The teacher Lina longed to return home to the green industries of Skaraborg

Lina Johansson is a trained soil/plant agronomist from SLU in Uppsala, but at heart she’s a girl from Skaraborg. When she finished her studies, she turned back home to Töreboda.

“I really wanted to move back home. I had a job offer in Karlstad when I was offered the position at Sötåsen, and in the end the location was the deciding factor. My partner had a job in Tibro, so it was nice not to have to make him move as well,” Lina laughs.

Today, Lina is a vocational teacher in crop production and the team leader for agriculture/horticulture at Sötåsen Upper Secondary School of Agriculture in the municipality of Töreboda. Alongside her work, she is studying pedagogy to become a certified teacher.

“I enjoy being a teacher - it’s varied and rewarding! Since every group of students is different, it never becomes boring, and because we follow the growing seasons, there’s always a lot of different things we can do. Everything we talk about, we can go outside and look at - that adds an extra dimension to the students’ learning.”

In Skaraborg, the green industries form a large and important sector. This is also evident at the school where Lina works.

“At Sötåsen, we have a lot of contact with the industry through study visits and the students’ workplace-based learning. We also have several research projects underway at the school, which gives students insight into the development of the industry.”

Dogs, ducks, chickens, and locally produced food

Lina and her partner live on a small subdivided farm outside Töreboda. They bought the farm last summer, and right now the couple is spending a lot of time fixing it up and making it their own. And the animals - Lina has two dogs, as well as chickens and ducks.

“I’m not a big-city person and really enjoy being a bit outside the town! I’m used to the forests and farmland back home. Being close to nature and having the possibility to keep animals is wonderful.”

When Lina isn’t renovating her house or working at the school, she likes to relax by painting or cooking. And cooking becomes much more enjoyable when the food is locally produced!

“We have a farmer we buy meat from, and we produce our own eggs. We don’t grow very much ourselves yet, but there are plenty of farm shops nearby where we can buy most of what we need. It’s great that you can buy food where you can see how it goes directly from production to consumption!”

This text has been translated with the help of AI.