Stedsans farm & restaurant

Stedsans is beginning to gain form. Improvisations are increasingly organised. As is the day’s harvest.

Dane Flemming Schiøtt Hansen and his wife, Mette Helbæk, are both creative entrepreneurs and inventive outdoor types. Who would have thought that foodies would travel far to partake of local harvests, catches and pickings among pines and bilberry sprigs by a lake on the border between Småland and Halland? New buildings are going up all the time – the latest are designed cottages squeezed in between tree stumps and stones.

And once the big greenhouse by the beach is ready, Stedsans will be definitively established as a gastronomic resort. Evenings are apt to begin with a sauna and a dip in the lake. Pre-dinner snacks and bubbly vin nature are served on the shore.

The open kitchen (in true sense of the expression) is by the frugally charming little restaurant building. A number of campfires are burning as guests assemble for another glass and Flemming enthusiastically describes the evening’s ingredients and preparation. A good start is a plate of the area’s edible weeds with a poached egg, courtesy of the farm’s hens.

All the while, pumpkins are being boiled and roasted over the flames. They’re served with the zander from Lake Bolmen, which is placed whole on the coals and covered in hot ashes, to be joined by halved heads of pointed white cabbage. All the food is placed on large dishes which are then shared, creating a generous and relaxed atmosphere.

Many of the guests have brought children who get a chance to frolic in nature. Flemming’s idea is for Stedsans to be a laboratory for a self-sufficient lifestyle of the future. No hippie life here – both sides of the ledger have to be managed.