Crown Princess Mette-Marit sat and worked with the urban farmers

Crown Princess Mette-Marit.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix
Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited the city farmer project, Losætra in the city center of Oslo, which plans to make city areas greener. She was not afraid to get dirty when the farmers put her to work.

 

“I am so happy to be here. It’s amazing that you can find this in the middle of the city, and it’s a great project,” said the Crown Princess, who was clearly excited about visiting the farm in the center of Oslo.

 

In 2016, Norway’s Farmers Association announced the position as an ecological farmer in the capital. Andreas Capjon (37), was selected and on Friday he received a visit, by her royal highness, Crown-Princess Mette-Marit.

The mayor of Oslo, Marianne Borgen, also participated in the visit.

The aim of the urban farm project is to provide knowledge and commitment to urban farming cultivation, and a more urban area than Losæter, is almost impossible to come by.

The location is right next to the opera house in Bjørvika, in the center of Oslo, and overlooks the commercial buildings of the so-called Barcode area in the capital.

The Crown Princess wanted to contribute
Although Losætter is not a farm in the traditional sense, they farm diligently in parceled area gardens.

Three parcels with grains and greens are planted where E18 (highway) is the nearest neighbor. It yields about 3 tons of vegetables.

“We eat what we plant, here. Every Wednesday there are open Losæter dinners. Where we pick the food, we prepare it together and we eat it together,” Capjon says.

Even though, our guest it a member of the royal family, Capjon had the same rules for this visit:

“Here people have to join, pull up their sleeves and get some dirt under their nails,” he said before the visit.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit was happy to oblige. She harvested and ate vegetables right from the field, as well as baked bread with baker Emanuel Rang.

Collaborative project
For Capjon, the most important thing about this project is to give people an experience.

“City dwellers should be able to come and have the experiences and knowledge of where our food comes from. This is a place where everyone is welcome. It’s a park, and it’s a public space, he says.

Capjon wants to create a community.

“We cooperate in the true sense of the word, we work together,” he says.

Capjon is employed by the Norwegian Farmers Act in cooperation with Bjørvika Development to work at Losæter. The project is also supported by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Norway’s Group (Norgesgruppen) and the County Governor of Oslo and Akershus.

Capjon is the only employee at Losæter, but several different organizations are affiliated with the project. Among them, a group of young dementia patients have created a sense garden in the area, which the Crown Princess also visited.

Dirt under your nails
Making the gray spaces greener is something Capjon believes is most important with the urban farmer project, and he was delighted that the Crown Princess chose to visit his farm.

“It’s amazing that they want to come and look at what we are doing. We are very proud of this place we have created and what we are working for. That they come here and lift this place up is fantastic,” he says.

At that time Capjon received royal help in the field.

– No one leaves here without some dirt under their nails.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today