Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to the sharing of our European seminar tour. This week, we move to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet regions of Estonia and Latvia. 

We arrived in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, from Amsterdam and hired a brand new Volvo SUV for our Balkan travels. Claudia has been doing the lion’s share of the driving, as her Austrian heritage better equips her, for right lane driving.

We were visiting Estonia to explore the potential of an NTS, EU distributorship with a broadacre farming family, who are embracing Nutrition Farming principles. Karl Lindham and his brother, Jakob, are farming several thousand hectares of cereals, legumes and canola in Estonia. They are guided with advice from talented German agronomist/consultant, Stefan Gernert. We had a great “get to to know you” meeting with Karl, Jakob, Stefan and Jaak Kalga (their product development manager). It was heartening to discover a like-minded group, intent upon driving meaningful change.

We stayed in a large, luxurious hotel that featured heated pools and spas, along with a vast array of sauna options, from wood-fired to far infra-red. Most houses in this region are equipped with a wood fired sauna. The sweat box seems to be a major wellness strategy across the Baltics. I guess it might help while away the endless winters, where the sun only shines for a few brief hours each day. 

Business meetings are often conducted stark naked in a sauna, as it is felt that the facade fades, and status means very little, when you all have bare skin in the game. The mutual dripping of sweat on the timber slats creates a community where honesty is more likely to prevail. It makes perfect sense to me.

The architecture is crazy diverse in Estonia. The Russians have left their cold, functional mark everywhere. These soulless concrete boxes make one suspect that the Soviet book of architectural design principles might just be the smallest book in the world. 

Contrasted against this are wonderful architectural masterpieces dating back to the Middle Ages. In fact, we will talk in more depth about the tour of the old city in Tallinn, which must surely rank as a prime, bucket list destination for anyone fascinated in history.

The Soviet scars go way beyond their pitifully unimaginative buildings and their rape of the soils in these regions. Stalin was a monster who killed far more people than Hitler. Every family has a member who disappeared, or was shipped to Siberia, during the early years of the Russian occupation. They basically branded everyone who had ever achieved anything, as bourgeoisie, who needed to be removed or reprogrammed. Even farmers were seen as a threat to the proletariat play makers, as they too had accumulated capital, called land.

It was fascinating to visit the large broadacre operation of our potential partners. They showed us their BAM brewing sheds and the worm farms that produce the vermicast for extractions used as seed treatment, and in liquid injection. We also walked some of their fields and checked out their farm equipment and a large seed processing plant.

There was justified excitement over the root growth response to an inexpensive seed treatment, that they had developed in their small lab on the farm. Stefan trialed several potential options, and the most promising involved, liquid vermicast, BAM, a trace mineral mix and Tri-Kelp The dreadlocks on the young roots were impressive, but it was the follow up photo, shared by Stefan a week later, that was quite remarkable (please check out the accompanying photos). 

We had not scheduled any talks in Estonia but Karl, our host, was presenting at a cover crop field day for broadacre farmers, on a 10,000-hectare broadacre operation. He managed to secure a last minute, two-hour speaking slot for me, so that I could get a better feel for Estonian farmers and some of their issues. I tried to speak more slowly than usual (some of you are smiling now) and Karl translated when needed (every sentence). The farmers asked many questions and they suffered similar issues to farmers everywhere, including rising costs, falling profits, increasing climate extremes and growing chemical resistance. Some of the concepts I discussed were seriously foreign to many of them, but there was tremendous interest in the Nutrition Farming philosophy, and I will return to this region on my next European visit.

Part of this impromptu seminar involved demonstrations of monitoring tools. We selected soil from the roots of the best crop amongst the fields we visited, and leaves from this same paddock. The virgin crowd waited with great anticipation for the test results, as we demonstrated the use of the microbiometer and refractometer. The agronomists working for this large-scale operation were particularly concerned because their boss was about to witness a new indicator of their soil management skills, or lack thereof. There were actually audible sighs of relief and spontaneous clapping when the brix levels were over 17 and the microbiometer reading was a remarkable 1150 (with more fungi than bacteria)

The field day concluded with a walk through the machinery shed to look at the state-of the-art, boys toy, monsters. These machines are much more easily purchased here, with their generous EU subsidies. 

I have previously mentioned serious losses on my apple farm this season, due to two wild hail storms within a week. The Estonians were flabbergasted that we were not government protected, in the face of more and more extremes. Apparently, I would have been compensated for my major losses, had I been farming in the EU. However, one wonders how the many billions in subsidies can be sustained, as extremes become more likely than not.

We had a free day where we visited Stefan to meet his wife, Ingr and their two lovely children. Ingr had just returned from a walk with the children, where they had disturbed a brown bear and her cubs. The cubs scuttled up the nearest tree but the mama bear was not happy and the walk quickly became a run. 

In the afternoon, we visited the Estonian farmer of the year, Airi Kulvet. Airi is an organic grazier rearing very healthy cattle on wild pastures, using mob grazing practices. She gives workshops across Europe to help develop the skills of fellow graziers. The cattle are not confined to barns during the harsh winters and they seem to be thriving in that freedom.. It was interesting to see the pasture response where they had fed round bales in strips over winter. working their way across the paddock. The strip feeding gradually encompasses the whole paddock. The cattle accumulate where each bale has been spread. They wee and poo en-masse while trampling some of the hay in to each feeding stri. This strip-fed paddock was firing away in spring with multiple natural species, all thriving. 

