The days leading up to the event were pretty busy at Beyond Buckthorns. Akiko, our visitor from Japan, painted signs, which Nick then placed in their final locations. Lumia was busy in the kitchen baking different pies—rhubarb and feta, one sweet and one savory.
Despite the cloudy and sometimes rainy weather, we had about 50 visitors throughout the day. Our non-profit organization, Vihreä Pourusmäki, served coffee and the delicious homemade pies. Lumia’s mother helped us with the visitors, sharing stories about our 50-year-old oak tree and our main garden.
The majority of visitors found our indoor food forest extremely inspiring, with many never having seen anything like it before. Our other permaculture designs also garnered great interest. It's not every day that the garden at Beyond Buckthorns is open to the public. Some visitors drove from as far as Helsinki just to visit us.
After a long day, Lumia, her mother, and I sat down for a cup of tea or coffee and some pie, and reflected on the day. We look forward to opening the garden gate at Beyond Buckthorns again in 2025.
