Author Archives: Åsa Giertz

In Montenegro

Posted on by under My life, My Travels

I am in Montenegro since Thursday afternoon. I can barely believe that it’s only three days since I arrived because I have already done so much. As always, I am here for work and I went directly into a meeting as soon as I arrived, and it has been non-stop ever since. But it’s interesting and inspiring as always. Friday afternoon, we went out to Kolasin (about an hour’s drive from Podgorica) for a two-day conference with female farmers and extension agents. Yesterday was a day filled with presentations by ministry staff and international experts, and discussions between farmers and extension workers about gender issues and obstacles to female farmers’ full participation in the agricultural sector. It is so interesting to listen to what these women say about the obstacles that they see in their work. The hotel where the conference is arranged is located in the town Kolasin, which is a ski resort in the mountains, and the surroundings are beautiful. A sign on one of the squares informed us that Kolasin is traditionally famous for its many cafes and food establishments. Already in the beginning of the last century did the chairs at the town’s cafes equal its numbers of inhabitants! On the way here, we passed the Monastery Moraca, which dates back to the 13th century. The church had amazing paintings but we weren’t allowed to take photos inside, so I can’t show. The gardens were, however, so peaceful and I could have stayed for hours. In short, even though I have worked all weekend, it’s been very nice! Here are a few photos:

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Sunday Routine

Posted on by under My life

One of my favorite part of the weekend is obviously my ballet class in Silver Spring, MD, about 25 min bus ride from me. It’s not just the class itself, but also the bus ride, which gives me 25 min just for reading. Then, when I get up there, I normally pass by Starbucks for my morning coffee. And after class, there is an empty studio so there is time to properly stretch through every muscle before the new week. It’s a perfect first half of the last day of the weekend!

Otherwise, this weekend has entailed a lot of work, because June is the month when I have most deadlines for the things I’ve worked on this year. I did, however, have time to meet Swedish Monika for dinner at Kramerbooks & Afterwords on Friday, and later today, I’ll be singing with the Swedish Song Group and the Swedish Residence where we DC-Swedes will be celebrating our National Day (which was June 6). So not the most adventurous weekend perhaps, but quite nice nevertheless!

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Summer Plans

Posted on by under My life, On Agriculture and Food

I have been planning my summer today. Or the summer is of course here already, but I will not be off until July. I was on skype with Miss T we finally decided to spend almost a week in the South of Europe. I also plan to have a week or so in Stockholm, to just be in my little apartment, enjoy Summer Stockholm, and spend time with my close ones. And then, this evening, I registered for a three-day conference on Food in history in London. The program includes topics from food culture to food trade, from stories in the Bible to the evolvement of fast food. I am so excited! Miss  T sighed and said that she wished that she was equally excited about her job, but I barely see it as a job. I am simply working with my main interest. I realize that I am very fortunate!

After my stay in Europe, Jonas and I will go on a long-planned road trip through the South. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid and read about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, and later about the American Civil War, and after last year’s road trip through the National Parks in the West (see August 2012 in the blog archive), Jonas and I decided that this summer, we would explore the South. But first, I am off to Montenegro for work next week. And June in Podgorica is lovely, with all the restaurant terraces filled with people enjoying the warm evenings in each other’s company. and with wonderful seafood freshly fished from the rivers and the Adriatic Sea. So though I have a very busy 1.5 weeks, with a conference over the weekend, I really look forward to the trip.

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Late summer evening in Stockholm last year 

Singing Today

Posted on by under My life

Here is a pic from the performance today. It went quite well, especially for me given that I haven’t been able to go to a single rehearsal this spring. But two out of three songs were classic Swedish songs so I’ve been singing them since little (I’ve been singing in choirs since I was eight, so I’ve gone through quite a few pieces by now!) The mass was really early so I had plenty of time to get to ballet class after. The rest of the day has been less exciting, and filled with typical Sunday tasks such as grocery shopping, laundry and preparing for the week, but I guess there is no way around it? And taking care of it all during the weekend makes the rest of the week so much smoother. Alright, I realize that this is a terribly boring blog post so I better stop now. Someone filmed the performance for the Swedish Church’s website – I will post it as soon as it’s up!

A very nice week to all of you!

