Handy girl Sofia
Meet Sofia, who runs an urban market garden with her partner Buddha in Malmö, Sweden, where all the work is done manually and 100 varieties of crops are grown organically. They deliver their produce by bike directly to restaurants and homes across the city. Read Sofia’s own account of life at Los Perros Urban Farming.
“It’s been four years since my partner, Buddha, and I started Los Perros Urban Farming in the city of Malmö. We are Sweden’s first urban farming business, and currently grow our crops on a 2,500 sq.m. plot in the Rosengård district of Malmö. And we’re organic in every way. We deliver our produce to both restaurants and homes around the city by bike so as to be as eco-friendly as possible”.
This year, we have more than 100 varieties of crops on the farm - everything from potatoes and onions, different lettuces, courgettes, radishes, beetroots, edible flowers and more. Most of them grow out in the open, but we also have a little nursery tunnel for plants like aubergines and chillis. This year, we also started processing some of our produce ourselves, like the chilli sauce we make from our own chilli peppers.
Everything is done manually without the aid of machines, such as preparing seedbeds, sowing, weeding, watering and harvesting.
“I see small-hold farming as a handicraft, in which my hands are a natural part of the process, and I love being able to follow every stage of plant development from seed to standing crop. Harvesting in the morning and then delivering fresh and nutritious vegetables by bike just a few minutes later is just so amazing!
Our decision to grow so many different varieties is down to a combination of our own curiosity about trying out new things, and our project to demonstrate how much can actually be farmed in a city, so as to avoid having to be transported over long distances. We’re partnered with some of the best restaurants and culinary thought-leaders in the city, and it’s amazing to get to meet all these eco-aware food buffs in person, in that we deliver straight to our consumers without any middle-men.
Even when we’re not supposed to working, we often spend the evenings tending the farm with our daughter who is nearly 2. We love wandering around and showing her where food produce comes from, and there’s something so special about pulling up fresh veggies as a family and then serving them up for dinner on the same site.
Follow @losperrosurbanfarming på Instagram and Los Perros Urban Farming on Facebook.
