We are inspired by people we meet on our path. Our meeting with Mette Helbæk has made a special impression. She has a very strong charisma and a delicate and appealing beauty in her being. She is a woman you listen to and are fascinated by.
Together with her husband Flemming Schiøtt Hansen, she has created Stedsans, a regenerating nature retreat in southern Sweden. Mette and Flemming, together with their four children, have created a life on the site with nature as their most important resource. Their vision is based on self-sufficiency, permaculture, presence and, not least, aesthetics.
"We want our guests to feel the healing powers of nature on mind, body and soul and show that luxury, true sustainability and well-being go hand in hand"
We spoke to Mette and asked her to share some of the thoughts behind the choices she and Flemming have made. It's exciting, and when you visit Stedsans you can sense the seriousness and passion behind it. It's a philosophy of life that inspires you.
We are incredibly proud that Mette sees a match with Yrolí, and that she has chosen to pamper her guests with Yrolí products.
METTE HELBÆK
I am 43 years old, have 4 children and have been happily married for 18 years (not all of them are equally happy) to a very amazing and slightly crazy man named Flemming. I have a background like anything. I have worked as a chef, cookbook author, food stylist, food critic and everything else that starts with food.
Together with Flemming, I have opened restaurants, a fast-food concept, a small greengrocer chain, and I have grown herbal tea in my small garden in Unnaryd, which I sold to the whole world via a webshop. But all that has now been shut down. I finally think I have found the shelf that suits me exactly - in the Stedsans project, which we moved (almost) 6 years ago from a rooftop farm in Østerbro to far out in a Swedish forest.
A COMPANY
It's been 6 years where so much has happened that it could easily have been enough events for a whole eventful life... seriously.
But it was 'just' 6 years, where we sold everything and moved to a new country with our two children, almost got divorced, got back together, had two more children and were in a bloody neighbor dispute that ended up costing us a lot. At the same time, we also built a visionary nature retreat and even with quite a lot of success - at least outwardly.
Because wait a minute… how hard was it. When I finally got some solid ground under my feet, I had been in survival mode for so long that I completely went down the drain. I had to take sick leave with stress for 4 months at the same time that Corona made it, to say the least, exciting to be in the restaurant industry.
A LIFE WITHOUT COMPROMISE
When I came out the other side, I could see that it wasn't 'just' a little exhaustion that I had been hit with, but rather a full-blown bout of the dark night of the soul - a complete reset of my system. Those who have tried it will know that it really feels very, very dark. But I came out the other side a different person than I was before.
I can and will not be anything but honest. I refuse to lie to myself. I will brutally honestly pursue the life I dream of, and I will not compromise my values and dreams. I want it all! A life close to nature, close to my children and close to a man I love very much. I want to eat and live and have it all - without excess and in a way that does as little harm as possible.
I want to enter the cycle again and help rediscover that we humans are nature and it is us. We were never separate, we just came to believe it, and then we began to fight ourselves in the form of the beautiful, generous earth that we live on and from.
AN OFFER FOR THE LIFESTYLE OF THE FUTURE
And that's really what Stedsans is all about and always has been - we just had to take a detour to really see it. A proposal for the lifestyle of the future.
Our message is that in the future we don't want to live the way we do today, where you literally can't walk outside a door without breaking down more than you build up.
We flush out shit with clean drinking water and torture the earth to send food around the world, which still ends up being thrown into containers, which are transported to landfills to be burned and create disturbances in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
We do all this even though there are better and completely natural solutions to it all. Solutions we are not allowed to know about and are being fought against because natural resources are not valued until they are put up for sale. Nothing is actually valued until it is priced, and that is a very big problem.
A EVERYDAY WE DON'T NEED TO TAKE A VACATION FROM
Stedsans is a retreat with 16 cabins, a ceremonial hall, a floating sauna on a Swedish forest lake, 1 hectare of permaculture farming and a restaurant where all food is cooked over an open fire. But it is first and foremost our life. A life where we have cut back to the bone in terms of what we think is important to fill our lives with. And it is actually not that much. Good food, fresh air, cold swims in the lake, something meaningful to do when you get up in the morning, alone time and time to be together.
We always said we wanted to create a life where we didn't have to take a vacation - and that's where we are now. I really love my everyday life.
IT STARTS WITH FOOD
The addition of a ceremony hall to Stedsans this year is probably a direct consequence of both Flemming and I spending the last few years going deep into shamanic healing. We have become aware that the new world we believe in is created by each of us doing what we can to heal our traumas and find peace with ourselves and each other.
Our own journey towards that world started with food. Food is an important factor, but we no longer see Stedsans as a restaurant. It is much more than that.
4-DAY RETREAT
This year we have added a 4-day retreat because we want to give people an expanded experience of the opportunities for slowness and connection that the forest provides.
Here we cook simple food using ingredients from the garden, forest and lake, light up the sauna several times a day, and share what we know about food and sustainability.
IT IS POSSIBLE IF WE WANT TO
The time right now is one where we stand on the threshold of a whole new world. Each and every one of us has to make a choice about which world we want to live in. A world of abuse of power, war, corruption and destruction or a more rounded, soft, beautiful and feminine world based on completely different values than those we have allowed to prevail for the past many thousands of years.
The latter is the world that Stedsans represents and is a mini-example that we can bring up when the doubters come and say 'but that's not possible.' Well, it is possible if we want to.
WATER NATURAL
S tedsans is water neutral. All water is either recycled or sent directly back to nature. Therefore, it is important that all ingredients we use are completely biodegradable and free of hazardous chemicals.
That's the main reason why we've chosen to collaborate with Yrolí. But also because it's important for us to show that sustainability doesn't have to mean a lot of compromise - quite the opposite!
We can make good, sustainable choices that also feel delicious and luxurious, and I think that's exactly what Yrolí stands for.
FAVORITE PRODUCTS
The boosting facial oil is my favorite product, but I wouldn't want to be without either the good shampoo or the hand soap, which smells so nice that I'm in a good mood every time I wash my hands.
Read more about Stedsans here