City profile for Oslo

Herligheten allotment gardens…

Herligheten allotment gardens are born as an art initiative building on Victory Gardens food growing initiative of American artist Amy Franceschini in front of San Francisco Capitol. The place chosen in Oslo, Loallmenningen in Bjørvika is probably the most contrasted place both on the waterfront near the brand new opera house and one of the most disparate urban development area squeezed between high speed lane and railways. 100 micro-orchards in wood boxes and 250 m2 of grain field just pop-up surprising even the promoters of the project. When asked if it's a one shot, the answer is next project could be to "dig in the green" and grow food instead of useless grass in public space…

Geitmyra Culinary Centre for Children…

The Geitmyra Culinary Centre is a non-profit foundation established by the food writer and TV-cook Andreas Viestad. Based in the buildings of a former farm near Geitmyra school and allotment garden inside Oslo. The farm has been refurbished to host school children. Beyond evening courses and biannual Open farm days the originality is certainly to host 30 classes per year for an entire week each. Kids have an immersive experience in a farm feeding chickens, taking care of the vegetable garden, backing bread, smoking meat, making yogurt, etc and eating the fruit of their labour…

Geitmyra school garden…

Geitmyra school garden was established in 1909. Right from the start Geitmyra has been the heart and center of all school garden activities in Oslo. Here you can get help and advices on the establishment or operation of school gardens. Teachers and staff can attend courses…

Parsellhager allotment gardens in Oslo…

In 2012, Oslo has 20 allotment gardens totalling approximately 1000m². 70% of the parcels are 50m2 or less, and approximately 20% is less than 25 m2. Spring 2012, 600 persons / families were on the waiting list for allotments in the established allotment gardens in Oslo. This is an increase of almost 60% over the past two years…

Sogn kolonihager allotment gardens…

Anyone who has permanent residence in Oslo, can apply for an allotment garden. The land is rented from the City of Oslo. Established in the beginning of the last century allotments gardens were meant as an opportunity to grow food for citizens who did not have access to a private garden. In the 80's, allotments turned to be more and more decorative gardens. Sogn allotments count also some food activists who are slowly teaching how to make tiny 1 m2 vegetable orchards to reintroduce the practice of growing food…

Tilhengerhage for hagetilhengere…

The Transition Towns group at Sagene want to show how public spaces can be used for things other than parking. The hanger project was started as a protest against poor access to green spaces in the city…

Matvett webpage on food wastes…

Matvett.no, operated by the FORMAT project, is a webpage for anyone who wants to contribute thoughts, ideas and actions on how food waste can be limited. The webpage propose also facts on food waste, reports on what we throw and why and what the press writes about food waste. In particular, a charity scheme recuperating food through away by supermarkets and redistributing it among families in food poverty should soon emerge from this project…

Biogas and Fertilizer Production: Cycle based Waste Management System…

EGE is building a biogas plant in Nes, Romerike for recycling food waste into biogas and organic fertilizer. This plant will use food waste from Oslo households and other actors. Biogas CO2-neutral fuel and organic fertilizer is an environmentally friendly and nutrient-rich fertilizer products for agriculture. This project is a stimulation to collect separately household organic waste. It questions food waste in general, its management or its reduction.

MAJOBOs roofgarden at Alna Centre…

Alna is a shopping centre. In 1996 it was built with a green roof at that time more for decorative purposes showing a piece of nature in a very mineral environment. The insulation benefits of the roof have been recognized and MAJOBOs food activists together with the property developer and the municipality Agency for Urban Development conceived to turn Alna green roof into a permaculture food garden. One more symbolic step to raise awareness among consumers evolving under the roofgarden…?

MAJOBOs Telthusbakken allotment gardens…

Telthusbakken is one of the typical allotment garden situated inside Oslo with citizens growing food and enjoying gardening together. Telthusbakken host in particular one of the MAJOBOs social entrepreneurship initiatives in favour of social inclusion: the project start with a catering service involving youths in deep marginalization. The difficult work of reweaving links with these youths that seems abandoned, outside the scope of any municipality social services, passes now through progressive introduction of gardening activities…

Oslo Food Hall…

The Oslo Food Hall freshly opened seems to be one of the latest things to talk about at the moment in Oslo. A former industrial building situated in the centre has been refurbished as a gastronomic market with little shop selling high quality products to take away or to eat in. The target is premium but it seems to constitute an important step forward opposed to mainstream supermarkets: it is a large food selling space with cafes, restaurants, small specialist shops and a variety of food-related activities with staff selling mostly products that are not pre-packed…