UNHIDE Agroforestry - A Knowledge Exchange Latvia- Sweden 2023-25 - Report - Page 34
Rydeholm farm: Forest gardening, Sweden
Araucaria (Araucaria araucana).
rewilding concepts. Combined with a lifelong
engagement with nature through hunting and
habitat creation alongside his father, this experience shaped a new vision for the farm: biodiversity and ecosystem services comparable to those
of wild, forest-like environments, established as an
equal goal alongside primary crop production in
the canopy layer.
“Now, three generations later, the trees in this
otherwise open landscape will have the chance
to gift us truly sustainable agriculture,” Anders
states.
The long-term ambition is to replace annual crops
with perennial tree crops: sweet chestnut and
monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana) seeds as
alternatives to cereals, and hazel and walnut as
replacements for vegetable oil crops.
On three sides of the food forest core, 7.5 hect-
“ARABLE LAND IS THE RIGHTFUL
PLACE OF TREES. TREES
CREATED THE FERTILE TOPSOILS—BUT THIS PREPARATORY
WORK IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED
IN TODAY’S AGRICULTURE”- Anders
Lindén
ares of land have been leased to a neighboring
farm and cultivated as monoculture fields both
before and after Anders’ takeover. Reclaiming
this land for nut production was long impossible,
as Swedish agricultural regulations lacked a crop
code for nut trees. Without such a code, leases
could not legally be terminated. During this period, Anders studied agroecology at SLU in Alnarp.
In 2020, Crop Code 73 (Nut Farming), covering
hazel and walnut, was finally introduced. At that
time, Anders was working as a primary school
