A warm thank you to all who were part of this great pilgrimage to Ragunda. Here's some material about the experience and the thoughts I had.
We had the pleasure of spending a few days with Peter Ladan as our guide on our journey in Ragunda, Sweden, where he took the time to introduce us to local entrepreneurs, as well as enabling us to experience the natural beauty of the area.
The meaning of this was to get new views, tips and ideas to help Ragunda navigate into the future.
Strömsnäs Gård
Maria Stenman at the Strömsnäs Gård farm has a lot to take care of. Bed/Breakfast is offered as well as a café, a shop, a large stable of cows and agriculture. Guests are welcomed to meet with the animals, cows, horses, goats, lambs and chicken.
There are many own high-quality products sold at the shop; wool and wool products, artesanal items, Spices, soaps, jams, marmalades and juices as well as raw milk.
Presently a dairy is being built to pasteurize and handle the milk products.
My impression was that some food articles are very interesting and should be able to find a market. There are however many obstacles such as lack of financing by the banks, prohibition of selling raw milk in the regular food stores and not enough workforce to deal with everything. Focusing on agriculture and going vegan could be a solution.
I believe the resources are are stretched to the limit, but hopefully new solutions are being found. Such as internships, practical work help by the authorities and maybe new ways of financing. There is also the challenge of marketing on the web and by social media.