how we work with sustainability

The work in our gardens is based on regenerative/permaculture farming principles. We use no poison, we are water neutral, have no food waste, work with a healthy, living soil and give a forest a value for being a forest instead of something you can chop down. We want to inspire! We work on creating our take on a more natural and truly sustainable lifestyle doable for many to the benefits of everyone. It's a process, but we show results.#1 rule is ‘Spend Only Money on Stuff You Need and Buy it in a Proper Quality’. It helps you to declutter, gives you more spare time, saves the world’s resources etc. That one is easy.

We envision a world where food is grown where people live. That means more people shall live and grow food in nature and more food production in the cities. Some will say that it is utopic. We say that business as usual is utopic. We’re not saying that making the change is as easy as staying asleep to the importance of that change, but it’s possible and it tastes and feels better.

Stedsans is a playground and laboratory for an alternative lifestyle where we grow our own food and get food from people who want to do good. We live and bring our guests to an environment where the brain produces dopamine, we are outdoor most of the time – following the micro-seasons in the forest - raising energy and eating amazing food.

The Opposite of Sustainability – Unsustainability. i.e. it Doesn’t Work

Topsoil is da shit!

Topsoil is the part of the Earth where we can grow food. Furthermore, it holds a lot of CO2. We grow in a way that builds up topsoil using material from the forest and not leaving the soil to be bare. Our compost toilets build up topsoil instead of flushing shit out with clean drinking water. Speaking of shit - in China back in the days it was custom to visit the compost toilet if you had eaten. In that way, nutrition was kept on the spot.

One of the main causes of today’s problems is that we grow food in one place and consume it another place (and, like we touched above, leave the nutrients at a third, inaccessible place - the gutter). That causes everything from meaninglessness amongst producers and consumers, food waste, loss of vitality, packaging, CO2, money, lack of transparency and responsibility etc. etc. At the same time, it creates a situation where one place lacks nutrition and one place where people need to deal with too much nutrition – often with toxic chemicals. At Stedsans a significant part of our food is grown in our own gardens or foraged in the surrounding forest. That means food metres instead of food miles. A bonus is that these ingredients have been harvested hours or minutes before being served, bring vitality and flavours to another level. And let’s again mention the compost toilets that help close the natural cycle of life and death that is the foundation for new life.

Upcycle

To a wide extent we upcycle old stuff. That means that we give life to things that have already been produced which is much better than producing new no matter the process. In Japan, things have its energy from 3 different factors: The material it is made of, the person who made it and the person who cared for it. This is a thought we incorporate in our interior design elements.

Water

In an environment with no toxic chemicals, there is no waste. Our soaps are made of 100% biodegradable plant extract. That means that we can pump all water from the restaurant into the lake or to our fields. Our guests shower in lake water that runs back to the lake and the toilets don’t run with water. We guess that we already now have reduced our water consumption to around 20% of normal.

No toxic chemicals

In an environment with no toxic chemicals, we don’t need to invest huge amounts in sewers etc. because there is no waste. Leftover food becomes animal food etc. All in is easier!

Transparency
We love story telling. Everything has a story and if you don’t know it, it’s properly bad. When you grow stuff yourself or buy directly from the producer it is transparent. When it comes to things like coffee, and wine we usually have only 1 middleman between ourselves and the producer. That means less food waste, more transparency, meaning and biodiversity. The connection between the people who produce food and those who consume is one of many important things to re-establish in order to create a new, fair and just world-order where things cost what they are worth and has the highest possible quality.

Biodiversity

We just mentioned biodiversity, but it is all connected. The environment around Stedsans is buzzing with insects that pollinate the crops and keep pests at an acceptable level. The forest is green even in the drought. We live in a very resilient place, nature always knows how to take care of itself if we just let it.

CO2

We think reduced/no use of tractors and machines in every solution. Our restaurant is total off the grid. The restaurant only uses electricity (from tractor batteries) for lights.

Health

Ingredients that have been produced in a proper way taste better and are better for us and our surroundings. It’s a win-win-win situation. High vitality, no toxic chemicals, low refined, seasonal, mainly plant-based and with meat from animals who ate naturally and only had one bad day in their life. And of course a lot of the good bacteria in the cheese, drinks, yogurts, kombucha etc. - all in a dopamine producing environment in nature. This is, we believe, what do human beings good.