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Food feature / Margaretelund
How to eat Margaretelund
This is not a recipe archive. It is a small map for turning the farm shop into dinner: Eldost in bread, Greta with greens, blue cheese with honey, a tonic tasting and a scoop of ice cream in the sun.
It often begins with someone coming to Margaretelund for one thing. An Eldost. A jar of honey. A bottle of must. Then the thing that tends to happen in a shop where someone has already made the choices for you: the basket slowly fills with things you did not know you needed.
A cheese becomes a bun. A jar of marmalade becomes a reason to open the blue cheese. A tonic from Nässjö becomes the beginning of a small tasting at the kitchen table. That is how the shop is meant to work – not as a stockroom, but as a way of thinking about dinner.
So these are not recipes in the strict sense. They are servings, small directions and combinations that can be made larger or simpler depending on season, appetite and company. The exact products change, but the idea remains: let a few genuinely good things carry the meal.
Margaretelund often tastes best when the table becomes a little mixed. Something warm, something salty, something sweet, something acidic, something local and something unexpected. A board, a pan, a knife, a few glasses. That is often enough.
Perhaps that is the real luxury of a farm shop. Not that the food becomes complicated, but that it has been thought through before you even start cooking.
“These are not recipes first of all. They are ways of taking the place home.”
Six simple servings
Eldost in bread
Fry or grill the Eldost hard enough to give it a clear crust. Put it in soft bread with slaw, pickled onion, mustard, chilli or a little honey. Eat it immediately, while the centre is still warm and soft.
Greta with greens and lemon
Break or cut the Greta salad cheese into rough pieces. Serve with tomato, cucumber, herbs, lemon zest, black pepper and very good oil. A plate for grilled food or a glass of must.
Blue cheese with honey
Farbror Blå or Tant Grön needs very little company. Serve with flavoured honey, marmalade or something tart from forest and garden. Bread, crispbread or a thin cracker is enough.
Holy Kitt after dinner
Bring out a small piece when the conversation has already lasted longer than planned. Serve with something sweet, something bitter or a spoonful of marmalade. Not quite dessert, not quite a cheese board – more a final small decision to stay.
Tonic tasting from Nässjö
Choose three or four tonics and pour small glasses. Taste them as you would taste must or wine: bitterness, citrus, herbs, sweetness and length. With more than seventy varieties in the shop, this can become wonderfully nerdy.
Ice cream and coffee in the sun
When the kiosk is open, Ryssbyglass and coffee in the courtyard can be enough. When it is closed, there is ice cream in the shop freezer. That can also be a very good ending to a meal.
Margaretelund / Ormaryd
A dinner that starts on the shelves.
Shopping at Margaretelund should make it hard to choose badly. That is the point of a good shop: someone has already thought about what belongs there.
