One of the benefits of living in Sonderborg is that you are close to the countryside. And a benefit of that is that you are close to the source of most of what you eat. However, with most supermarkets being big chains, being close to the food source does not tend to translate into fresher produce. For that you need the farm shops. And, luckily for us, there are plenty of those!

Rønhaveslagteren: New butcher on Kær. Went to visit after tasting their ringriderpølsen – we wanted more! Open Wed-Fri 8:30-17:00; Sat 9:00-13:00

Frydendal Ismejeri: For land produce (mainly vegetables) and local ice-cream – in Dybbol. Best ice-cream I have had in Denmark! Opening times depend on the time of the year.

Hestehave Frugtplantage: Fruit and vegetables on Kær. My favourite is the æblemost (pressed apple juice)…20DKK for a litre, and it goes down like honey. Open Mon-Fri 8:30-17:00; Sat 8:30-12:00.

Østegaard frugt og bær: Fruit and veg in season. Also their own pressed apple juice. As with the other fruit and veg shops, if there is no one in the shop, take what you want and leave the appropriate amount of money in the cash box in the shop. Open every day 9:00-18:00.

Skærtoft Mølle: For locally-produced flour, rye, spelt etc.

Besides shops, while driving around you often also see small stalls set up at the road side with a few vegetables, fruit, eggs etc. If anything catches your eye you can just stop the car, grab what you like, and leave the requisite money in a tin on the stall. If you want to go further and pick your own, there are also a number of options there. We had covered this a while back.

There are also a number of individual producers of specific produce. So far we have come across honey, mead and æblemost.

This is a selection of a few we know about. Do write in with any others we have missed. We like discovering new places!