IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

In the south of Sweden and bound by water on three sides is the county of Skåne, which you may never have heard of (unless you like Swedish crime thrillers, like Wallander). However Sweden’s third-largest city, Malmö, on the southwest edge, you may have. More on that later.

It’s here in Skåne County, where they can teach us a thing or two about permaculture. Organic farms, forests, lakes and castles pepper the countryside, fishing villages, beaches, and seaside towns such as Helsingborg and Båstad hug the coastlines. Pronounced bo-stad in case you were wondering.

And for years now these people have been self-reliant, happy, and laid back.

“Small producers who do really good stuff is the soul of Skåne” says the café owner in this video, one of the five award winning “Best Sustainable Tourism Films of 2020” chosen by GLP Films, a content marketing firm specializing in sustainable tourism (check them out for yourselves).

The featured award-winning vegetarian restaurant Jord & Bord, Örnahusen is open for brunch, lunch, and dinner. They source all their own food year-round from their organic garden. Smallholdings around Skåne serve craft beers and ciders made from their locally-sourced orchards, and with a comfortable median temperature of mid-seventies in July, it makes it a perfect summer destination.

Malmö in the southwest is eclectic with an average mid-thirties age range, therefore hip bars, boutiques, museums, and bistros abound.  Visit The Belle Epoque, where they’ll make you bespoke cocktails with ingredients such as absinthe, honey and cacao. And you would love some butter in your Irish Whiskey, wouldn’t you…?!

Then hop on a train from Malmo where the Øresund Bridge stretches almost five miles between Sweden and Denmark. You can take the car or the train across the water, but if you just came from The Belle Epoque, take the train, and wake up in Copenhagen, one of the happiest cities in the world.

Carry On.