Livs Södermalm — Specialty Store in Mariatorget, Stockholm

Livs Södermalm is an independent organic grocer on Swedenborgsgatan in Mariatorget, and the first thing you meet inside is the bakery counter by the checkout, stacked with pastries and loaves. The room is plain and the product signs are sparse, so you work out what things are by looking rather than reading.

Start with the pain au chocolat, the pastry that brings people back, then a croissant, which holds its own against anything in Stockholm. The sourdough is the loaf to buy whole rather than a quarter; cinnamon buns and pastries sit alongside, and a buckwheat and orange cookie is balanced and not too sweet. A brewed coffee at 15 kronor makes the café corner a natural pause.

Beyond the bakery, the shelves run to organic fruit and vegetables bought for their taste and for avoiding sprayed goods, a bulk range of flours including rye and legumes such as snow peas, and ingredients from Lilla Bjers farm on Gotland along with Gotland ice cream. The shop is still filling out its producer list, so the range grows as you return.

Prices sit above a conventional grocery store for some items, and eggs are the clearest example: they cost more here than buying direct from a farm. Against that, a coffee and bun combination comes in at 49 kronor, and the quality of what you carry out is the argument for the spend.

The concept is what you come for: food produced by people paid fairly for their work, sold without pesticides. It suits anyone building a picnic from bread, pastries and produce, and anyone who wants to cook a meal from ingredients they can trust.