Category Archives: Talks

Join me for a weekend in Sogn and Hardanger

March 16, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

17190466_1612348498783244_1074982413929864703_n

On my way to Canada, I’m doing a slight detour to Hardanger and Sogn in western Norway where I’m giving a talk for Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule (1700-1900) at Marianne Bakeri & Kafè in Aurdal (free entrance) next Friday 24th March (see also https://www.facebook.com/events/1866177443666754) .

I then travel on to Jondal where I’m taking part at a weekend course in small scale organic cultivation at the Hardanger Academy. See the press release below (and at http://hardangerakademiet.no/grunnkurs )

Pressemelding frå Hardangerakademiet, mars 2017

Interessert i giftfri, trygg og sunn mat, kurs i økologisk dyrking?

Den sjette seminarhelga i Hardangerakademiets grunnkursserie går 24. – 26. mars. Tema er: ET LAND – OG HAGEBRUK NÆRMERE NATUREN .

Økologisk dyrking for småskala yrkesdyrking og hagebruk.

Kurset har både praktiske tema om jordpleie, levande og frisk jord, om dyrking av grønsaker, frukt og ber, permanent hagebruk med fleirårige, spiselege vekster og meir teoretiske tema som utviklinga av jordbruket historisk og i framtida.

Føredraga omhandlar t.d. biologisk dynamisk dyrking, organisk biologisk dyrking og økologisk landbruk for framtida, samanhengar frå jord til bord til helse, landbrukets forhold til klima, miljø, jordliv, insekt, fuglar, mm. og landbruksutviklinga frå middelalderen til framtida.

Føredragshaldarar er: Arvid Wold, agronom, Dan Ente, gartnar, Vidar-Rune Synnevåg, gardbrukar, Reidun Pommeresche, siv.agronom og forskar, Tom Harald Eckell, økogardbrukar, Stephen Barstow, forskar – og mye anna.

Dette er det siste helgeseminaret i akademiet sitt grunnkursserie for undervisningsåret 2016/2017. Til hausten startar ein opp med eit nytt grunnkurs i fred, utvikling og miljø.

Det er mogleg å delta på ein av dagane eller på enkeltføredrag. Påmelding og kontaktinfo ligg på heimesida til Hardangerakademiet og på Facebook.

Gjør denne våren til din beste vår! Start med kurs i økologisk dyrking!

Talks

Around the World Around the World talk on Youtube

February 4, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Last weekend’s Around the World in 80 plants talk which was broadcast live Around the World is now available on Youtube in 3 parts – for all you Facebookless out there :)

Talks

Around the world in 80 plant video from Hurdal

January 31, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Presenting the entire 3 hour Around the World in 80 plants talk (in English for the first time), which was live streamed yesterday from Kjøkkenhagen in Hurdal Ecovillage, Norway across the world wide web . Links to the 3 parts, so far only on Facebook here:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiMSyt7qqGE

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIlkhwQ-t48

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBxBwHzygpw

Some 100 vegetable fanatics had found their way to Hurdal for this “sell out” event. A fantastic international crowd of knowledgeable folks of all ages! Thanks specially to Berit Børte who arranged and promoted the event and to Ane Mari Aakernes for filming!! I’ll be back!!
Thanks also to the board of the newly established Norwegian Seed Savers organisation who had a successful steering committee meeting without me in parallel with my talk…you’ll see them at the end of Part 3!

Course, Talks

Mini tour of Canada

January 24, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Thanks to my long-term “virtual” friend, vegetable and fertilizer innovator extraodinaire Michel Lachaume, I have been invited by well-known Québécois farmer and author Jean-Martin Fortier to hold a seminar at the farm he manages in Hemmingford, Quebec: permaculture-inspired la Ferme des Quatres-temps for leading chefs in the area! This will probably be on 11^th April!

You can read more about Jean-Martin here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Martin_Fortier

I’m going to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to do a little mini-tour of Canada, do a bit of teaching, learning and experience early spring edibles in another part of the world in nature and gardens! Here’s my rough tentative itinerary
Arrive Vancouver 28th March
29th March – 4th April: Salt Spring Island – Victoria – Vancouver
(5th – 6th April) Halifax, NS (uncertain)
7th – 12th (Montreal – Quebec – Ottawa area) with 11^th at the farm!
13th Toronto (Botanical garden?)
13th Evening flight back to Norway!

Forest Gardening, Garden tour, Talks

A visit to Riverton in March 2015!

