Flower Fields

We don't grow for human food production. We grow to feed insects. Because partridge chicks die, if they don't get a bunch of protein in the first two weeks of their life to grow their feathers and a strong immune system. This is what our "flower field to be" looks like today: freshly ploughed. The first year, we grow barley. After that, we grow flowers. It's a whole process. It's not fast and there are people who have the right machines to help us with this. Creating a flower field requires collective action (in our case) and coordination. 

Many people love birds. Stefan built them a home: Boters Myr. Not a small undertaking, but Stefan is not a small man in any way. It cost several million SEK to build this place that belonged to his father's farm in Anga. It had been overgrown with bushes and was neither farmland, nor a thriving eco-system for animals. With funding from Länsstyrelsen, Stefan made his vision to build a bird sanctuary reality. I'm not religious, but when he takes me there on a cold, early Spring morning, and we stand in the tower, overlooking the lake, I feel like I'm in church: closer to something bigger than me (and I don't just mean Stefan, whose shields me from the wind and keeps me from shivering, while he points out Tofsvipar and different kinds of ducks). Boters Myr is where I go, when nothing makes sense. I love it. We protect what we love. Come visit, so you can fall in love, too. 

This video about Boters Myr was produced by Gunilla Hellgren Media. It won an award in 2019 from Film på Gotland and Region Gotland in the competition "En stor liten ö".