The second Saturday Elizabeth was in Tullinge we went on a long (and windy!) bikeride to Grödinge. The timing was great; this was also the Grödingerundan, a food tour of local business in the countryside South of our place. The idea was to have starter waffles at at Klockargårdens Våffleri, then an entré at Karshamra pizza-farm, then desert/fika at Eldtomta Café. We skipped the waffles and rode the backway along gravel farm roads to bee-line to the pizza farm. We started the ride through LIDA, and got to experience the excitement of Sweden’s national 25-person team orienteering event. There were folks of all ages and genders running through the forest to find their targets in the fastest tie possible. It turned that part of the ride into an obstacle course for us, since those who are running and looking at their maps were not putting a lot of effort into not colliding with bikes (LOL).
Along the way we also saw the (now frost-suffering) sunflower fields, but the feeder-steer field was empty. Rode a little further and saw some country butchery in one of the old farm buildings, preparing carcasses for future dinners. I am not a beef-eater myself, but I bet it is awesome: those steers had a great grass-fed life out in the buttercups all summer.
ELizabeth with the small runestone next to Lida 
The large runestone by Grödinge Church 
Much of the trip was on gravel trails through the forest 
Local ponies! 
Winter wheat putting down roots while it can 
Pizza for everyone! We should have eaten it right away instead of letting it cool 
Fika at Eldtomta 
The bike ride home 
The golden light at the Grödinge church
We had a lovely pizza lunch and also got some great vegetables, then assessed our energy level and decided to continue on the extra kilometers to Eldtomta for fika. It was brilliant and sunny, but so much windier over the open fields that we all had to lean sideways, hoping the gusts were more consistent so we didn’t fall over (which no one did). The efforts were rewarded by some nice coffee and even nicer desserts. Eldtomta is famous for their garden seating, but we elected to eat inside and thaw out a bit before the headwind ride home.
The ride home was not too bad at our leisurely pace (wind resistance is a function of speed, after all) and we were warm enough to stop in at Grödinge church and look out at the meadows in the golden light from the last 25% of the sun’s path. We saw a very large and old 1100s runestone, the second one of the day since we also stopped for a look at the smaller LIDA-adjacent stone.
We came home far less hungry than one might expect after a 40km ride and had cauliflower soup made with the mushrooms we foraged over the last week. Sigge came by for an evening visit and we all had a chill evening on the sofa. Overall a pretty nice Saturday!