Walking home in the early evening at the end of the week, I had to wait as the bridge over the centre of Nyhavn was just being raised for a two-masted boat to come through to reach the upper harbour. It was piled high with what looked like traditional fruit or vegetable boxes.

This was the fruit growers from the island of Fejø who come into the city for a week at the beginning of every September - after the harvest - and unload their produce to sell from the quay.

Wandering along later in the weekend there were boxes of pears, huge plums, several varieties of apples and other farm produce including apple juice.

Everyone was more than happy to chat - they are rightly proud of what they produce - and they explained that the small island - only about 8 kilometres east to west and around 5 kilometres across - is in the sound off the south coast of Sjælland but closer to the north shore of Lolland.

The clay soil is fertile but it’s the micro climate that is important with, generally, a slightly late onset of Spring - so after the frost that could damage the apple blossom - but summers have more sunshine than anywhere else in Denmark … or that was what I was told.

The fruit was, of course, incredibly fresh and all with distinct and strong flavours - I’m eating one of the apples right now.

When it comes to planning or thinking about the quality of day to day life in the city, this is exactly what the planners and the city and port authority should be encouraging.

Why not more trade on the harbour? In the past, with large and heavily loaded commercial shipping coming in and out of the main harbour there might have been a conflict but now why not much more produce delivered or sold from the harbour quays? Why can’t the port authority build transit stations at the north and south end of the harbour with some storage facilities so food and goods can be transferred from lorries to boats?

the fruit sellers of Fejø will be on the the quay on the north side of Nyhavn
until the 15 September