Good things need time. That’s what it looked like when I had started digging, a good while after the idea had popped up for the very first time. And so I started. A spadeful of earth, another and yet another, jumping onto the spade’s blade with both feet, cutting out big pieces of soil overgrown with grass. Each piece got manually flipped over, grass down, soil heavenwards - the birth of my rhubarb, potato and green stuff field. Size: twelve meters length and twelve meters width. I needed to add sand and horse manure. A fence around the field was built, in order to keep the sheep out, and all epicurean hares. After all, I was about to grow stuff, rhubarb, potatoes, turnips and herbs. Building the fence has been a team effort. We used timber piles and wire mesh, after our friend Eivind had told me: you are welcome to cultivate this piece of land. Poul Johannes and my husband Francesco set up the fence. Without these guys, we wouldn’t be drinking homemade rhubarb lemonade. There have been setbacks. Delays. Aching muscles. And my stubbornness, my decision to cultivate the land by hand. More time passed. I will have to work on the draft shield once more. Work in progress.
