Beside The Road - Saltå Kvarn

The story of Saltå Kvarn (Salt = Salt, å = creek, Kvarn = Mill) began in the early 1930ies when a school and home for mentally retarded children based on the antroposophical philosophy opened up in the village of Järna, some miles south of Stockholm. A bakery was built in the basement in order to provide fresh bread for the school. Soon they began selling the bread to shops in the vicinity and after a while they acquired the old mill nearby in Saltå and opened up a real bakery business. Situated just beside the Saltå creek, as the old mill was run by water power.

This was in 1964 and ever since the business has been true to the original philosophy of biodynamic agriculture and organic farming. Since 2004 they're not only selling their own fresh bread and flour but also beans, pasta, rice, sugar, dried fruit, nuts, sauces and juices etc from ecological farms abroad. Yes, even ecological wine is included in their assortment of food products.

The Saltå Kvarn business is very enviromental conscientious - read more here, only in Swedish - in many ways and they're involved in many interesting, ecological projects all over the world. In time with an evergrowing demand for ecological products the turnover for Saltå Kvarn has grown with 240% since 2003. Admittedly quite a few of their products have found their way into my kitchen cupboards over the years. And not only because the really neat design of their packages.

But even if I've been to the Antroposophical Society in Järna - and you don't have to embrace the whole philosophy to be able to enjoy the architecture, the surroundings and the food - I've never visited the nearby Mill and its shop. Until now. Oh we had such a perfect little outing with the Toy Car the other weekend, since the weather gods had decided it was time for high summer, when we also popped by the Mill and its adjacent summer café.

A café with a nice little selection of light dishes, sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee. The food can be enjoyed either indoors, outdoors on the sunny veranda or - as I so recommend - on the tiny islandish place beside the creek, under the trees, with the sun gleaming through the leafage... Unpretentious, relaxing, beautiful, ah, just so very lovely.

We also stocked up on some foodie things - I'm especially happy about the huge bag of sunflower seeds - of which I'll write more later. Not surprisingly I very much recommend a visit to Saltå Kvarn, open every day all summer, map here. And apparently you can come to the Mill and learn how to make ecological bread, that sounds really interesting! Though it seems like the baking classes are very popular indeed...

At the Saltå Kvarn website you'll find all sorts of interesting information concerning food, environment, their products, recipes (only in Swedish, alas) - and somehow I get the impression it's a very nice place to work too.