A little more than one year ago, in the end of May 2023, Kleopatra sent me a package from Athens with bombyx mori-eggs from the University of Agriculture. Unexpectedly and unfortunately, many of the eggs hatched on the way to Gothenburg. When I opened the package, many of the baby worms had died, but 9 were still living. I rushed to a public garden (the one where there are mulberry trees) and luckily I got some branches from a friendly gardener.

After a little more than two weeks in the silkworm’s lives, I traveled with the 9 of them in a basket to Gotland, where I had arrangement to pick mulberry leaves from the mulberry trees that were planted for the cause of silk production in 1840.

By the end of June, the worms started to spin their cocoons. They attached their threads to pine needles.

When the metamorphosis was complete, and the butterflies came out of their cocoons, they started to play and mate in the pine. Eventually they also laid eggs in the pine.

The recommendation we got, was to let the eggs mature in room temperature for two months before putting them in the fridge for hibernation. They change color from light yellow to brown to dark grey. I was keeping the eggs on the kitchen table when one morning i discovered they had hatched! It was quite a good moment, because the Morus team had carried out a few workshops and had made new contacts with interested people, who helped to take care of the new baby worms. The community started to grow.