Clever Living Anyone?

Last summer I showed you some photos from a dairy farm called Skarplöt. One reason for visiting the old farm was that the area is undergoing some changes at the moment. A little over a year ago I remember seeing the farmer out on the fields in a tractor. Today that field looks like this. IKEA and Skanska are behind this project that they call BoKlok (clever living). You can read more about the concept in English at the BoKlok website. And in Swedish here. Come the spring 42 families will live here at Blåklockan. It will probably look a bit different when it is all finished, with a green park, and tree lined roads and what have you so I will go back for a better look then.

The old Dairy Farm

One of my hobbies is to visit local farms. One reason for that is that they are disappearing one by one so they need to be documented. This is rural Skarplöt near Fors in Västerhaninge where a new residential area with 600 houses is under construction. The farm dates back to at least 1724. It is today owned by Nils Pettersson and his wife Anna-Britta, whose family have lived here since 1734. I took my bike down to Skarplöt a while back and knocked on their door. They invited me in, and Anna-Britta gave me a tour of their house. It was like stepping back in time some 70 years or so. The couple bought Skarplöt in 1962 from Anna-Britta's father. He was a local politician, just like my grandfather. Anna-Britta told me that she had a few photos of my grandparents. A friend from the historical association has promised to get me some copies of those photos later. Eleven years after buying Skarplöt Nils and his wife were full time farmers with 25 to 30 dairy cattle. Nils retired from farming in 2002 when he was 79 years old. Most of the buildings here are from the turn of the last century. After our chat I went for a photo stroll around the farm. If you understand Swedish you can read an interview with Nils here.