Stockholm is a watery heaven with a boat at every turn. Why not stay at the 19th-century full-rigged steel ship af Chapman which has been turned into a youth hostel?
The beautiful capital of Sweden is composed of a panoply of islands, separated by winding canals and seaways. Docked on the banks of grassy Skeppsholmen Island, opposite the Swedish capital’s medieval old town, the af Chapman is a gleaming white, full-rigged steel ship dating from the 1800s.
In the warm Stockholm summer months there’s a lively on-board bar
The majestic full-rigged steel-ship is named for the famed Swedish shipbuilder Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. The ship offers 124 cozy, nautical themed rooms complete with porthole views across the water. In the warm Stockholm summer months there’s a lively on-board bar (which closes down during the winter months).
The boat has come a long way from its days braving the mighty Atlantic, when it served as a training crucible for Swedish naval officers. Today it is managed by theSwedish Tourist Association.
The boat has come a long way from its days braving the mighty Atlantic
Sleeping on a 19th-century boat doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, but once you’re on board with a glass of wine in hand and watching the sun set across Stockholm’s coral-colored rooftops, it’s easy to see the allure.
Breakfastroom at af Chapman
The hostel also owns the on-land adjacent building, which has a nautical link of its own: a former navy barracks, now sleeping 150 and hosting the hostel’s dining and lounging facilities.
Cabins at the full-rigged steel-ship af Chapman:
There are different choices of cabins onboardA typical naval cabinCabin with twin-bed
“Just being on the ship is a special feeling,” long-time af Chapman employee Magnus Frymark told CNN of this ship-turned-hostel. “You can sense her history.”
Safe entrance to he ship
Tourists line up to photograph the af Chapman., one of the most photographed objects in Stockholm, and native Stockholmers see her as a city landmark.
Stay at a Full-rigged Steel Ship in Stockholm, written by Tor Kjolberg
Architectural gems, deranged village people and exclusive accommodation. Strandveien (the Coastal Road) is Denmark’s 40 kilometer long holiday paradise. That’s why we call it the Danish Pacific Coast.
It takes only about 30 minutes on the express highway getting to Helsingør from Copenhagen on the express highway. Strandvejen takes nearly twice as long, but you should allow for several more hours.
Map of Strandvejen
The 40 kilometer long road begins at Svanelmøøen station in Ytre Østerbro in Copenhagen and stretches along the Zealand east coast to Helsingør. This beautiful route showcases the very best of Denmark, with nice views over to Sweden.
From Klampenborg
Six miles north of Copenhagen’s center, you round the bend at Klampenborg and see the bay dotted with Victorian villas and low modern apartment buildings whose white facades and curving forms reflect the seascape.
The Blue Planet Aquarium
Beautiful scenery with forests, up-market housing, beaches and pleasure gardens dot this 24 miles of coastline. We recommend that you use the whole day to take in all the sights and adventures this stretch has to offer. Strandvejen, curves through the area like a Danish version of the Pacific Coast Highway.
The Danish Pacific Coast, Strandvejen, alter its name along the route, to Coastal road, Skodsborg Strandvej and Taarbæk Strandvej, but don’t worry. You’re on track.
Strandvejen alter its name along the way, but you’re on track
As you exit Østerbro, the northern district of downtown Copenhagen, you will soon reach Charlottenlund where Denmark’s Aquarium is located.
Famous museums like Karen Blixen museum, Louisiana museum for modern art, are also on the route. Take a stop at the more than 400 year, and the oldest in the world, Bakken amusement park near Klampenborg.
Along the route there is ample good food in restaurants, pubs, and small food stands. Some of Denmark’s most prominent citizens live here, facing the country’s traditional enemy, the Swedes, on the other side of the narrow Oresund strait.
From Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
The architect Arne Jacobsen won the competition to construct the Bellevue Beach Bath in 1932, and the whole bay was turned into a functionalist masterpiece.
From Arne Jacobsen’s Bellevue
About half-way between Copenhagen and Helsingør is the old fishing village Rungsted, where there was once a famous inn, established by King Christian II in the 16th century. It was later made into a private home, and the famous Danish writer Karen Blixen grew up in the house in the late 19th century.
Rungsted Harbor
Before you reach Helsingør and Kronborg Castle, scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we recommend you to make two stops. The museum Nivågård in the village Nivå is famous for its 16th century Italian and 17th century Danish paintings. Among them is the only Rembrandt on public display in Denmark. Just a short drive from Nivå is Humlebæk where Louisiana is located.
