Mr Monkey scurried along and inspected the Ekshärad farmhouse, an 1820s building from Värmland. While it was built as a farmhouse, the owner was the crown's legal officer for the district, and he used the farmhouse as the court and the enlistment office of the Värmland Regiment. Mr Monkey admired the red colour of the farmhouse, which comes from Red Falun. This is a distemper made with rye or wheat flour, ferrous sulphate crystals, and a ferric oxide pigment made from a by-product of the Falun copper mines in Dalarna. The Swedes have been using this paint since 1616, though it didn't get used on farmhouses until the nineteenth century. Mr Monkey noticed that they hadn't used any Red Falun on the Främmestad windmill from Västergötland.
Copyright Rik Shepherd and Mr Monkey. This page last modified 21 January 2006