WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT – May 2022

”It’s the time for bold thinking”

Welcome to the third issue of Norrland Living. As the winter recedes, albeit kicking and screaming with a blizzard(!) in April, thoughts turn to spring and summer. This month’s issue is preoccupied with food, especially the growing of it in this most distinctive of regions, where we get weeks of constant daylight in the summer. Elle Vanes gives us her tips on what to grow (p12), the Deysel family talk about their vertical farm (p20), we get an exclusive Norrland recipe from Scandic Skellefteå chef Adam Andersson (p16) and Marina Georgescu takes a look at the history of that famous Norrland speciality, surströmming, (p8) and finds out that maybe it’s not so tied to Norrland after all. (If you look over to the picture on the contents page, you’ll see Paul’s reaction to his first whiff of the stinky herring.) In this May issue we’ve tried to provide you with as much value as possible, so as well as the aforementioned food pieces, Rehana Lothian takes a fascinating wander around the new Storsia exhibition (p24) and Vicky Taylor guides you through the money-saving maze of ROT and RUT. 

The Storsia exhibition is one we’re especially excited about. Our piece makes the valid point that you should know the history of where you live, and we’re thrilled that Skellefteå Museum has assembled such an enthralling collection of exhibits. It’s good, too, that the exhibit notes are in several languages and not just Swedish. This is an important admission that Skellefteå (and the wider Norrland region) recognises that it has more jobs than can be filled by local people, and that it realises it needs to attract and retain people who are not native Swedish speakers. Norrland stands at the beginning of a potentially momentous era. This is absolutely not the time for conservative thinking.