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Saturday Candy

Posted on by under On Agriculture and Food

For different reasons, it seems like our eating habits have to be guided (for most, read regulated) or else it’s easy for us to eat too much and especially of the wrong stuff. Therefore, just like in the days when undernourishment was a problem, raising awareness and working consciously to change habits and behavior is important. When I was a kid, there were campaigns promoting the idea that “fruit is candy” (it works better in Swedish since the word for candy and the word for yummy is the same), which no-one ever really bought but still made us more eager to eat fruit. And then the best campaign, that continues to live on, was the concept of Lördagsgodis, or Saturday Candy. I think it was more out of concern for our teeth than our weight, since the latter wasn’t really a problem in Sweden in the 70s and 80s, but it was successful and most of us only ate candy on Saturdays. If you had any left on Sunday, or at least Monday, you’d save them for next weekend. This also worked as an excellent argument for parents to kids nagging about candy in the stores: “Please, please, please!!” “No, it isn’t Saturday!” So for Christmas this year, Mia-Lotta gave me this little bowl with Saturday Candy painted on it in Swedish. It’s also a perfect size, about a cup, which is really more than enough to have out (we also tend to finish what is on the plate so smaller portions means less eating). And when I cut this amazing pineapple that I got at Whole Foods the other day, it occurred to me that maybe they’d been right when I was a kid in that fruit might in fact be candy! Campaigns to relaunch in a time of rapidly increasing overweight and obesity among children?

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Save and Grow, and a Wonderful Weekend in Washington DC

Posted on by under My life, On Agriculture and Food

The weekend is here and I am enjoying it in full! For once, I don’t have any work hanging over me and the weather is wonderful. Today has been slow, with brunch at Trio and reading in combination with chatting over Skype with Mia-Lotta at Dupont Circle, and then ice coffee and more reading at a café. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be singing with the Swedish Song Group in the Swedish church, and then there is ballet class. I have to add that the odd thing about the Swedish Song Group performance is that we will sing a drinking song. The song is by our national poet and composer, 18th century Carl Michael Bellman, but still… (För er svenska läsare är det Bort allt vad oro gör.)

My main remaining deliverable at work before the end of June is a set of notes on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which is a topic that I read about in my spare time anyway. So even though I don’t have to work, I have read up on things to for work also in the weekend just because it is so interesting. While browsing around for research and reports on biodiversity and nutrition content in food crops yesterday, I came across this FAO produced movie for the report Save and Grow. It’s only a few minutes long but it captures well how global food yields were revolutionized in the middle of the 20th century and some of the challenges that we’re facing over the next decades. How do we solve it? Well, we don’t have a very good answer yet, but I am trying to do my part in figuring it out.


Transitioning to Summer

Posted on by under Posts From Washington DC

There is a heatwave hanging over DC since a few days and I’m enjoying it as only a Swede can. It’s actually not that warm, only about 30 C, but people already avoid being outside and chose instead to stay indoors in air conditioning. As a result, there is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in the US and people are prescribed supplements by their doctors! I, personally, don’t have air conditioning in my apartment. We can have it installed for an extra fee but ceiling fans are enough for me. It’s kind of a funny cultural difference from Europeans. My neighbors told me how they spent their entire London vacation at Starbucks because it was the only place that had AC. Europeans here, on the other hand, can barely stand the AC and my European colleagues complain about how cold it is in our office. I always bring an extra sweater to work and when I go up to NY in the summer, I have to wear pants on the bus while the American passengers wear shorts and tank tops. But I love being outdoors in the summer heat! The trick is to spend time outside for a few days so that the body gets used to it. It’s a good excuse to go out for lunch! Which I did today. There were at least three times as many people inside the cafe as out on the terrace…

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Eggs in a New Package

Posted on by under On Agriculture and Food

I saw this in the egg section at Whole Foods the other day. Since there, for biological reasons, is a limited market for food, the way for the industry to earn money is to add value to products. This involves anything from washing, sorting, and packaging fruits and vegetables, to freeze drying mashed potato or  putting together highly processed energy bars. So the concept isn’t new, but I was still a bit surprised to see this product on the shelf. I have to admit that it’s quite creative in all its absurdity, though not exactly tempting to me personally. I’m wondering who the market is for hardboiled, peeled eggs in a vacuum sealed bag? Especially since they obviously target those that look for eggs from cage-free hens? It remains to see if this will become a standard feature in our supermarkets or if we consumers will still see the value in doing some of our own cooking.

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Memorial Day Weekend in an Empty Washington DC

Posted on by under My life, Posts From Washington DC

It’s Memorial Day Weekend this weekend in the U.S., which means that there are national sales at all big retailers and that it’s a Government holiday on Monday in memory of Americans who died in wars. For me, it’s kind of a dull weekend because Ms. Monika is in Sweden and Mr. M is on mission in Central America, and my circle of friends here isn’t much bigger than that. So apart from a ballet class, skyping with friends in other countries, and some work, I have had plenty of time to write on my book. Hopefully, I will have more time to focus on it this summer, so that I can finish it sometime soon.

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