Last night's dance was held in an outdoor pavilion. We had a roof over our heads which was edged with lights, a wooden floor, and no walls, bringing in fresh mountain air. The band was "Magic Foot" from New England. Four young guys playing fiddle, guitar, accordion, and drums. Am-A-zing sound. The night was like a blur. Lining up dances, reconnecting with old friends, spinning myself silly. And a post-dance dip in the pond. Can one do anything more invigorating, more smile-inducing? I think not. Check out this video on youtube for a peak at what it's all about. Many of the dancers on the floor are friends of mine, as is the talented fiddle player in the band.

something passed down, something handmade

I've undertaken 2 projects as of late. One is to copy down those recipes of mom's that I can't live without and find a little vintage wooden box in which to store them. I've already hunted at the flea market one Wednesday without success, but hopefully tomorrow's early morning trip will bring victory. This small task of going through her recipe box, pulling out those well-worn, stained index cards, and copying "summer pie," "apple dumplings," "strawberry pie" ...hmm i notice a pie-theme here...will save me countless hours and probably days of my life spent on the phone, asking mom for the same recipe over and over again, which I would then copy on a minuscule scrap of paper and shortly thereafter misplace. Not that I want those phone calls to end, really. It's a nice excuse for a chat, but I feel it's my duty and delight as a daughter to copy those recipes that my mother probably got from her mother, who received them from her mother...and there you have it; family history is preserved in the simple and everyday act of cooking.

The second project is this little "gratitude wrap," as it's been named by it's deisgner. It's a handy tri-folded wrap with 3 pockets on the inside to hold envelopes, paper, and stamps. A way to take thank-you writing and old-fashioned correspondence on the go. Don't look to closely at the photo, please. I'm really only just started to sew and my skills are depressingly few. It's a lot harder than it looks to cut a piece of fabric straight and carefully hem an edge without it ending up crooked.



So what about you? What projects, even the littlest ones, have you been able to spend time on lately?