When we travel for extended periods, we like to rent an Airbnb that gives us a taste of what it’s like to live someplace, rather than just visiting.

For a couple of weeks in Stockholm, we found a one-bedroom flat in the Kungsholmen neighborhood close to public transit. It’s in a circa-1900 building with some Art Nouveau (Jugenstil) touches. Our apartment occupies the attic level — 5th floor by European reckoning, 6th by American. (A vintage open-cage elevator takes us most of the way up.) Whoever renovated did a great job coping with the angles and niches beneath the roof, giving the whole flat a bright, contemporary Scandinavian look.

Even more fortunately, we have an outdoor patio with an electric grill and a thoroughly modern kitchen with induction cooking. It is sleek and white and seems to be a premium Ikea line, right down to the fridge and freezer behind white cabinet doors. A kitchen like that begs to be used, and with three grocery stores in sight from the front door, there’s no shortage of supplies to be had.

Eating off the land

But Stockholm also has a true farmers market on Saturdays. Talking to the vendors (everyone under 60 studied English in school), the phenomenon was adopted from the U.S., as if the idea of farmers selling directly to consumers was novel.

The market was fairly small — around a dozen vendors — but the quality was high. Taking advantage of the season, we bought strawberries, asparagus, spring onions, small tomatoes, and a cucumber as our produce. From the woman who makes jams and keeps bees, we bought a jar of lingonberry jam to serve with meatballs. (More on that subject to come.)

The cheesemaker had a surprisingly large selection of cheeses, all made from the milk of his neighbor’s herd of about 30 cows. Like many vendors, he offered small samples. We finally selected an aged cheddar type and a green cheese similar to Gorgonzola. Unsure of our Swedish, we skipped the meat vendor. Checking the labels in our photos afterwards, it appeared many of his steaks and sausages were either lamb, venison, or moose. Still, he had some delicious smoked ham. Maybe next week….