Since arriving in Sweden, I’ve had a hard time adjusting to the food culture that the food industry has been pushing for a long period of time now. I never used to think so much about what I bought before, but after reading a Swedish book entitled “Äkta Vara” by food journalist Mats-Eric Nilsson (which deals with the creative shortcuts that the food industry has been taking this past century, and how more and more of our natural edibles are being substituted with cheaper, chemical substances - many of them industrial left-overs), I find myself reading the small-typed information on the back of our industrialized food packages and I am not the least impressed by the findings.

A quick comparison between two versions of coconut milk - one ordinary and one light - showed that the only difference between the two was that the lighter version had been infused with a large quantity of water. Simple, cheap, tap water; and still, the lighter one was more expensive the “ordinary” one.

Eggs provided more of a dilemma. In Africa, we buy free-range eggs from the “Egg Man” and his son, who bring eggs from a nearby village every Thursday morning. The eggs are irregular in shape and colour, but wonderful in taste and a fabulous example of natural animal husbandry. At the largest supermarket however, we could only choose between eggs from caged hens (although the labels proudly stated that they all had access to a sitting stick, as if that would be a way to live) and “ecological free-ranging INDOOR hens” (in cramped quarters where the hens never see the light of day), but not the free range OUTDOOR eggs that I was looking for. A box with “guaranteed yellow yoke” caught my attention, as a yellow yoke in my book has always been a sign of a rich and varied feed. I did wonder, however, how the food industry could vouch for the yellowness of every individual egg without peaking inside the shell. As it turned out, the hens had simply been fed a particular kind of seaweed that had proven to enhance the colouring of the yoke - and so this had nothing do with the hens leading healthy lives and having access to a varied feed. I walked away from the supermarket, sad and discouraged, wishing I had relatives who lived on a farm and who produced food you would be happy eating.

Little did I know that a walk into the countryside would soon cheer me up.

You all know how much I love a blue sky, and the Swedish summer landscape is beautiful at this time a year.

A farm within walking distance from our home has beautiful Highland Cattle, and the surroundings are stunning. It’s the place to go when you’re uncomfortable with what the food industry is offering.

As it turned out, the farm had a sign saying they sold free-range eggs. I was thrilled! This was exactly what we had been looking for.

The farmer was a soft-spoken person, who showed us around and told us about their lifestyle. He and his wife had bought the farm some fifteen years ago, and now had cattle, hens and a few horses. As farming in Sweden is not a lucrative business, both of them also had full-time jobs elsewhere in order to make ends meet. We talked about life quality, and how some things are worth their sacrifices.

He took us to meet the hens. They had a pen that was locked at night to keep foxes and other predadors away, but during the day, they had free access to a yard full of grass.

When we dropped by, they were all inside, eager to escape the summer heat.

As they saw me slip in, they came forward, curious to see if I had come to bring them presents.

Seeing I offered them none, they followed me out and I enjoyed a photo session with a pack of hens that I was meeting for the first time. Delightful little creatures!

Their spacious yard was full of grass, which is part of their natural feed. I also read later that hens enjoy snacking on a worm or two, which these guys certainly could!

At the end of the day, the free-range eggs from a farm in our area were less expensive than any outdoors free-range ecological eggs we might have found in the supermarket.

There are still many questions-marks as to the other items on my shopping list, but sometimes, the answer is right outside our doorstep and who knows what we might discover next…?

[To be continued...]

For other more cheerful discoveries under a breathtakingly beautiful sky, visit Skywatch!