BY MALIN A. | 15/12/23
Many highlights in 2023 - New adventures on the horizon
The last days of the year are here, and we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful and joyful Christmas and a brilliant New Year.
It has been an eventful year here in Ödevata, and it is with great joy and excitement that we share some of the highlights with you in this last newsletter for this year. Hope you scroll through our pictures that show a bit of the year 2023.
But first !!!!!!!!!!!
New adventures on the horizon:
From January next year, Doro and Patrick Elling will take over the management of our beloved place here in Ödevata. See below their text where they present who they are and what visions they have. We are convinced that together with our shared enthusiasm and love for the sustainable, will bring the business to new heights. Doro and Patrick bring new energy and want to both manage and renew what we have built up in the 18 years since we bought Ödevata.
We, Malin and Magnus Axelsson, will ourselves still be part of Ödevata, stay on the site and continue our work as property owners. We are so crazy lucky that it is you with whom we will develop the farm, the tourist and meeting activities and the plantations together. This is a new beginning for all of us, and we look forward to sharing this exciting journey with you.
Thank you for being part of our 2023. We wish you a peaceful Christmas and look forward to welcoming you to Ödevata next year.
Heartfelt greetings,
Malin and Magnus Axelsson
Doro and Patrick Elling
Ödevata Team
Hey! We are Doro and Patrick and we are coming back to Ödevata.
We were here in 2020 and 21 – maybe someone remembers us?
We were traveling through Europe and happened to end up in Ödevata.
We liked it here so much that we ended up staying for nine months. As volunteers, we gradually got to know all areas of Ödevata quite well – and fell in love with the place and the people here. Now we’re excited to return to run a part of Ödevata on our own and develop another part together with Malin and Magnus. Will we see each other on the farm in 2024?
To give you an idea of who we are and what we’re up to, here’s some personal information about us:
When we decided in 2020 to break out of our everyday routine and explore the world (well, parts of Europe 😉) with our bus, it was important to us to discover new impulses. Quitting our apartment and job, putting furniture in storage, getting out of the comfort zone and into adventure – that was our path. Around three and a half years later and with a lot of experience, this path is not yet over for us. We don’t want to stop being interested and open-minded – with regard to countries, cultures and people as well as different views, ideas and concepts of life. Ödevata seems to us to be the perfect place for this. And we want to actively help shape this place.
For us, Ödevata is a place of encounter – international, diverse, integrative and co-creative. We do not differentiate whether guests spend their vacation with us actively or are looking for complete peace and quiet. We are happy about families and friends who enjoy a group trip in Ödevata as well as singles who travel alone. We welcome companies looking for the right location for their seminar or a team offsite, as well as people looking for the perfect location for their work.
We want to create this meeting place for you as passionate hosts. With our open and interested nature, uncomplicated and affectionate. We think the setting is perfect: 12 rooms, 3 apartments, conference and break-out rooms, self-catering and outdoor kitchens, communal areas inside and on the spacious outdoor area. All of this in the middle of the southern Swedish wilderness of Småland, located directly on the lake, with numerous nature activities around it.
In addition to all reasons and events that bring you to Ödevata, we will also implement our own ideas that we would like to offer you for a stay with us for this reason: We live sustainability and like to share our climate-positive activities with others. Just like the values we stand for – tolerance, diversity, participation and the sincere interest in wanting to discover new things. For both of us it is a matter of the heart to create offers on these topics that bring us together and allow us to learn from each other. For responsible cooperation that creates lasting value – for the individual, society and the planet.
We look forward to working together with many exciting people in the existing Ödevata network. And then to gain more colleagues in order to expand the network. From day 1, our goal is to convince as many people as possible to get an idea of the activities and opportunities in Ödevata. Personal, on site.
We wish you a good start into 2024 and look forward to many exciting encounters.
A day in the life of an Ödevata volunteer
Today I’m on the chicken shift and I’m on my way to the chicken house, I can already hear them cackling excitedly, to open the doors for them. I collect the eggs they have laid and go to the breakfast room with my basket. On the way I stop at our hen house with young chickens. They are always a bit cautious and the hen protects them well if I get too close to change the water. The chickens like to quickly jump out and go on an adventure in the orchard.
I’m looking for the other volunteers and we’re going to work in the vegetable garden today. It grows so hard it cracks. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, the cucumbers are still small but we have already eaten the first one. The courgettes are already starting to come and I can already see one or two ready to pick. We are going to clear among the carrots, they are growing well, but to be sure of nice big winter carrots we have to thin them out. We remove a whole bunch of smaller carrots. These carrots are perfect as a snack and we use the green parts of the carrots to make a pesto.