From Nivaagaard
Copenhagen’s mass transit system, the S-train, also has a “Coastal Line” for commuters, explorers and urban invaders. Car or S-train, take your time and take a few stops, it is not a race track. You can easily continue your Scandinavian trip further north to Sweden by ferry.
A new ranking of the best countries to be an immigrant has placed the Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, on the 10 top spots
U.S. News and World Report has compiled the ranking, which reveals that more than 40 percent of respondents view immigration as the most important issue for our world to solve. The analysis dives into the economic benefits and challenges of immigration on countries’ world standing, including economic stability, income equality and job markets.
U.S. News and World Report has compiled the ranking
The immigration project is part of a broader ranking, launched by U.S. News and World Report last year, that attempts to determine the world’s “best” countries in the same way that the publication also ranks colleges, hospitals and cars.
Here are the top 10 Best countries to be an immigrant:
1. Sweden
2. Canada
3. Switzerland
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. Norway
7. United States of America
8. Netherlands
9. Finland
10. Denmark
Map of Scandinavia
The data is gathered from a proprietary survey of more than 21,000 business leaders, informed elites and general citizens. Additional factors include data from the World Bank and the United Nations on the share of migrants per population, the amount of remittance migrants send to their country of birth and analysis on immigration policies.
In total, 80 countries were included in the ranking. Kenya came bottom of the list, preceded by Guatemala and Tunisia.
About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News & Opinion, USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 30 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Scandinavian Countries Take Three of the Top 10 Best Immigrant Spots, written by Tor Kjolberg
Oslo Accords, the set of agreements between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), signed in Washington, D.C. in 1993 and a second signed in Taba, Egypt in 1995, marked the start of the Oslo process. Now the Oslo Accords is made into a thrilling Broadway production.
J. T. Rogers’s “Oslo” is the against-all-odds story of the international peacemaking initiated by Norwegian politicians, has now been made into a thrilling, new Broadway production.
The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords take center stage in J.T. Rogers’ “Oslo.” Left to right: Anthony Azizi, Dariush Kashani, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Aronov and Daniel Oreskes. (Credit: T. Charles Erickson)
If the daughter of theatre director Bartiett Sher had not been best friend with the daughter of Terje Tød-Larsen and Mona Jull at primary school, “Oslo” would not have been one of the biggest Broadway sensations of the year.
Playwright J. T. Rogers
One character in Oslo observes that, “Americans cannot stand it when others take the lead,” while earlier on another notes that the U.S. government is especially proprietary about its relationship with the Middle East. To the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten playwright J. T. Rogers says, “This is embarrassing. I actually thought that it was US Americans who had made the Israelis agree on a peace agreement.”
The Oslo process started after secret negotiations in Oslo, resulting in the recognition by the PLO of the State of Israel and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in negotiations.
“Oslo” has now become the colossus it was always meant to be, while giving an even sharper focus to the urgent behind-the-scenes intimacy at its fast-beating heart.
Jennifer Ehle and Jefferson Mays
The political drama about the 1993 peace treaty lasts for about three hours and is unequivocally fascinating. It started as an off-Broadway production last year, and was immediately an success:
J. T. Rogers and Bartlett Sher
“The terrific new political thriller Oslo begins with actors scurrying about the stage positioning props and furniture, as one key figure played by Jefferson Mays arranges people within the space while another, portrayed by Jennifer Ehle, breaks the fourth wall early on to elucidate character and background information.
One remarkable aspect of this very fine production, directed with unerringly precise attention to detail by Bartlett Sher, is that while its mechanics as a theatrical presentation are emphasized from the start, they enhance rather than impede our involvement in a fascinating true story. This is a play alive with tension, intrigue, humor, bristling intelligence and emotional peaks that are subdued yet intensely moving, which concludes unexpectedly on a poignant note of hope.”
J.T. Rogers, foreground, and the cast and crew of “Oslo” accept the award for best play at the 71st annual Tony Awards on Sunday, June 11, 2017, in New York. Michael Zorn/Invision/AP
The production’s newly enhanced scale at the Lincoln Center Theatre matches the aspirations of not only the play’s author but also its protagonists. Heading the flawlessly cast ensemble are Jefferson Mays and Jennifer Ehle as the Norwegian tacticians Terje Rod-Larsen and Mona Juul, the (very real) Norwegian husband and wife who in the early 1990s initiated the series of secret peace talks between high-level officials from Israel and the PLO in the same room and actually talking with one another.
