A killer combination of good soil and a mild climate means great produce is guaranteed in Skåne. This could be delicious fresh asparagus, sweet succulent strawberries, organically-reared pigs and cows or, for those with more rarefied palates, freshwater eels and free-range geese. Plus, of course, with 400km of coastline there’s plenty of seafood, and herrings are a particular speciality.
Skåne also has a nose for drink, boasting more than 100 vineyards, plus cider production, beer brewing and vodka distilling. Throw in some of the country’s loveliest beaches, a clutch of vibrant cities – Malmö, Helsingborg, Lund – with exciting bar and dining scenes and you have all you need for a hedonistic holiday.
So why not start with a drink? The Absolut Vodka distillery (tours available during summer) at Åhus on the east coast relies on Skåne’s soft-grain winter wheat to produce the distinctive, world-renowned spirit. Curiously, the town is also famous for its eels – smoked and usually served with scrambled eggs. And it’s little known that Sweden has one of the world’s smallest pot-still whisky distilleries, on the tiny island of Ven in the strait of Öresund between Sweden and Denmark.
Just south of Åhus, in the pretty Österlen region – white cottages, sandy beaches, red-poppy and yellow rapeseed fields – are the fragrant apple orchards of Kivik. One of the oldest, Kiviks Musteri, has a museum and apple hikes as well as cider tastings and a farm shop. At Kivikås Frukt, they not only handpick 30 varieties of apple, plus pears, plums and cherries, but produce additive-free juices and jellies, to boot.
Despite being a small region, Skåne has more than 10 breweries, including Ystad’s eponymous “Bryggeri” in an atmospheric half-timbered house with a restaurant that serves their beers. Ystad may sound familiar if you’re familiar with Kurt Wallander, the morose detective and star of Henning Mankell’s crime fiction series – serious fans can take a tour of the “criminal scenes” around the town. While at Lundabryggeriet, an artisan-style microbrewery in Lund, you can opt for beer-tasting classes.
If that’s given you a taste for beer, take a guided tour of Helsingborgs Bryggeriet. Originally founded in 1850 the brewery stopped production in 1975 but since being re-opened in 2011 by beer aficionados Rasmus Varfeldt and Hans Nelson it’s been producing award-winning beers, some including liquorice and coffee from companies in and around Helsingborg.
The area in the north west part of Skåne, near the pretty village of Arild, is one of the country’s growing vineyard areas. Lund is most famous as an ancient university city – often compared with Oxford – and it lives up to its reputation: cobbled streets, architectural grandeur, acres of bicycles and a bohemian air. Highlights include the majestic Romanesque cathedral, with its astronomical clock, and the open-air Kulturen museum with its perfectly preserved Swedish vernacular buildings. Due to the student population, there’s a great choice of coffee houses and cafes; check out those along Klostergatan. Lund also makes its own speciality sausage, Knake.
Helsingborg also has a thriving bar and cafe scene, but one of Skåne’s most exciting places for food right now is Malmö. Sweden’s third-largest city, and once a thriving fishing and trading port – it used to be said that the herring could be scooped out of the sea with a trowel – it has a truly diverse population with more than 100 nationalities. To dive into a heady mix of spicy smells and bright colours, make your way to Möllevångstorget, an exotic square with food shops, cafes and market stalls. By contrast, Lilla Torg, is a filmset-perfect medieval square, all cobbles, flowerpots and half-timbered houses – a great place to take coffee and cake during the day or a beer during the evening.
When Michelin launched their 2015 guide to the Nordic cities, Malmö was added alongside Stockholm and Gothenburg, with editor Rebecca Burr noting: “The gloriously fertile region of Skåne puts a wealth of top quality produce on Malmö’s doorstep.” Three of the city’s restaurants – Ambiance à Vindåkra, Bloom In The Park and Vollmers – were awarded a coveted star in the guide.While in Malmö, be sure to check out the Dutch-renaissance town hall, the city’s lovely parks, the form/design centre showcasing trends in contemporary design, the castle with its art museum, and the “Turning Torso”, a twisting white skyscraper that, at 190m, is Scandinavia’s tallest building.
At Ambiance à Vindåkra diners can taste a little bit of France in Skåne, its Marseille-born restaurateur Karim Khouani’s cooking exhibiting a lightness of touch and elegance. Ambiance serves what many say are Malmö´s finest desserts and the cheese board is packed with French classics.
Bloom In The Park’s award-winning chef, Titti Qvarnström, takes the modern European kitchen to a whole new level with his playful, experimental gastronomy. Eat here and you’ll be expected to be in on the action and appreciate the surprises. No menu, no wine list - just hang on for the ride.
You’ll also find plenty of creativity at Vollmers, where most of the produce featured on the modern Scandi menu is from Skåne’s fertile soil. The menu even states how many kilometres each ingredient has travelled to reach your plate, so you’ll know just how local you’re eating.
But one of Skåne’s finest eating experiences isn’t in a city at all. It’s in the pretty Österlen region, in the hamlet of Skåne Tranås, where gifted young chef Daniel Berlin prepares a set menu inspired by the produce of the surroundings and his garden at his eponymous establishment. Although named restaurant of the year by the White Guide in 2013, the pastel-coloured cottage is cosy and intimate – his mother serves, his father is sommelier – with just six tables. With everything sourced within just a few miles of the restaurant, this, truly, is about tasting the heart of Skåne.
Book your city break to Malmö with Expedia or alternatively try the Forest Yurt Retreat and enjoy the peace and quiet of the Swedish forest. You’ll find hiking, mushroom picking, cheese walks and outdoor cookery courses here as well as two- and three-person private yurts.
To find out more, please visit visitskane.com, facebook.com/upplevskane or @UpplevSkane
