As we met folks in Botkyrka, we photographed the inside of their refrigerators, as a way to get to know the landscape and habits of the place. We were surprised at how much food was imported, but there was also a lot of local milk, butter, yogurt, and cheese.

Peter’s pantry on the farm in Jarna.

Joanna and Jakob’s fridge.

 The staff lounge refrigerator at Botkyrka Konsthall.

Botkyrka Konsthall.

Leila and the refrigerator at Verdandi.

Fridge at ArtLab Gnesta.

Ayhan’s refrigerator. The only home canner we met while we were here.

Dinner at Ayhan’s

Before we left the US, we received a really nice email:

Hi.

I am a resident in the neighborhood your are going to visit in may until 10th of june. I got quite interested and curious in what you are going to do.
What’s the idea for your project to come here to sweden? I just saw a small notice on facebook today.

One of my interest of this project mainly comes from that I study culinary arts and ecology at Örebro university. It´s a mix between agroecology/sustainability/meal science and culinary arts. And of course it´s interesting when something that you like comes to your neighborhood.

regards

Ayhan

Ayhan and his housemates Erik and Ingemar hosted us for an amazing dinner in their apartment in Fittja – almost an exact replica of the residency apartment but on the 10th floor of his building:

As we ate more kinds of vegetables than we had had in all our meals combined so far, Ayhan, Ingemar, and Erik filled us in on many of the mysteries which still remained for us after almost a week of residency.

They let us know the schedule and demographics of resident traffic through the subway station:

6am construction workers (mainly Eastern European and African workers);

8/9 am Royal Tech High School students (mainly well-dressed young women);

6pm/evening cleaning professionals (mainly African and Latin American women);

1am/early morning bar denizens (mainly Eastern European males, Swedes).

About the punk rock household in the apartments across from ours.

About the shish kebab place in Vörby that’s actually the best in Stockholm.

And we ate:

Golden beets sous vide with beet vinegar and sea weed.

Shell beans in vinaigrette.

Cabbage with seeds in a sweet vinaigrette

Ingemar with gratinéed potatoes and carrots with confit onion hollandaise

We also consumed: red beets; almonds with coriander, fennel, and coffee; rhubarb pie; Ayhan’s homemade vinegars, including one made with pine; copious amounts of Acquavit.

Thank you, Ayhan, Ingemar, and Erik, for sharing your knowledge about canning, beekeeping, and cohabitating in Fittja with us!

Ingemar and Erik, who tried, unsuccessfully, to keep bees on the roof at Fittja.

Apparently, although Botkyrka Byggen, the apartment management company, is fairly friendly toward organized initiatives, they weren’t into bees on the roof last year when Ingemar wanted to continue a childhood interest in apiary…