Establishment

Down the ages
they conduct their long monologue:
can't you hear?

Mirkka Rekola


I'm struggling towards a notion of experiment here.

Saari is no backwater, though it's rural. In 1761 Augustin Ehrensvärd moved into Saari Manor. A soldier, a count and an architect, he had a deep interest in the arts and natural sciences, perhaps like me seeing not much difference between the two. He was a good friend of the great Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné - Linnaeus, and some time in that decade wrote to Linnaeus asking his advice on agricultural experiment at Saari:

"I have ... a plot of 24 tunnlands that is under salt water each spring, and would thus seem suited to the purpose. The earth is sandy. ... I have thought [of] experimenting with growing rice."

In New England at that time, settlers had also been trying this, though with what success can be imagined. Linnaeus was enthusiastic, but there are no rice-paddies ever recorded at Saari (nor New England as far as I can tell). Short summers and dark frozen winters may not help, however sandy your soil.

In 1959 Agrifood Research Finland took over Saari Manor and conducted cropping experiments and research here on clay land, including seed testing. They only left five years ago. Many of the apple trees the scientists planted still bear fruit and are delicious; though some others mysteriously wither on the bough or are dry when bitten.

A thousand years ago Saari was an actual island, surrounded by a small flotilla of others - the archipelago reaching right in here. One such small island was Tammimäki. It's now impossible to determine whether there were oaks at that place back then, but when the water receded, if not there already, the seeds came.

It's possible, though, to see the great waves of land-history, with glaciers retreating, sea levels falling and flora and fauna moving in to take the place of water and ice as linked to the later experiments of Agrifood scientists and Ehrensvärd. Sand deposits, boulder-clay soils a gift to agriculturists of every period.

Oakwoods are rare elsewhere in Finland; round here are plenty, placenames tell that story - always on higher ground - islands once. The first experiments are always those of the land: best land use determined by climate, seed availability, soil type, geology and altitude; achieving perfect management without human intervention. Balance, and at the same time, constant flux; and working with that to achieve a harmony of mineral and soil, flora and fauna, that I can only incline my head to.

The oakwood of Tammimäki is a manifestation of successful earth experiment. We may walk under the oaks, but we are not needed.
Terrain established and thriving.