November 28, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

At the end of March 2015, I visited the small town of Riverton (Maori: Aparima) (population 1,430) in New Zealand to give a talk at the Riverton Heritage Harvest Festival! The invite to give a talk had come about by way of my friend Steve Hart who I had met at the European Permaculture Convergence in Bulgaria. Steve (who is from NZ) and his lovely lady Martina had moved to NZ that same summer and when I contacted them for suggestions for places to visit / talk, Steve was quick to recommended me to the organisers of the Riverton festival which coincided with my visit! A second contact, Jutta (now Jane) Meiforth who headed the local permaculture group here in Trondheim but who had also moved recently to NZ, wrote to me: “….you should try to visit the food forest belonging to Robert and Robyn Guyton: http://permaculturenews.org/2013/04/21/letters-from-new-zealand-a-permaculture-food-forest-in-the-far-south/” The video above convinced me that this event was essential on my tour of NZ (the Guytons were also central organisers of the festival!)

I’d been meaning to post something about my visit to the Guyton’s forest garden and the festival for a long time. What inspired me to do this was a fantastic new video of the Guytons’ food forest which my friend Peat Miller Moss ( a Kiwi who has strong Norwegian connections!). See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GJFL0MD9fc

If you watch the two videos above you will understand why I think (and hope) that one day Riverton and the Guytons will be recognised as one of the main global origins of the evolution of the New World diversified Perma-order! It really is an inspiring place, particularly as it started as degraded land, and the Guytons have inspired many New Zealand gardeners to plant food forests and, I’m told, have inspired folks to settle in Riverton, resulting in a hike in house prices! Nevertheless, there’s no mention of the Guytons and these very important developments on the town’s wikipedia page!

Below are 3 galleries of my own pictures from my visit to Riverton. The first gallery shows pictures from the food forest…unfortunately my best camera failed and it was getting dark and not the best time to visit being autumn….so these pictures don’t really do the place credit!

The centre of the spread of temperate Southern Hemisphere food forest

Diversity, including hops climbing into native trees

The gallery below has been posted before (FB: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153110186060860.1073742280.655215859&type=1&l=11d4819ff7) and shows the great display of heirloom potatoes, apples and tomatoes at the Festival! See https://heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/
It includes various Maori potatoes (http://www.countrytrading.co.nz/collections/heritage-seeds-potatoes)

Francesca Bolgar commented: Spelling is “Moeraki” – up the Otago Coast. These are large purple potatoes

It was good to meet Mark Christensen of the Heritage Food Crops Research Trust his own discovery, Monty’s Surprise Apple (also known as the anti-cancer apple), a wildling found by a roadside and it is believed that this apple is the best in the world for human health (https://heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/montys-surprise)

Finally, a gallery of other pictures taken at the festival which was held at the Aparima College Hall in Riverton

After the festival was a great Pot luck Traditional Heritage Feast on the Saturday night! I remember teaching how to fold your own traditional seed packet sometime that evening. The following link shows how! https://fmanos.wordpress.com/tag/origami-seed-packets
I learned this some 30 years ago from my gardening friend Marie Gaden (now 86) who told me she had learned the technique from an old lady! Here’s one of Marie’s seed packets photographed on her table 2 years ago!

Riverton with cabbage tree (Cordyline) on the right

A steam locomotive (with Phormiums) that once transported logs from Longwoods through the Porakino Valley to sawmills at Riverton

The Environment Centre run by the Guytons is on the main street!

A good friendly Southland crowd at my talk!

A small nursery who specialise on repairing degraded riparian land using native plants!

I’ve tried unsuccessfully growing poroporo or Kangaroo Apple (Solanum aviculare) at home. I was surprised to see what looked like unripe fruit being sold as I had understood they had to be completely ripe (the unripe berries contain a toxic alkaloid solasodine) . From wikipedia: “S.aviculare is cultivated in Russia and Hungary for the solasidine which is extracted and used as a base material for the production of steroid contraceptives.”

Scene from the children’s competition :)

Robyn Guyton being interviewed by a TV crew!

Course, Talks

Weekend course at Nesheimstunet

October 27, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

A few pictures from this weekend’s course on perennial vegetables based on my book for Haugaland sopp- og nyttevekstforening (Haugaland useful plant society). I gave two 4 hour talks on Saturday and Sunday, but still had to skip a few plants….
Thanks to Gro Hetland for inviting me!

Nesheimtunet: a historic farm which has been in one family since the 1400s…this weekend’s course for Haugaland Sopp og Nyttevekstforening was held in a wonderful renovated 150 year old barn!! Good food and good company!

My room this weekend was the Bridal Suite ;)

All sorts of love potions for my use…but there was no bride :(

Elisabeth Kallevik Nesheim, our lovely knowledgeable host at Nesheimstunet!

