All Food Has Been Alive | Søren Wiuff, Farmer

thank you very much Rie I mean it you know being the best if I look in the mirror I go very close I see only my face then that is the whole world if I go even closer I see only the pimp the pimple so being the best I don't know what to say about it and it's it's I want to be a good farmer actually sometime I have a problem being a good farmer because being a farmer is trying to control the first the first Spade we put in Earth to turn the soil is a try is in a in a way trying to control nature but it makes no sense because even if you're trying to to uh radically change the nature we are still the part of Nature and that that is one thing we have to think very carefully about this morning I I drove to this place uh passing on the motorway in the middle I see a lot of asparagus later it was this sea poon at Amar really a lot and almost being here I see I see horse rage rampion just before before the Dr building the Dan television and and you we can go and grab it then I thought why why are these aseas living in the middle of the motor road but the other question is also what is the motorway doing where asticus is [Laughter] [Applause] growing I want to present myself uh uh but first of all I'm I'm feeling very humble you can hear my my voice is staggering a little bit but but I feel comfortable feel very comfortable I feel very proud also humble and proud I want you to help me feel more comfortable by giving me a big smile thank you I looked at myself today in the mirror I smiled and what did I see I see no carnivore te see only teas for smashing something why do we eat so much meat at least decade meat is what is fit for our te not not to go and kill an animal and eat it like that we are no wolf we no nothing like that we are meant to eat plants and insects and uh when I was young I lived in Lor uh 80 kilm from here I had a friend called C he he was my age and we duck a lot of holes in the ground and the water came up and we could make the water run to other places and we went around in the landscape our home our universe was perhaps 50 hectar or something like that not very big but it it was our universe and we found we knew some plant we could eat we didn't know anything if they could harm us or anything but there were some Sour ones there was some bitter ones I know now which plants they are but everything was very physical it was big fun digging thing in the ground trying to eat it I never ate soil you can according to n i can I won't because I have the idea that everything we eat has been alive we're not plants plants can actually consume themselves by uh uh product SL nitrogen like uh minerals but we can't we have to have something which has been living before we are we're very weak in in in in respect to life we have to get some other starting life for us before we can live ourselves and that's also a good point for me but playing around with C we also make a lot of joke like any child do we found out that eggs were very nice to eat and even dark eggs also were very good to eat but they look beautiful on a big white wall and we we we didn't know that we we did something wrong but we did and we found out in our back that time it was uh allowed to to give some punishment uh maybe I taken some severe damage I don't know but but later later my friend cour and me was not playing together I got another friend called Finn and uh we were 12 years about that age old and some other guys same age they were more quick to find out about the relations to girls and like that but Finn and me we made our own Route Around the local uh small Village in Autumn uh September October we knew exactly where the good Plum Tree was and when they were rip and we had our own route through the gardens and we never got caught and we came back three four years the same route and that's how it is about stories they have to be uh contined you have to be told again and actually I would love to go that route again and see if the plum tree if the wine if the grape grape uh just plastered on the South Wall the good apple trees everything where it was today I think a lot of a lot of it has uh disappeared but could be joke to find out later I I uh wanted to see the world I wanted to see something exotic we always driven by Exotics I traveled a lot in North Africa actually over here in in the in the food market I saw two uh two young guys from uh Lebanon and they stand there making good pancakes filled with uh vegetables of course and they used used what they in Arab call full and I thought oh my God it's many years ago actually full or fev or uh horse Bean was my first exotic challenge I took some beans from Tunisia planted them in my uh home and they grew very well and after that it has been a big thing carrying thing to see if they could grow in my garden something failed something succeeded a lot actually a lot of things succeeds uh and I all of a sudden I thought this planting things is very funny but uh I remember my childhood one of the favorite thing in my childhood was carrots and I Asus and uh my connection with carrots and asticus was as all the other thing very physical we were I think I'm I'm one of the last persons who would take up carrots uh in the late in late 70s after that Machinery took over and and uh but I really missed that feeling your body uh as part of harvesting something that's really good and at that time I decided I want to do something like that in my in my future so I as as a part of that I started growing uh asticus and I soon found out because that was my first Prof professional step into producing uh vegetable I found out that a lot of other things is growing as well as the asparagus but I knew that from my childhood I had to weed thing out I had to take I have to control the balance between nature and let's call it culture but it's still nature doesn't matter we have to think about it it's the same and we are not stronger than this nature with this asparagus uh that was this I saw before that uh the kop podium plant was mentioned and and uh that was my first wild plant uh the other one which was uh wild Sor I didn't know in my childhood what was but these these things came uh rapidly after after that and uh this was in the start of uh the 90 and uh I started playing again a little bit I have a deep respect for for conventional farming uh I like lines of carrots without any wheed you can discuss how you get rid of the wheat but but uh still I think I think it's beautiful to have a production uh I respect really uh good Farmers if they are organic or the doing things with chemical doesn't matter they have the same goal they