Restaurants like the acclaimed Noma in Denmark and Dill in Iceland (see story at left) have helped bring so-called New Nordic cuisine worldwide attention. But 20 miles north of Copenhagen, Camilla Plum, 59, is focusing on a very different side of the region’s cooking at her family’s organic farm, Fuglebjerggaard. “We have ingredients that deserve to be known. But what’s known now is how they cook at very fancy restaurants, not how people eat in daily life.’’ she says.

Plum, who is a well-known writer and broadcaster, has written a primer on everyday Scandinavian cooking, both traditional and current, in “The Scandinavian Kitchen: 100 Essential Nordic Ingredients and 250 Classic Recipes.’’ The author says of her take on the region’s food, “I have a lot of children, four children, and they have been extremely hungry. My focus has been on feeding them and my friends and family every day in a way that is really, really good.’’ Plum practices her brand of everyday Scandinavian cooking at the farm, where the gardens and greenhouses provide vegetables, berries, fruits, and grains that she uses to make products for her farm shop, cafe, and cooking classes.

Q. Why do you think Scandinavian cooking has gotten so much attention lately?

A. There’s been a lot of commotion about restaurant Scandinavian food, luxury food, which is good. It’s chef food, not the food of ordinary people. I’m concerned with what people actually eat. My food is something quite different from this.

Q. Describe the kind of food you make.

A. It’s very seasonal. What we enjoy all over Scandinavia are things like very, very new potatoes. We eat those simply just as they are, maybe just salt and some fermented herring and fresh dill. And that’s dinner. That’s for a short time, then right after that is strawberries. A lot of people rove around in the hedgerows and collect berries to make jams in the fall. Then we bake. We really do that. Everybody right now is making cookies and baking rye bread.

Q. What makes produce from cold climates special?

A. They grow slowly and they develop a thin skin. They don’t need to protect themselves from the heat. It makes things like strawberries very sweet. All the apples are the same. Also the fish grow slowly because the water is cold.

Q. What staples of Scandinavian food might Americans find surprising?

A. It’s the combinations that are often surprising. We eat very fresh fried herring with lingonberry jam. I don’t think they eat fish with jam anywhere else in the world. Lingonberries have a bitterness and are a more grown-up berry. We also eat very strong cheeses with very dark jams. Traditionally, we eat pickled beetroot, pumpkins, and red cabbage with everything. The meat, potatoes, fish are always accompanied by something that is sweet-spicy.

Q. Unlike other cold-weather cuisines, Scandinavian food can be intensely flavored.

A. We have a lot of bland brown food as well. It used to be very stodgy. We have this special thing that I only realized when I wrote the book. We have a lot of sweet and sour stuff. We use a lot of horseradish, thyme, and parsley. Horseradish is the northern chile. It does the same things as chile and ginger. It has the same medicinal qualities and it gives the same kick. When we have boiled meat, we eat it with either capers or horseradish. It’s the contrast. We also eat lots and lots of mustard sauces. You have this basic idea about what’s good for you, and people know that you need these spicy things to fight colds and to boost your immunity.

Interview was edited and condensed.michaelfloreak @gmail.com