Terje Røed Larsen (Screenprint, NRK)
Terje (embodied here by Jefferson Mays) was then director of the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Sciences. Terje is a fussy fellow who dresses so well (credits to costumer Catherine Zuber) and whose manners are so refined that Yitzak Rabin insists on referring to him as a Frenchman. Mona Juul (Ehle), his wife and the narrator of the dramatic events, is the even-tempered government diplomat who does whatever has to be done — from ordering the liquor to putting out emotional fires — to make it happen.
Mona Juul
“It’s a very small country,” Mona says to the audience, graciously explaining the extremely tight personal and political relationships. “We take nepotism to an entirely new level.” Rogers’ dialogue is really witty. You get the facts, but you get them delivered with intelligence and humor by a dream of a cast.
Michael Yeargan’s scenic design and 59 Productions’ projections of constantly breaking battles makes it clear that neutral Norway aspires to be a very soothing nation in a world gone mad.
The Oslo Accords Made Into Thrilling Broadway Production, written by Tor Kjolberg
The British campaign in Norway in 1940 was an ignominious and abject failure. It is perhaps best known as the fiasco which directly led to the fall of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his replacement by Winston Churchill. The book, ‘Anatomy of a Campaign – The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940’ by John Kiszely is out now.
Author, Sir John Kiszely, who served in the British Army for forty years, rising to the rank of lieutenant general, analyzes the reasons for failure and why decision makers, including Churchill, made such poor decisions and exercised such bad judgement. What other factors played a part?
Aboard Orensay en route to Norway 1940Anatomy of a Campaugn, book cover
The author draws on his own experience of working at all levels in the military to assess the campaign as a whole, its context and evolution from strategic failures, intelligence blunders and German air superiority to the performance of the troops and the serious errors of judgement by those responsible for the higher direction of the war.
A number of books have been written about the British-led campaign in Norway in spring 1940, but none had carried out such a forensic examination of the reasons for failure. Although it is little known – overshadowed, if not eclipsed, by the German invasion of Belgium and France in May 1940 – the campaign was short, disastrous and full of drama, both military and political.
The Norwegian campaign, though hastily improvised, was meant to play to Britain’s maritime strength. Cutting off the supply of Swedish iron ore shipped through Narvik, which the Ministry of Economic Warfare believed could fatally weaken the German war effort in months — was dubious.
Germans amass on Norway coast, 9 April, 1940
Two of the main reasons for campaign failure were the catastrophic failure of intelligence which allowed the Germans complete strategic surprise, and the dominance of German airpower.
Events in early 1940 developed fast. Aided by the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, in November Russia had invaded Finland, Sweden was becoming increasingly accommodating towards Berlin, the Norwegian fjords offered a perfect base for U-boats, while the British and French armies were busy with the Phoney War on the Western Front. To Hitler, Norway looked like low-hanging fruit.
Norwegian village burned during a battle in April 1940
In the book, Kiszely’s forensic examination helps our understanding of institutional and systematic failure mixed unhappily with human error and the frailties of human nature.
But if Kiszely is scathing about the political leadership, he despairs of the military even more. The First Sea Lord, Dudley Pound, was ‘a backward-looking sailor… little aware of the growing influence of air and underwater weapons’. Other military officers, like the Chief of the Air Staff, Cyril Newall and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, ‘Tiny’ Ironside, are more or less being claimed to have emptied the War Office.
The 8th Batallion Sherwood Forester
At the tactical level, troops were sent to Norway poorly trained, inadequately equipped and without proper support, and in administrative chaos reminiscent of the Crimea. The result helps us to understand not only the outcome of the Norwegian campaign but also why more recent military campaigns have found success so elusive.
Anyone wanting to know about the pitfalls of pol-mil decision-making and campaign-planning, should read Kiszely.
And by the way, the British did help extricate the Norwegian royal family and much of the country’s gold reserves (for which the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square each year is a memorial gift).
Author John Kuszley
About the author:
John Kiszely served in the British Army for forty years, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. His operational service included Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, Bosnia and Iraq. He served three tours of duty in the Ministry of Defence, latterly as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff. On leaving the Army he spent three years as a visiting professor in war studies at King’s College London, and from 2014 to 2017 was a visiting research fellow on the Changing Character of War Programme at Pembroke College, Oxford.
The ‘Forgotten Fiasco’ of Norway, 1940, written by Tor Kjolberg
Gustav Vigeland was one of Norway’s foremost artists – and an excellent lobbyist who acquired a studio, housing and a future museum, funded by the public sector.