have the idea of producing very good stuff and uh I have deep respect for this fundamentalism in producing uh vegetable especially I think if we talk about producing meat I have my thoughts about it it's not not nice always uh so I started like my father growing carrots also uh with Machinery was another job and I found out that the better I became doing this carrots uh the less was I able to live with it economically uh actually in in the mid of uh the '90s I got a very good production with 10 about 10 hectars of carrot I couldn't even earn what my father did from half a Hector and everything 10 years before was done by hand actually with with love and respect every carrot was taken up put in a box taken care by hands uh and we got good money for that what has happened uh now now every carrot you see in a supermarket uh hasn't seen any man actually a no man hasn't seen the carrot because every carrot get taken a picture in the machine and if this carrot has a pimple out nobody cares the taste of the carrot where's that everybody says that a carrot has to be sweet it's a funny thing I have uh four children and I've been experimenting with my [Laughter] children I take uh seven different kind of cars big bunches take them up to the school even the school are involved and uh I give them white carrots I give them yellow carrots uh I give them blue carrots round carrots everybody thinks which is the best carrot they would all scream the sweetest no they want the white carrot without any carotene which is good for their skin and the health and everything but they want they want to White C always because it's juicy it's crispy but it's not sweet that's very I think that's very funny I've been to meeting with a big chef from uh the supermarket uh which told us you have in this place L to make a sweet carrot because what we sell is the children buying the children is designing what the parents put in the basket it's not true and it's funny thing and I've been children is so inspiring uh I seen I seen uh the same school my children's school I went up there have a big banket with all my vegetable and uh we had a little start startup uh talking about vegetable and I asked if anybody had something to say about wable then all thing came and that's way we are thinking if you have to say something you have to say something negative my father don't like any kind of wble my father also and everybody nobody has a father who Li with then I think oh what a potential here is something to change and then that guy he was because it's easy to tell that other don't like I don't I hate wable it was Simon I come back to Simon we had this uh talk about and I I I can't stop if I see something good and I think many of my vegetables are very good I can't stop putting them in in my mouth even if there's sand or anything little bit [ __ ] doesn't matter uh and after after the sis after the sis uh I allowed the children to come up if they want to grab I don't know what they wanted to use it because nobody likes vegetable but they came and took all and this girl who started my father hate don't like anything wable she took all the celery and uh after a while Simon came to me just very excited with a big beetroot red beetroot like this huge just like he win the loty and then he said the biggest thing I ever heard uh it's my biggest Victory son you know what I love red beetroots and and it was amazing because I think he never met a big beatroot before so I had to tell him that actually I didn't like to grab them [Laughter] that uh I want I have to something that's also little bit about how I feel I have to have something solid and I feel a little bit like clumsy hands with this but I think that's okay I think we take that one first here these cling together if I do it quickly like this [ __ ] and organic matter Decay everything but but Decay is part of life and uh this is this is the second plant that inspires me the most uh anybody know what it is it's leaks some kind of strange onion I always uh been educated as a farmer that leak should be 40 cm having about 1/3 to half of the leak being white the rest green I don't know why you have to have the green because uh I once had a young farmer helping me and then I just told him to make uh 500 bundles with five leak in each bundle and then I came home and he just made 500 100 bundles with only the white he cut all all the green he said what the hell you spoiled 500 bundles for what oh no but but when I come when my mother takes a leak home she just cut the green and out with it can't use the green from the leak I see many actually I see in many restaurants they do the same just cut the green out okay but more and more like Renee use the the green one also but it's a shame to produce a vegetable and people are just throwing half of it which should be very very good but uh then this story about leak started for me 10 years ago I uh what's your what's your favorite I was getting divorced like uh 80% of people in in Denmark does uh and I had a lot of problem of course uh and then I forgot to to to S the leak in the in the springtime in August which is normally the time you are planting or sewing leak but uh I had this packet of seeds then I thought uh I had a good summer so I got a little bit bit more energy why don't I put it in the soil you can see what happened then they they started germinating and they were very very very very tiny like like this in October I thought ah they get they get all killed in winter but next year they developed came like small very nice leaks in in uh April and actually there was some ships in Copenhagen actually they want they want to have this because they think they were very nice uh just like spring onions and then I thought okay and and uh that was a lot actually that was for one hectar leak so I just took some and and then uh at the end of the period I saw some some some was growing up making a stem making some flowers but there were other they didn't do anything and then I took them and I found out that they made like this one they made a small onion and and more of that they put small onion beside so actually I thought what is this this is a milking milking machine so they started growing up next Autumn with a lot of new small leaks and next year I could grab the leaks and the small onion they fell off in the soil so this field I have been growing uh leak for eight years now just taking the leak and they're replanting themselves every year what a gift for a poor farmer and and and the funny thing the funny thing then I then I started playing and I had some Playmates child I had some play Playmates this one actually is the eight