Course participants with their teacher on the balcony of his bridal suite :)

Talks

Organic seminar 2016 at Bjerkem

October 7, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Økologisk seminar at Bjerkem, near Steinkjer has become a tradition and it was a great day together with kindred spirits with a wide range of interests and skills. Thanks so much to the hosts Jakob Bjerkem and Berit for taking a chance in inviting me to give a talk!

…and the choir with Jakon Bjerkem and friends

Organic farmer Knut Haga, a real original gave a great start to the day with “How to produce both milk and neat in an optimal way” / “Korleis produsere både mjølk og kjøtt på ein optimal måte?”

Cooked einkorn and naked barley “rice” for lunch

Jakob Bjerkem introduces Professor Ove Jacobsen from Nord Universititet in Bodø who gave a fascinating talk about Ecological Economics! See more with linked to Norwegian videos http://www.ovejakobsen.com/

Ove Jakobsen: Our common home is falling into serious disrepair… this is most evident in large scale natural disasters as well as social and even financial crises, for the worlds problems cannot be analyzed or explained in isolation… it cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected (Pope Francis 2015)

Thomas More (1477 – 1535) wrote the first formal utopia. He imagined a complex, self-contained world set on an island, in which communities shared a common culture and way of life. LIFE IN UTOPIA: Local production of food, wine, herbs and flowers 6 hour work day More time for individual and cultural development Phsical spaces for conversation and social activities Many religions should be represented in each town¨ Virtue is living in accordance with nature Always fruit after meat

This was followed by two very interesting talks about food and health. First up was expert on gastroenterology Prof Arnold Berstad who talked about how Glyfosat (Roundup) and antibiotics could be implicated in a series of realated illnesses from ME to fatigue and food intolerance all starting in the gut…

The last talk was Eva Fjeldstad who also gave a great talk about how conventional food impacts negatively on the intestines. She has a new book Takk for maten: hvorfor maten du får kjøpt i norske butikker gjør deg syk!

Thanks to my hosts Jakob Bjerkem and Berit Bjerkem, great to meet you both at long last! (http://www.bjerkem.com/?Mode=Meny&HovedMenyId=184&InnholdMenyId=184)

Beautiful cultural llandscape at Bjerkem farm

Viking remains have been found here – gravhaug (tumulus)

Cultural landscape on the return to the train

It’s a beautiful train journey south back home along the Trondheimfjord

Talks

Edimentals Evening at the Teeny Weeny Farm!

September 15, 2016 Stephen Barstow 1 Comment

What a lovely evening in good company of local (to Dyke by Forres) permaculture folk, forest gardeners and a van load from Findhorn! Thanks to my hosts Kirsty Reid and psychology of resilience author Chris Johnstone!

The participants after the great veggie meal Kirsty Reid had put on!

Talks

Portåsen and Norwegian Plant Heritage

July 13, 2016 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

I get invited to talk in some wonderful places! On 27^th April 2014 I visited Portåsen and gave a shortened version of my Around the World in 80 plants talk in the comfortable Hay Loft venue at Portåsen!

The Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre (NGRC) think that all cultural heritage institutions in Norway with landscaping ought to use historical plants suitable for the actual buildings, associated culture and history. Portåsen is one of the places that have made the most progress with this. Portåsen is the childhood home of Herman Wildenvey (1885-1959) in Nedre Eiker. Wildenvey is one of the most prominent Norwegian poets of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he published 44 books of his own poetry. Portåsen was established in 2010 as a cultural centre for the dissemination of Herman Wildenvey’s life and works. Herman Wildenvey was known as the “sun and summer” poet, and his poems reference some 80 different flower and plants. It is said that one of his first reading experiences were from Blytt’s Flora. Therefore it is quite natural that historical plants and traditional plant use gives a key backdrop to the varied cultural events with exhibitions, concerts, walks etc. at Portåsen. The place is beautifully restored. In the flower beds around the houses in the yard can be found historical perennial ornamentals (to be classified as Plant Heritage, a plant has to be documented to have been grown 50 years ago), which were either found in old gardens locally or received from “Oldemors garden” at the botanics in Oslo or from Lier Bygdetun (both have collections coordinated with the NGRC). Just above the yard is a well-tended vegetable and herb garden with food and spice plants, and within a traditionally erected fence can be found old apple varieties. A meadow has also been sown with seeds from Ryghsetra, an old local hayfield which Friends of the Earth Buskerud have received the Norwegian Plant Heritage prize for maintaining! The following lines are from Wildenveys poem “O, ennu å være”

O, ennu å synge om midtsommernetter,
Og ennu å ånde i kryddersval luft,
Ennu å vite, hva blomstene hetter
Og nevne dem ved deres farve og duft.

(loosely translated from Åsmund Asdal’s article here: http://www.skogoglandskap.no/nyheter/2012/portasen/newsitem)