On Feb 23rd Andreea and I went to see some hemp. Two people sent us to Carei in the northern area of Satu-Mare where once (until ~3 years ago) there operated the last decortication (the process in which hemp fibers are separated from the wooden core which we need for construction) in Romania. It was a 5 hour train ride in each direction – and on the way there I was amused as I realized how far my life had come – I was excited to be on a 10 hour journey to see … hay!
This was also a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with Dorin Pop, a construction engineer who works with Teodor Pop of Lux Perennial. Dorin met us at the train station together with his friend and together we drove off to see hemp.
The picture below is what greeted us – deserted tanks where water used for retting (partial decompisition of the glue-like materials that holds together the fibers and the wooden core). In the background are fields where hemp was once grown. At the turn of the century in the area of Satu-Mare alone there used to be 8,000 hectares of hemp (for fiber) crop.
We met with Rodica Maxi who was the founder and owner of the decortication plant. The plant has been shut down for over 2 years, now there are just a couple of offices which are also in their last days. Rodica is one of the people responsible for recent legislation that lays out a simple legal process for acquiring license from the government to grow industrial hemp. She is looking forward to rebuilding the hemp-industry in Romania. Here is Rodica proudly showing and explaining to us abou hemp.
This image of a picture Rodica shows us standing proudly by fields of hemp seems to hold an entire history of hemp in Romania.
After a pleasant conversation we went to see the hemp. We were disappointed to find that the hemp is kept outside. A large venting pipe used to run from the plant and into this field where the leftovers from the decortication were dumped. We were surprised to learn that a form of hemp-construction has been going on in Romania for quite a while – that churches often purchased the hemp-shivs and used them as a stucco-sublayer for renovation and decorative paintings.
According to Rodica it is a pile of approximately 200 tons of hemp with about 10% fibers. This next image with people in it can give you some idea of the dimension of the pile.
We were extremely excited to be standing next to this pile of hay. This is the first time we’ve seen hemp and in such large quantities! The top layers are wet and rotted and therefor useless to us for construction though they would probably make an excellent fertilizer. But the middle layers looked very promising and we took a sample with us.
On the way home I kept playing around like a child with the material we took with us. As hours passed on the way back we realized that there may be a problem with the material. Outside is was probably frozen and therefore looked and felt dry. But after spending some time in a sealed plastic bag it warmed up and began to sweat and a moldy smell began to form. We’ve been monitoring it for a few weeks and though visible mold has not appeared the smell is still there.
Rodica has offered us to take as much as we need at a symbolic price. It would be our responsibility to package and ship it to our land. It is a magical opportunity but we are still not sure about the reliability of the material for construction. We don’t want to build a house only to find after a couple of years that the insulation and breathability of the walls has been compromised and that they are rotting.
Stay tuned for more 🙂