8 influencers driving Iceland's local food movement
This adorable husband and wife team has owned and operated Móðir Jörð (meaning "Mother Earth"), an organic farm located in Eastern Iceland. Little grain is currently grown in the country. But barley was actually cultivated by Iceland's first settlers in the ninth century. Since 1985, Eymundur Magnússon and Eygló Björk Ólafsdóttir have resurrected Iceland's organic grain production by pioneering farming techniques suited to the landscape. For example, the duo has planted over one million trees around their farms, in part to shield their crops from harsh winds. Móðir Jörð also manufactures ready-to-use packaged products like organic, barley-based veggie burgers, and gourmet pickled root vegetables.
What do you do with ample geothermal hotspots but frigid, windswept landscapes? Grow greenhouse tomatoes, of course. Knútur Rafn Ármann, co-founder of Friðheimar farm, cultivates tasty tomatoes by using nearby geothermal energy to light crops all year long—and with much success. Friðheimar's annual harvest exceeds 370 tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. Here, Ármann demonstrates how bees pollinate the plants.
Perhaps the most influential local food champion, Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is also the President of Iceland. No joke. On a wintry day in February, he invited a small group of chefs participating in the annual Food & Fun Festival—an event celebrating Icelandic ingredients—to his residence. Being one of the most Northern-most countries in the world, Iceland experiences climate change first hand: diminishing glaciers, warming temperatures, etc. The country's duty, Grímsson explains, is to seek ways to adapt to environmental challenges for a sustainable food future.
Iceland's only farmer's market is the brainchild of Eyrný Sigurðardóttir, owner of Búrið, a quirky cheese shop located in the capital city of Reykjavik. Held several times per year at an indoor convention hall, the market showcases 40 Icelandic food purveyors over the course of two days. Sigurðardóttir insists that the folks who produce the food, rather than a friend or employee, stand behind each booth.
Iceland isn't exactly a hotspot for exceptional chocolate, but friends Kjartan Gíslason, Óskar Þórðarson, Karl Viggó Vigfússon and André Úlfur Visage are poised to challenge this viewpoint with their bean-to-bar line, OmNom Chocolate. Organic cacao beans are hand-sorted, roasted, winnowed and ground in an Icelandic production facility. Add Icelandic milk and raw cane sugar, and you get a stellar, hand-crafted chocolate bar to make foodies swoon. We can't exactly classify OmNom as a completely local product. The cacao beans are imported, after all. But the level of artisanship and in-town manufacturing hints at the growing movement to reel food production back into the country.
Solvi Arnarsson's parent's have operated a dairy and cattle farm called Efsti-Dalur II for 33 years. But as travelers started to ask to stay on their scenic land, the family expanded their operation to include a bed and breakfast, cafe, and restaurant that follows Slow Food principles. Arnarsson, the manager, uses the farm's own beef and dairy when cooking, and ingredients sourced as close to the restaurant as possible. Here, he poses with one of his favorite cookbooks (and, presumably, one of his favorite cows).
Iceland banned beer from 1915 to 1989 (but allowed other alcoholic beverages). Since then, Icelandic beer production was largely monopolized by a few subpar beer brands. Thank goodness for Kaldi, Iceland's first 2005-founded microbrewery that spurred the craft beer movement. Started by a husband and wife team in the small, remote village of Árskogssandur, now their son (right) has joined in the family business, managing Reykjavík's trendy Kaldi Bar. Dozens of craft brewers are now cropping up across Iceland.
Okay, so Northern Lights aren't exactly a food influencer. But how can a natural phenomenon this beautiful fail to inspire wonder of the natural world? And that's what local food production is all about, right? Reverence for the earth and it's bounty.
Okay, so Northern Lights aren't exactly a food influencer. But how can a natural phenomenon this beautiful fail to inspire wonder of the natural world? And that's what local food production is all about, right? Reverence for the earth and it's bounty.
In many ways, the small, Kentucky-sized country of Iceland is the last place you’d expect a local food movement to gain traction. For starters, much of Iceland’s land is not arable: Glaciers cover 10 percent of the island, and at 66 degrees latitude, Iceland kisses the Arctic Circle—meaning its farmers face a paltry growing season, erosion from extreme wind and water and cool temperatures that have a tendency to wildly fluctuate.
Due to the unique nature of Iceland’s topography, plant life is comprised mainly of low-growing, sturdy vegetation that lacks the ability to add much nitrogen to the soil, such as lichen or small shrubs. (Case in point, Icelanders love to joke that if you get lost in an Icelandic forest, simply stand up.)
Periodic natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes place an additional burden on food producers—something Midwest’s Corn Belt doesn’t quite have to worry about. For example, 2010’s massive eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajokull devastated farms and houses with a heavy blanket of ash, suffocating crops. This, combined with high transportation costs, a small local economy and centralized agricultural services, and it’s no wonder Icelandic farmers and food manufacturers struggle.
Yet a burgeoning local food movement is taking hold despite these unique challenges. Rather than rely on food imports from nearby Europe, several Icelandic influencers are smartly using the country’s natural resources—geothermal energy, long days of summer sunshine, nutrients already in the volcanic soil—to bolster slow food. These food pioneers are passionate, steadfast, and resourceful—qualities reminiscent of their Norse Viking ancestors who landed on Iceland in the late ninth century. Lacking modern day refrigeration or imports, the settlers survived harsh, long winters by preserving, pickling, and fermenting food, a practice that many Icelanders still continue, and are teaching to the rest of the world. (Skyr, anyone?)
In the story of Iceland's local food scene, take note of these top influencers. They are the Michael Pollans, the Alice Waters, and the Gary Hirshbergs of their country.
Photos by Sigurjón Ragnar, Móðir Jörð, and Jenna Blumenfeld.
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