-the idea-

We believe that the solution to almost any big problem is beautiful, well tasting and happy. A solution that empowers us all.

Our aim is to create and inspire to more beautiful, respectful ways of working with nature for food-production and other means of sustaining everyday life for people on this planet. This is not just about the two of us, it’s about all of us!

Our building and farming methods are based on the regenerative/permaculture principles i.e. a system inspired by nature for a truly sustainable living including plants, animals and architecture. Principles that are good for topsoil, water, biodiversity, meaningfulness, health and resilience.

-the people & the dream-

We are Danish chefs Flemming Schiøtt Hansen and Mette Helbæk. We live in the forest with our 4 children Sif, Sally, Lulu and Vera, and we run Stedsans together with a small, wonderful, steady team of likeminded souls. In the summer months we are joined by a group of interns and volunteers who help us create a magical life for us and a very special experience for our guests.

Our journey into the forest started with a dream in Copenhagen decades ago. We sat many a late night and dreamt up a ‘foodtopia’ - a place on earth where human beings would be connected with nature through the food they were eating. Our first manifestation of this dream was when we opened a restaurant in a greenhouse on a rooftop farm in Copenhagen (it was called Stedsans Østergro). We spend 2 years there, and it was a beautiful first step towards making our big dream come to life. We felt the call of the wild, so while we were super-busy on the weekends, we spend almost every single day off driving around in Southern Sweden looking for the perfect property. Finally, after 1,5 years search, on a warm summer day in 2016, we found ourselves at the brink of Hallasjön in a forest like none we had viewed before. It was - for Swedish standards - a very small forest property of 7 hectares, but with very old trees and 500 meters of lakeshore. Plus, another criteria that was not met anywhere else we had looked was a reality here: It was so far away from main roads that you did not hear a car.

We won the bidding on the property on Mette’s 38th birthday, and moved up here just over a month later, carrying not much more than what our old Berlingo could hold. The kids started school and our life as settlers in a tiny village in Sweden could start.

Just like the settlers who went overseas in the 1930’ies it was not easy to start over this way and we made a lot of mistakes. But as these words are written 7 years after visiting Bohult for the first time we are more than happy that we answered the call of our hearts to make our dream a reality. What dream excactly? Well, it seems to be evolving and growing all the time, but it’s first and foremost a dream of creating a different kind of life for ourselves and our children. To live a life more in sync with nature, and with much more freedom to roam, rest and create. Working with something meaningful and living in a way that is less harmful to us and the other life forms we share this planet with.