It all began with Gustav Vigeland’s dream of a magnificent fountain in Kristiania, the name of Oslo at that time. After a dispute, the City of Oslo wanted to demolish the artist’s house, but in 1921 he donated nearly all his works, previous and future, to the city and received in return a new building.
Living room in the Gustav Vigeland House
Besides a studio, the space included an apartment for him and his family, a library, bedrooms and a lavatory (a somewhat uncommon feature in those days).
Gustav Vigeland, 1929
Vigeland moved into the new building in 1924, living in the apartment on the top floor of the east wing for the last two decades of his life. From the tower in this majestic red brick building he had a beautiful view towards the fields of Frogner, where his great project, the park, soon was to be reality.
He resided and worked there until his death in 1943. After his death, it became the Vigeland Museum, now one of Oslo’s top attractions along with the adjacent sculpture park.
Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) may just be Norway’s most important artist you’ve never heard of. On the terrazzo tiled floor, under the clear light of the skylights, Vigeland worked for years with his models of the Monolith, the Wheel of Life and the bronze sculptures of people in all stages of life. There are very few works by this talented sculptor outside his native country.
Vigeland’s the Monolith is one of his most famous sculptures.
Vigeland’s body of work includes woodcuts, drawings, iron works, and art and crafts such as weavings, some of which can be seen in the museum. He created several public monuments across Scandinavia and designed the medal for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Norway.
The museum was built in the 1920’s with Lorentz Harboe Ree as executing architect. The building is one of the finest examples of Norwegian Neo-Classicism. However, many people who live in Oslo, has never been inside the museum. It looks pretty closed from the outside, but when they come in, it’s bright, big and open.
Inside the Vigeland Museum
It’s amazing how Vigeland expressed love, anxiousness, anger and trust — all from stone.
A Norwegian Artist With a Museum, written by Tor Kjolberg
Denmark’s capital city is the most exuberant in Scandinavia. Pedestrians and cyclists rule, shopping is a pleasure, cultural sights abound, and by night the city buzzes.
Copenhagen (København) is the “city of green spires”. Copper plates etched green by salt air, clad the spires of castles and churches in the Old City, and tower over the medieval street network and newer houses. The Old Town you visit today would have looked different but for two devastating fires and a terrible bombardment.
Old Town (Strøget)
Blazes in 1728 and 1795 licked and leaped along the straw-roofed houses and turned most of the half-timbered medieval town to ashes. Only a few solidly built structures survived – among them Round Tower (Rundetårn).
The Battle of Copenhagen. Painting by Dwyer
When Admiral Lord Nelson and the British fleet bombarded Copenhagen in 1801 the toll was also heavy. Six years later, Wellington besieged the city, destroying 300 houses and capturing the Danish fleet.
Round Tower (Rundetårn). Photo: Visit Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the liveliest – and many claim the most fetching – of the Scandinavian capitals, with things to see and do all the time. With Europe’s longest pedestrian mall, this was the first capital to offer the pleasures of ambling through a network of streets free of motor vehicles and exhaust fumes.
Strøget – Europe’s longest pedestrian mall
A good way to get a first feel of Copenhagen is from the water. Take one of the 60-minute canal boat trips from Kongens Nytorv/Nyhavn or Gammel Strand. If you’re the adventurous type you could explore the waterways in a kayak for two hours, starting in Strandgade in Christianshavn. A guide paddles ahead of you.
The City of Copenhagen provides 2,500 free bicycles to use within its City Bike zone (bracketed by the three artificial lakes to the west and Stadsgraven moat to the east). All you have top do is deposit a 20DKK coin (about UD$4) in one of its 110 City Bike parking places dotted about the city center. The 20SKK is refunded when the cycle is returned. (March to end November only).
Copenhagen – The Capital City of Green Spires, written by Tor Kjolberg
Norway is making radical changes to lessen its currently substantial carbon footprint. In addition to limit the emission of cars, a ban to prohibit the use of fossil-based oil to heat buildings comes into effect in 2020.
Paradoxically, the world’s largest producer of oil and gas outside the Middle East, will ban the use of oil and paraffin to warm buildings from 2020 onwards. The Norwegian Government hopes that the upcoming ban will result in a reduction of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 340,000 tons per year, compared to overall national emissions of 53.9 million tons in 2015.