On the last day of our visit, our hosts, Karl and Stefan, took us on a guided tour of the old city in Tallinn. This journey was led and narrated by one of Karl’s university friends. He dressed in classic medieval garb, and it was a seriously impressive performance. It was so memorable to be transported back to the 1400s to hear the intrigue and politics of the original battle for the city. The nobles detested the merchant class, but their rise and rise in the developing city was largely responsible for the glorious buildings in our midst. The nobles took exception when they were out-dressed by the wives of the successful merchants, and they banned the more luxurious fibers, to retain supremacy. In a modern world, that ban would probably have to extend to fake tits, lips and hips along with plastic fingernails and eyelashes. In our current scenario, the best of the tattoo artists would also have to be curtailed amongst the commoners, and their sought after services reserved for the royalty.

We completed this adventure with a meal in an a six-hundred year old, medieval themed restaurant where the ambience, in the windowless dungeon, was created with hundreds of  real candles. We feasted upon blood sausages and bear meat, washed down with huge pewter tankards of honey-based herb beer. Then, we hugged and bid a fond farewell to our new Estonian friends.

The following morning, we dropped off the Volvo at the airport and met our Latvian host, Dace, to travel to Latvia for the next leg of the tour. I had assumed, in all the lead-up communications, that this was a male name. That proved not to be the case. Dace, pronounced,“Dartzay”, is a wonderfully passionate soil warrior/consultant, working for a division of the Ag department in Latvia.

 The two-day course she had helped organise, was held in a grand castle beside a river, in the capital city of Riga. This building now houses the Latvian Agricultural University. 

In a well-appointed seminar room, three translators were charged with the challenge of direct interpretation of my presentations, for those who struggled with English. Half of the room were equipped with headphones. Luckily the translators took it in 15 minute shifts, when drinking at the firehose. This helps avoid the burnout that sometimes happens, when so many technical terms gush forth.

The crowd of 80 people were remarkably attentive and appreciative and it was gratifying to witness their obvious interest in the science of working with a natural system rather than against it. 

The following day, I had a day of consults at the offices where Dace works. Here, we met with the Agriculture Minister, Armands Krause, to champion the need for positive change. This meeting may yet prove productive, as he has requested some guidance in determining ideal soil and leaf test guidelines for the potential development of a good soil and plant testing facility in Latvia.

At these consults, I met Jolanta Pilioni, a remarkable woman from Lithuania, She is also interested in distributing in her region. Jolanta is a passionate regenerative consultant who is developing a new enterprise based upon supplying commercial bioreactors, mother inoculums, and a supporting microbiologist, to broadacre farmers. These tools will provide more precise on-farm multiplication of living fertilisers and problem solvers. I’m guessing that the estimated cost of 30,000 Euro each could be recovered within the first few weeks, if astutely managed. Realistically, this development could allow growers to produce their own contaminant-free nitrogen fixers, silica solubilisers, disease managers, insect killing fungi, phosphate solubilisers and plant growth stimulating organisms. If you can invest 400,000 on a new seeder then 30,000 is a small price to pay for these biological tools.. We will work with Yolanta to help her innovative project, in any way we can.

Our hostess, Dace, was wonderful company. She is an accomplished consultant with a Soil Foodweb and biodynamic background, who also has a deep understanding of multiple composting strategies. She has recently become more aware of the mineral component of the three legged stool (minerals, microbes and humus) and she is actively trying to improve soil and plant testing in a  region where these services are sadly inadequate. More importantly, she cares deeply for her clients, her country and our planet and she has a horse-sized heart driving her passion and purpose. 

Dace walked us around parts of Riga on our first night in town and it was interesting to pass the Russian embassy, positioned on a street recently renamed “Free Ukraine Avenue”. Directlly opposite the multi-story embassy was a huge image of Putin and the evil within. It must have been quite confronting on a daily basis to stare from your many office widows at this grotesque image of your boss.

Dace introduced us to her friend, Ed Noordham, and we able to check out his organic broadacre farms and his new seed processing plant. Ed is from Holland and he has coupled pragmatic, financial skills with a rapidly acquired understanding of organic farming principles. Equipped with zero farming background, but impressive business skills, he has traversed the multiple problems facing every new farmer, like a seasoned professional, and he is doing a really good job. Ed has diversified his cereal production with a significant potato planting, based upon a contract he has secured for all he can produce.

Ed has several business interests and we dined in a nice sushi restaurant in Riga with him, and his business partner, Martinje. They are involved in importing ship loads of Dutch compost into Latvia. They have done their homework. They source a good product, and due to their scale (70,000 tonnes per year), they are able to offer an invaluable, low-cost, biological input to Latvian farmers at a very reasonable price. This company has also expressed interest in registering and importing our products into their region, so hopefully, we can piece together a coalition of the willing that will enable the cost-effective supply of NTS problem solvers into this region and beyond.

Once again, we were due to move on, with the knowledge that long-term friendships had been formed. We also made a promise that we would return in January 2025 for the Northern Roots conference, which attracted 500 people from multiple countries last year, to enjoy a host of International presenters.

Next week, the last and final issue of this travel blog, will cover our time in Germany and Austria where we will meet with cutting-edge regenerative farmers and spend time with Claudia’s Family, in the beautiful, Austrian mountain region.

Warm regards,
Graeme

Certificate in Nutrition Farming

Our next iconic, five-day Certificate in Nutrition Farming® course is scheduled for July, Monday 21st - Friday 25th July 2025.

Our last course was attended by growers and consultants from six countries. It was a wonderful learning opportunity where attendees enjoyed a wealth of education and inspiration from both our presenters and their fellow attendees. We only accept 40 bookings for these courses, so please register if you would like to attend.