Åsängen is a (starting) ecovillage in the heart of Sweden, situated on the lovely countryside of Örebro Lan in Lindesberg Kommun.
Here you find 7,5 hectares of forests and fields with a large vegetable garden, a starting foodforest and some lovely animals. Åsängen is surrounded by forests and two little hidden lakes.
The name Åsängen was originally given to this place because of the beautiful meadows next to a little creek. We would like to honor the history and the name of the farm. For many years there were horses and other animals on this farm.
Åsängen is the place where we make a transition towards a sustainable future and where we try to convert self sufficiency into co sufficiency.
We build a solid community by investing all of ourselves into the local people, businesses, services, food and nature.
We make sure freedom and pleasure go hand in hand with responsibility for ourselves, each other and the future of the world.
With everything that comes we ask ourselves:
Is this something good for us, but also is this something good for the greater whole? What can we do now and for all future generations?
What do we mean by “co” sufficiency?
We start with becoming more self-sufficient. To us that means we are not depending on outside help to satisfy our basic needs.
We go as minimal as possible to grocery stores, we grow a lot of our food by ourselves and we also provide as much as possible in our own energy and water supply.
But! We think that the “ self” part is where we are not thinking big enough. We would like to build a community and work together to be co-sufficient or us-sufficient. Live and work together with more people because we don’t think we can do it all alone. We need a social network, we need the talents, skills and ideas from others to trive and make bigger steps for the future. We strongly believe that it takes a village to raise a child, so our goal is to bring the village back to life to provide for the basic needs for children but also for grown ups and the old and wise. It does not matter how old you are, we need each other to be healthy and to feel supported and needed. It gives a sense of meaning, the fact that everyone has his part/task or responsibility, is the meaning of life.
Because we are co-sufficient we can build, grow and make stuff ourselves, we can repair things instead of buying new. We can share experiences, old wisdom, new ideas and we can learn together and from each other. If we don’t have a skill, maybe someone from the community knows, or knows someone who can help us.
The house
We bought a house that was build around 1926, it was originally a summerhouse. Families from the city spent time in their summerhouses (fritidshus) during the summer. It is a small falured wooden house, typical for Sweden.
The guesthouse
This fall we started renovating the guesthouse right next to our house, it is a big project! There was no bathroom, no kitchen and no water available. We worked hard and are happy to announce that its finished and ready for guests! You can book your stay:
Foodforest
We are regenerating the soil and planting a food forest. We would love to grow our food on this land and share all of the abundance it gives us. We will integrate some animals like chickens and sheep next spring. They can help maintain the soil and give us eggs and wool we can process in the future.
The land
The land is about 7,5 hectares, we have fields, a little creek with a beaver, lots of trees and a big barn. It is lovely to see all the birds and small animals gather their food every morning.
We already saw a fox, lots of deer and apparently there lives a moose nearby!
From our property you can go for a hike in the forests or to one of the three lakes not far from here.
Visit
Next summer you can stay in one of our bell-tents. In the middle of the field, next to all the trees you can wake up with a bird song and the first morning sun on your skin! Stay tuned for booking options or mail us for more info!
Co-sufficient living
We can't do this all by ourselves, we are meeting a lot of interesting people who help and support us. With all this people we would like to build a community, we can share harvests and seeds from the land with each other and above all, learn more about the land and all the work that needs to be done.