Methane emissions in Norway, by sector
The country has made concerted effort to introduce policies which shrink domestic emission of greenhouse gases. Norway also aims to ban the sale of fossil fuel-based cars by 2025.
the world’s largest producer of oil and gas
“Those using fossil oil for heating must find other options by 2020,” said Norway’s Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen in a statement.
Norway’s Environment Minister Vidar Helgesen
Recommended alternatives to oil-based products include heat pumps, electricity from the country’s hydroelectric grid and even special stoves burning wood chips. Additional measures could include limitations on the use of natural gas for heating.
Hydro aluminium plant in Norway is a heavy user of electricity. Photo: Øivind Leren
The Ministry of Climate and Environment said the ban would apply to both new and old buildings and cover both private homes and the public space of businesses and state-owned facilities.
Photo: Norwegian District Heating Association (Norsk FjernvarmeMarius Holm
“This is a very important climate measure that significantly cuts emissions, sending a powerful signal that we are moving from fossil to renewable energy,” said Marius Holm, head of ZERO, a foundation that promotes emissions cuts, in a statement.
The ban marks a radical change in policy for Norway. Despite ratifying the Paris Agreement, the nation showed a 3.3 percent increase in emissions last year compared to 1990.
Feature image (on top): Downtown Oslo
Norway – First Country in the World to Ban Use of Gas to Heat Buildings , written by Tor Kjolberg
Is it already July? Halfway into the year, we have picked 7 eatery newcomers in Copenhagen. We have deliberately kept the list short and light, so you can eat your way around all of them.
Eattoday Tapasbar & Takeaway Waterfront The restaurant is located right next to The Lakes, and probably offers the best tapas in Europe outside of Spain. In this small, cozy restaurant you can buy a mix of everything and a beer – or two, and every dish costs the same when you mix different tapas.
Gro Spiseri på ØsterGRO
On top of a former car auction house, you’ll find Denmark’s first rooftop farm, ØsterGRO. Now you can even have an organic meal at its eatery and experience the farm’s special atmosphere.
GRO spiseri. PR-photo
In the kitchen, four guys work closely together to shape the menu and select natural wines to accompany the food. Here, there’s no head chef and no hierarchy. GRO spiseri is not like many other restaurants, and in the few square meters they have you can immediately feel the passion from the people working there.
Enjoy beautifully flower-decorated dishes in the evening. Guldkroen (meaning Tavern of Gold) is located just north of The Lakes in a melting pot of small, quirky clothing stores and dozens of pizzerias and eateries of all types. At Guldkroen you can enjoy classic Danish food with lots of sauce and potatoes in a homely atmosphere.
Guldkroen restaurant
Enjoy their shrimp cocktail, Ad Libitum Tartelettes, Wienerschnitzel or English beef. Don’t miss their homemade Rainbow ice cream.
Hooked is a new seafood restaurant, located in the trendy Nørrebro. The chefs demonstrate a passion for cooking, and all delicious bites are made-to-order, promising the freshest experience. Hooked is tucked at a corned close to the famous assistant Kirkegården. Hyggestund (meaning “time of hygge” – Hygge is a Danish word meaning coziness, and from this year on the word hygge is incorporated in the New Oxdord Dictionary).
Hyggestund restaurant
This is Copenhagen-s new all day breakfast spot in an old beautiful building at Vesterbro. The atmosphere is in fact cozy and the service simple. You simnply place your order and pick up your food at the counter. Throughout the summer there are seats outside so you can enjoy the peasant Copenhagen sunny days.
Jordnær (meaning ‘down to earth’) is housed in the historic, 350-year-old Gentofte Hotel, situated in Gentofte, just outside Copenhagen.
Gastronomically speaking, Jordnær is not very close to the earthy sphere. The ambitions are high, and the reviews since the restaurant opened in May this year have been positive indeed.
Dish at Jornær restaurant in Gentofte Hotel
The host couple consists of Tina Kragh and Eric Vildgaard, who can plot in three years at Noma, the gastronomic flagship of New Nordic Cuisine, on his resume. Both of them have a past at Fredensborg Store Kro.
The evening menu gives you the opportunity to go a la carte or choose between a 3-, 5- or 7-course menu, where you will visit almost all the pleasantries of the menu. Restaurant Jordnær is open for lunch guests.
Table reservation is recommended.