The morning is almost over and we are called together at the new pond. The dust cloth must be laid properly. The pond is about 10 by 20 meters and the canvas is gigantic and very heavy. Therefore, we need the loader, the Yellow Ferrari, and everyone in Ödevata to lay the canvas properly. We, 15 people, work together to move it.
- 1, 2, Go!
Now it is okay to let the first water flow in from the adjacent lake.
In the afternoon we are free and I go out with two other girls in a boat on lake Ödevaten. With the sun in our faces, we paddle down the entire lake. How peaceful it is here! In the evening we eat together in the large greenhouse, everyone has made something with as many products as possible from the garden and around the house. Chanterelle Quiche, with chanterelles from the forest, homemade sourdough bread, fresh carrot blast pesto, grilled fish on the Kontiki grill and, of course, richly saturated salad picked from the garden. For dessert we eat blueberry pie, of course with berries from the forest.
There are about 10 of us and we come from all over Europe, we toast Ödevata in all the languages we know.
Prost! Santé! Salud! Cheers! Proost! Tagay! Zum Wohl! Salute! Schol!
Skål!
The year begins and ends with cold baths and saunas. Lots of cold baths all year round for both Ödevata residents and lots of hotel guests!!!
Lots of study visits.
Here are Mattias Gustafsson at Ecotopic, with his colleague Chidambar Badanal Siddaiah all the way from India. Both work with Biochar.
Northern lights at Ödevata!!!
Carl-Johan did a fantastic job as hotel manager – THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the good work. You now have go to Mundekulla to see Carl-Johan.
Ödevata Team also had the privilege of getting to know Ann-Sofie Berglund. In June 2024, she will become an Aquaponics engineer. She did her LIA internship with us and we learned more from her than she from us.
If you missed reading about Ann-Sofie and her work, do so now here…(swedish)
Lots of bananas.
Also papaya in 2023 in the Conservatory of the Future.
These two!!! They have worked in Ödevata almost the whole year. That’s why you guests have had such a nice time around your accommodation, abundance of food for the community and conference guests, technology that worked, the right lighting in the right place and much, much more. THANKS!!
They have taken many beautiful pictures, but not many of themselves 🙂
EBV Plåt AB in Emmaboda helps Magnus cut sheet metal for the Kon-Tiki /Biokol barrels.
Malin and Mike, Digitalhandyman, sell Kon-Tiki and Magnus produces.
Lots of good, happy, interesting communal coffee breaks.
Lots of good, happy, interesting communal lunch breaks.
Lots of good, happy, interesting shared dinners.
Many thanks to everyone who contributes!!!
None mentioned none forgotten – so much love.
Liselotte Björnholt Henriksen takes on the task of redesigning Ödevata’s dining room. The only thing that is bought new is the peg chairs.
Here are Magnus and Liselotte in Ryd, buying an old beautiful double door.
Halbe and Wille, Willes Bygg AB, gave Axelsson’s Green Lodges a terrace with a lake view. Halbe took such a wonderful job of designing it.
Turned out crazy good!!!
Stephanie Verstifts, author of the prized book Mundekulla Cooks, is now working on a new book and she wants to talk about Ödevata’s aquaponic cultivation!!!!
Lots of pizza baked in Ödevata in 2023
Professional photographers provide us with a whole library of wonderful images – THANK YOU Björn & Jule at https://bittelaechelnuschi.de/
Summer
2023 lots of crayfish – enough for everyone
Lotta Smith has prepared lots of good locally grown food for all the conference guests and study visitors. She also shares the cultivations in pictures on @jordlotta
Biokol Valborg 2023 – For the good cause. Marie at Stolpabäcksgård was one of those who bought a real chestnut for the benefit of Ukrainian families in Sweden.
Biokol Valborg 2024 – Ann-Sofie and Micke take on the baton
Read about it here…(Swedish)
Malin and Peter at Sjöborgen bring out a taste of drink for Ödevata’s Tilapia and crayfish.
Superb! Book a conference with a crayfish feast in 2024 and you can taste it!
Oliver, Mysinge Planterras, helped us renovate and build several new fences.
Now it’s so straight and the sheep stay on the right side.
It is extra work to work with repair, mending and recycling, but it feels so right. Here we get wonderful help from Simone and Simone. You see the chair – how many of you haven’t thrown one away?
Xylem inaugurated the new super nice outdoor kitchen with a Biokol event and lots of good food. Do you think it’s pretty?
Now this autumn we grabbed the third and last barrack. From a roof that rained in, it is now a roof that produces electricity!
We of course hired locally again http://www.eke-tech.se/
Heartfelt greetings,
Malin and Magnus Axelsson
Doro and Patrick Elling
Ödevata Team
Ödevata Gårdshotell
Ödevata 104, 361 92 Emmaboda, Sweden
info@odevata.se,
+46 471-504 30,
odevatagardshotell.se
