Internship in the ‘Friesische Schafskäserei’ (Friesian sheep dairy), part 2

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By Corinna Feldmann – MSc Student

March, 13th
Life on the sheep farm is very busy right now. More and more lambs are getting born, which have to be fed and of course more sheep have to be milked. All the milk is now used for cheese production, as we are expecting many tourists during the Easter holidays. I am already looking forward to the first guided tours and cheese tastings on the sheep farm. And I am interested to find out about the reasons for tourists to visit a farm during their holidays. Right now we have a lot to do to manage all the preparations. I hope the weather will be better soon, so that at least the sheep can get out of the stable and into the fields…

March, 21st
Finally spring arrived in Northern Friesland; the snow melted and the grass is turning green. Early spring flowers are blossoming. Hopefully the sheep and lambs can be sent out to the fields soon. Many of the lambs are already big enough to survive without their mothers. So, now we can concentrate on cheese making and selling. During the Easter holidays the first visitors are expected. But some of the cheeses still need to ripe in the cellar; they will be ready in May, when the tourist season begins.

University Food Culture

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source: crystalinks.com

Last week I ordered Italian at the new and growing campus lunch food market. What started with some Chinese dishes from a scooter has evolved into a small food market with multiple Chinese and also an Italian warm meal provider and long queue’s at the clock of twelve. The new market is popular, especially among Chinese students but more generally among foreign students. Apparently, a latent market is being tapped into, or how would the business economics department analyse this case.

But I guess it is also a matter of both institutional choices and food culture. The dominance of the Dutch lunch culture revolving around (home brought) sandwiches and milk lacks a true appreciation for the full warm lunch meal. Although university catering is trying to provide a ‘warm option’ to the large amount of foreign students and employees, somehow it stays an additional service rather than a serious business. The rather expensive warm dishes often with ‘exotic’ recipes somehow lack a cultural code which is present in the simplicity of the affordable lunch meals in the new food market.

Wanted: student for an intensive experience in Slovakia

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Are you a student with a Major, Minor and/or internship in Rural Sociology/Rural Planning/Rural Development? Then we offer the possibility for a 2 week intensive experience in Slovakia. With an international group of students from various European countries (a.o. Portugal, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia) you will work out a case study about the Role of agricutlure in territorial identity and competitiveness of rural areas in Slovakia. You will acquire knowledge about rural development through lectures and field trips as well as experiencing working in an international diverse group with various background knowlegde. The programme will take place near Nitra (Slovakia) from 18-30 April. Travel and subsistence costs will be reimbursed by the programme. Are you interested? Please contact Els Hegger (els.hegger@wur.nl).

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Studenten gezocht: onderzoek Usseler es

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De  Vereniging tot Behoud Usselo en Usseler es (VBU) zoekt studenten die meewerken aan een onderzoek naar identiteitsdragers van de Usseler es, zoals die tot uiting komen in verhalen, beleving en emotionele waarden van bewoners, gebruikers, lokale en regionale burgerij en naar de sociaal-economische betekenis hiervan voor het gebied.

Het onderzoek maakt deel uit van een project dat in het voorjaar van 2010 van start gaat en een looptijd van ca. 10 maanden kent.

De Usseler es is de grootste krans-es van Noordwest Europa, gelegen in de zuidwestelijke stadsrandzone van Enschede en is als zodanig een zeer belangrijk cultuurhistorisch, archeologisch, landschappelijk en landbouwkundig complex. De Vereniging tot Behoud Usselo en de Usseler Es heeft in 2008 een zienswijze ingediend naar aanleiding van het ontwerp bestemmingsplan voor een modern gemengd bedrijventerrein op deze unieke plek. Deze zienswijze: “Usseler es: Behoud door Ontwikkeling?” houdt in dat de unieke landschappelijke en cultuurhistorische kwaliteiten behouden blijven en uitgangspunt zijn voor de ontwikkeling, dat wil zeggen het open houden van de bolling van de es en eventueel een beperkte verdichting van de krans van boerderijen en schuren.

Demografische ontwikkelingen in de regio wijzen echter op een krimpsituatie vanaf 2020. Dit is aanleiding tot een serieuze bezinning op sociaal-economische en ruimtelijke investeringen. Nieuwe functies die passen bij de kansen van dit unieke gebied en specifieke behoefte van de stad en regio zouden ontwikkeld moeten worden, zoals toerisme en recreatie, innovatieve vormen van land- en tuinbouw en passende bedrijvigheid in de krans. Deze zienswijze vraagt om uitwerking. De voorliggende opdracht is om meer inzicht te bieden in de sociaal-economische betekenis hiervan.

Studenten met interesse kunnen contact opnemen met collega Rudolf van Broekhuizen (Rudolf.vanBroekhuizen@wur.nl) van Rurale Sociologie (tel. 0317-483833)

Thesis possibility: Sheep & Wine in South Africa

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The Rural Sociology Group offers a possibility to do your master thesis about organic wine production in South Africa.

As organic wine production cannot make use of pesticides, wine growers search for other ways to control the weeds in the vineyard, for example by mowing or burning.
More recently, the idea has come up to let sheep graze in the vineyards, see for example http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=977: “If sheep avoid grapes, they can graze the floor of a vineyard, providing farmers an alternative to using herbicides and mowing.”

Although organic wine is also produced in South Africa, this idea has neither been studied nor applied in there. This offers interesting possibilities for a master thesis.

The research will be carried out under supervision of Rural Sociology (Birgit Boogaard) en Rural Development Sociology (Paul Hebinck) and in cooperation with the Unversity of Stellenbosch and an organic winegrower in South Africa – who is very interested in this concept.

If you are interested, just send me an email (birgit.boogaard@wur.nl ) for further information.

Best regards,
Birgit.