eight gener generation of leak you see the small the small things here it's uh what's it called the field salad field salad MH MH because with the leaks in case it failed with the leak I planted some mush then I had at least that in the summer but that has been coming eight years as well so now they live together there but but now this year I I stopped the joke with that one I'm making a new field of course because it's a funny thing and and I think actually it's so beautiful and and uh so you're saying that this here has been eight years in the making yeah it's a a very good thing with leaks a very strong thing uh is that it has vegetative production and it has sexual behavior also and and the sexual thing comes from from these flowers that's made male and female flowers and and they make sex together it's funny for the bees uh and this looks like sex also but it isn't are you are you dreaming right now so when actually I caught it sexual behavior because that's some filthy thing then you start developing on the vegetable process and that's funny that's yeah you treat somebody bad then they give you back and and uh there's so many there's so many uh different shape of leaks and this is where people like Renee comes in because this one if I take yeah let's take this one it look like [ __ ] we like [ __ ] after this event we will all really love [ __ ] I have to take my glasses up you see you see here if we look thoroughly through the [ __ ] what do we see here small puls yeah small almost like on grains of rice almost onion like creatures and if we grab we grab this one you clean a little bit and put it on a plate that's a masterpiece I think 10 of Renee couldn't do that even if they worked for the months with the molecular kitchen well without people like you we wouldn't even have it no but it's not me I just I just SE it first so this is like almost like a and the color the color everything even try to eat it we eat it was you told that once uh yeah all all that about leak I need somebody to clean up me sometime we don't worry don't worry we got people another thing which this is uh this is my favorite this is asparagus end of season uh the last shoots from asparagus I have I have uh something dogmatic about my life I had I have to eat the first asparagus in my field and I have to eat the last in the season and today the season [Applause] stopped yeah you can e it with me I don't know we can I can talk a lot about asparagus but I I will only say couple thing two things maybe yeah uh it's one of the most physically because I love physic uh work and I know you do also actually uh Renee wouldn't do what he's doing if he wasn't physical somebody might think that that he's a good performer on stage only but but it's hard work I have so deep respect because these people in this place NOA I came there last year I'm busy also but I came I came there in the night uh just half hour after midnight people working there I came back in the morning because it was very urgent with some other stuff I came 6:30 the same people working there that was amazing for me I I thought ah this sleep until 12:00 maybe but they don't and it's hard work to gain whatever you want in your life and and I like I like and respect other people who I like to have play Playmates uh who do the same thing like that who who are really convinced that doing an effort is how you reach a goal uh but this this asparagus I had to find out about this asparagus because uh uh what how did it started so I I tried to read a lot of about asticus and actually I found out if anybody knows better uh they have to correct me but the first use of asticus actually was a root in China uh and it was used as a medical herb and uh they used the roots uh as a condiment for for kidney disease and stuff like that and I tried to eat these uh these uh Roots that's still a challenge for the cooks nobody found out how to get the string in the middle of the root out but you can make an excellent soup actually you can make the best asparagus soup from the root of asparagus uh and it's it's because it's it's it's so concentrated the the this as aspartic acid and all the other stuffs uh it's so concentrated in The Roots so also about about this I I make a lot of uh uh occasion where people come and talk about asticus I tell about asticus and and uh I got a beer company uh so giving good for your kidney then it was just the next step to make a beer from the root for from Asus and actually you can find it in the tent with the beer and the bread and stuff over there and I think it's has been very funny to work with the bitter stuff in in asparagus rout and making a beer and it really makes a trigger for you because uh it's not easy this year it was a success Brewing this beer so uh we're digging up the roots actually we're using using a big caterpillar because if you know how asparagus rout go 2 m 2 and a half met down in in in the soil then you have to have a caterpillar uh even if I like physic physical work it's too much but uh we took normally we take it in in March and this year the beer brew was excellent from asticus rot and then we have to remake uh because everything was sold out out already in the middle of uh of May and we came to to dig some more out but at that time asticus was growing and the Brew became totally different from the other one and that was really a big fun so and that's that's again we we try we can do it after a receip but we can't we have to we have to follow nature uh often sometimes also if we make some really good stuff I am I'm going to cut in yeah cut in uh and I would just like to tell uh especially for all the chefs the next time you pick up the phone and call your per your Pryor in imagine what you can get out if you go straight to the source what haven't we learned here in now 40 minutes of lecturing from this person but thank you to s for you want to remind about the photograph can I and our speakers coming up to answer questions and that they tweet I want want to say in relation to this because uh I plan to talk about Playmates and having Playmates like Renee and a lot of other Cooks uh gives me great great pleasure and they make me good by speaking good to me they make me good because they respect I'm a farmer like they respect other Farmers I think that's how we get good products because if anybody tell me that I'm doing something good and they clap my shoulders why shouldn't I make it even better next time instead of just uh bothering me with two big prices and and uh it's not fit for food anything so thank you Renee also oh thank you man it's a fun to be part of this game [Applause] [Music] [Applause]