Nærvær Restaurant and Bar. Architects: Norm
Nærvær
(meaning presence) is Copenhagen’s new wine bar & restaurant, situated at Christianshavn on Krøyers Plads, overlooking the canal with a beautiful view over Copenhagen´s old city centre. The restaurant, Norm Architects can only seat ten people, and the space is divided into different areas to help enhance the intimate experience. Nærvær has the ambition of being a local non expensive wine bar as well as a restaurant serving guests from around the world.
P Eatery
P Eatery located next to Skt Petri Hotel. has created a Nordic Mediterranean cuisine. The atmosphere is intimate for two, but offers plenty of space for socializing. The servings are composed of many small dishes including vegan choices, heavenly desserts – and they offer more than 100 wines served by the glass.
Featured image (on top): Dessert at Nærvær Restaurant
New Restaurants in Copenhagen, compiled by Tor Kjolberg
On the fringe of the Oslo Fjord about 100 kilometers south of Oslo, you arrive at a little, exuberant summer paradise island, Hvasser. The mild sea air combined with long summer days and a seabed covered with shells, makes the island particularly suitable for growing delicious asparagus.
The three brothers, Bernt, Anstein and Edvart Freberg, acquired the asparagus farm in 2012, and today their handpicked asparagus is sought after by as well gourmet restaurants and shops as private customers, shopping directly from the booth by the green house.
On the fringe of the Oslo Fjord, you arrive at a little, exuberant summer paradise island, Hvasser
«The unique flavor of our asparagus is different from the imported ones,» says Ane Hjetland Holt, married to one of the Freberg brothers. “We are really proud of our products, which have been awarded the Unique Taste Foodmark,” she adds.
Sticking our fingers in the ground around the sparse green pins, we can feel it’s hot. Asparagus seeds are placed indoors in greenhouses in the spring and planted on the field at summertime. Only after three to four years, the green plants are large enough to be harvested, sorted and sold. However, the same plants can now be used for a further 8 to 10 years. He harvesting period is from May to Mid- June.
Sticking our fingers in the ground around the sparse green pins, we can feel it’s hot
Ever since the acquisition, the brothers Freberg have grown asparagus in a traditional way without importing plants. “That way we avoid sickness and can harvest strong, healthy asparagus that has only been here on Hvasser, the friendliest environment in the world, if you ask me, “says Ane, who had guided us around the farm.
Inside the greenhouse
The mysterious asparagus nodes with their long underground roots have been resting under the ground through a long and cold spring. Today on a sunny summer day hundreds of asparagus are sticking their nose tips over the earth’s crust.
Sorting the asparagys by han
Hvasser Asparges has focused on brand marketing the last few years and the brothers have lately experienced a significant increase in demand.
The asparagus farm
The season lasts from May to June, and during that time tons of local asparagus are picked from the fields. The stalks, which stand in neat rows like tin soldiers, are carefully cut by hand before they are washed, stacked and packed. That way Hvasser Asparges can supply asparagus, which is crispier, greener and with more flavor of nuts and grass than most other asparagus.
The greenhouse
Only one percent of Norway´s area is arable land and Hvasser Asparagus is growing in one of the best agricultural parts of Norway, located in fields with deep soil of old seabed which seems to provide extraordinarily good conditions for quality asparagus.
Edvart Freberg
Hvasser is not only home of the best asparagus in Norway. This is also a Norwegian summer paradise, where the population soars from 4 700 to 20 000 in summer, including the Royal Family and many from the elite of Norway. Hvasser belongs to the municipality of Tjøme. A warm climate, about 500 islands and islets and close proximity to Oslo, makes this the ideal place for summer vacation.
Hvasser handpicked asparagus
The Norwegian Asparagus Island, written and photographed by Tor Kjolberg (except photos below).
Here are some of Ane Hjetland Holt’s favorite dishes (all photos by Ane):
1. Raw asparagus from Hvasser with smoked, cured ham and herbs from her own garden
2. Asparagus Soup:
ingredients:
700 grams of Hvasser asparagus
2 tablespoons butter
6 dl vegetable juice
2 dl cream
Salt and pepper
crispy ham topped with chives
Cut the asparagus into pieces and fry it for a few minutes in butter. Add juice and cream. Cook until the asparagus becomes soft. Use hand blender to make the soup smoothly. Season with salt and pepper.
Homemade coarse bread with fried eggs, lukewarm asparagus and crispy cured ham for lunch.
Simple breakfast with egg and asparagus
Asparagus with avocado and ginger juice (all three ingredients are well known aphrodisiacs).
Potato salad with Norwegian almond potatoes, asparagus and chives from own garden
2. Asparagus Soup:
