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By establishing a small kitchen garden, townspeople could supplement their household diet with home-grown vegetables.


Human fertiliser

Fertiliser

Behind the textile mill lies a small kitchen garden. To help plants grow, manure from animals could be used as fertiliser. However, human waste from privies could also be used. Latrine waste was used in Danish kitchen gardens well into the twentieth century.


A tradable commodity

When night soil collection was organised at the end of the nineteenth century, sanitation companies could make money by selling the waste they collected from towns. In 1872, for example, a mixture of latrine waste and lime was sold in Odense, imported from Copenhagen. Latrine waste was used for almost all types of crops in the early twentieth century. However, it was not always the best form of fertiliser, as it has a relatively high nitrogen content, which causes plants to grow quickly. For this reason, it was particularly suitable for crops such as rhubarb, which benefit from forced growth.

The Textile Mill

Did you know?

Did you know that in 1876, one person could produce around nine kroner worth of fertiliser per year, whereas a well-fed cow could produce around 100 kroner worth annually?

Did you know that during the First World War, when artificial fertiliser was in short supply, large quantities of latrine fertiliser were sold?

Did you know that the use of latrine fertiliser on fruit and vegetables intended for sale was made illegal in 1945?

There’s money in shit.

The gardeners at Den Gamle By still use natural fertiliser in the museum’s kitchen gardens. However, only horse manure is used.