Nötodling in Sweden – From 1

One of the many problems and risks associated with today's global agriculture is that we have allowed some annual plants such as wheat, maize and rice dominate man's staple food. These stands for 60% of mankind's calorie intake, despite the fact that there are over 50.000 known species of edible plants on Earth [1].

When we grow these staple crops plowed earth intense and often wore during long periods. When these only soils are exposed to wind, rain and sun increases the risk of soil erosion, carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and much nutrition, minerals and organic matter leached from and contribute to eutrophication of our waterways and oceans. As much as a third of global emissions of carbon dioxide since the industrial revolution is estimated to originate from eroded farmland.

Using perennials as a staple food is the easiest way to reduce soil erosion as a permanent vegetation layer, which may consist of nötträd, has no need of that land is plowed. The roots hold the soil in place and the above-ground parts of the plants protect against the sun's destructive power and slows down the rain on open ground can flush away large amounts of ground in a short time. Furthermore, it requires much less work to cultivate perennial plants, which does not require any annual soil treatment. Fertilizer need of perennial plants is significantly less, because they have more developed root system and grow normally in soils with a rich microlife that helps to provide them with nutrition. Fruit trees provide us with many beneficial vitamins and fiber, but they do not contain enough energy to be able to serve as a staple food. Nut trees, on the other hand produces nuts which are rich in protein, fat, fiber and essential minerals and can therefore be considered as potential producers of staple food.

Staple food from nut trees

The return of nut trees can be compared with the return from a field of wheat, located at 4,3 to 5,3 tonnes per hectare per year [2]. As it will become clear in the coming posts, it is mainly chestnuts (up to 5 ton for hektar) and oak trees (up to 7,5 ton for hektar) that can compete with wheat in terms of yield per hectare, although it is not only the yield in kg or tonnes relevant, but also the nutritional value of different crops. However, it should be said that most numbers on the yields shown here are from other countries with more favorable growing conditions and that we can not necessarily expect to achieve the same levels of harvest here in Sweden. The figures also intends yield of monocultures, which is problematic even in the case of perennial plants. There are several kinds of nuts that grow well in Sweden but for now, we should perhaps look nötodling more as a good complement to other crops, although the nuts on individual sites could easily become the staple food. There are no producing nuts commercially in Sweden today [3], probably because it is difficult to compete with imported dried nuts. However, we are undergoing a time when awareness and demand for organic and local food increases and then Swedish nut plantations hopefully find a place. In Denmark, for example, found a new niche for nötodlingar through a market for fresh green hazelnuts.

What exactly is a nut?

Botanically speaking defines a nut that "hard, dry, scaled enfröiga genuine fruits in the subgroup of dry fruits that do not open themselves to drop off the seeds when ripe " [4]. A simpler definition used by beef- and forest gardening expert Martin Crawford is that nuts are "edible seeds with a diameter of at least 1 cm ", which is also defined as the basis for the selection of this series of nötodling.

In the next post we will look at the hazelnuts, which is the most common nut in our Swedish climate.

References

[1] FAO. Staple foods: What do people eat? Accessed 2014-03-20; URL: http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/u8480e07.htm, 2014.
[2] Board of Agriculture. Harvests in the kingdom after the crop year 1965-2012. Accessed 2014-02-01; URL: http://statistik.sjv.se/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=JO0601L1&ti=Sk%F6rdar+i+riket+efter+gr%F6da+%E5r+1965%2D2012&path=../Database/Jordbruksverket/Skord/&lang=2, 2012.
[3] Nylinder, B., Nötodling southern Sweden – with focus on hazel, 2013.
[4] Wikipedia, Cattle, 2014.