We care for the environment 

That is why Naturbruket Siljan has succeeded and that is why we keep on trying to reduce our negative environmental impact. This is done in different ways, while staying at home, while working on the farm and while providing services to our customer.

 

Did you know that the activities in most people’s life that actually brings most happiness also results to a minimum of negative environmental impact? Is that not fantastic! That is why we want to create and stimulate ourselves and our surroundings to get more time together and to get a closer connection to nature in a meaningful and natural way.

 

There is a saying that goes, ‘charity begins at home, but it should not end there’. And this is what we try to follow in contributing to our environment.

 

At home, we first of all try to reduce our usages of resources, especially electricity and non-renewable energy. We are not against technology advancements as such, but we do not believe it provides the answer to our global challenges by itself. While we do use electricity we have decided to choose green electricity, we use more energy-saving lights than normal globes, regardless of the season we always dry our clothes on the lines rather than using tumble-drier and we are warming up the rooms, water and the food by using locally produced firewood.

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With food, we are really trying to choose seasonal fruits and vegetables and we prioritize the food that is environmental certified and local produced. We drink normal tap-water and we usually let the food to cool down first before putting it in the refrigerator or freezer. In relation to meat, we are trying to not eat more meat than necessary. In arable land it is normally better to produce more annual crops for direct human consumption than to use it only for animal fodder. We believe it is important that the animals are treated with respect, that is to say that they should be able to follow their natural behaviour and without any kind of human-provoked stress.  Our sheep are, apart from providing us with meat, also helping us to keep the traditional, natural pastures in a good shape.

 

For us whom are grateful to have a piece of land we believe that a higher level of self sufficiency at the farm-level will benefit our own freedom, our private economy and our environment a lot. We have told our self that we start in small, trying to appreciate our small progresses aiming for some clear goals.    

 

The table below shows some fields of self-sufficiency regarding farm-outputs and inputs that are roughly estimated in percentages on an annual basis. The table indicates both where we are aiming (the upper figures in the cells) and what we have achieved (the lower figures in the cells). The figures in brackets indicate the degree of self-sufficiency regarding the inputs needed for the production itself.

 

Product/Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Vegetable and tubers	20 (80) 30 (90)	25 (80) 20 (80)	30 (80)	35 (80)	40 (80)	45 (80)
Fruits and berries	40 (60) 40 (60)	25 (60) 10 (60)	20 (60)	30 (65)	40 (70)	50 (75)
Herbs and spices	5 (70) 10 (95)	10 (70) 10 (80)	15 (70)	20 (70)	25 (70)	30 (70)
Cereals	0	0	0	0	0	0
Honey	0	0	0	80 (10)	90 (30)	100 (60)
Milk products	0	0	0	30 (70)	40 (80)	50 (90)
Egg	0	0	20 (10)	30 (30)	40 (60)	50 (60)
Meat	50 (10) 90 (5)	100 (20) 100 (90)	100 (60)	100 (70)	100 (80)	100 (90)
Housing energy*	60 (50) 70 (60)	30 (50) 30 (50)	60 (50)	30 (50)	70 (50)	70 (50)

* Electricity and warming up of rooms, water and food.

 

Transport contributes a lot in the pollution of our common earth. However, we have managed to minimize the pollution through various ways. Some of these ways are for example to ensure that we check the wheels to be sure that they have enough air pressure, we use higher gears, avoid abrupt braking and try to reduce the speed accelerations. We like to drive at the average speed. We prefer to use public transport and we try to use bicycle or walk as much as possible.

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We care for the environment and we encourage you to continue doing it. Welcome to explore ecotourism and permaculture practices with us!