UPDATED: Details added so check it out 
On Sunday, we had an amazing experience learning about Norwegian family farms and visiting the island of Ytterøy. Nils, a MTU student in Adam’s research team who is also in Trondheim for the summer, went to the farmer’s market several weeks ago and met Karl Laugsand, a farmer in the Trondelag area. Karl had many pictures of his farm, Med Svin på skogen, (pigs in the woods) displayed at his marketplace stand and Nils starting asking him about the farm. This led to the opportunity to go visit the farm and Nils was even able to bring friends along. We were excited to take the train ride along the coast and see a family farm and an island. However, the day was so much more than we had anticipated. Karl and his family welcomed us to the island with so much kindness and hospitality. While we had thought we would have a quick tour of the farm, they had actually a day full of activities for us despite the busy schedule running a farm entails. Here is what our day included:
We got on the first bus that was leaving from our apartment complex and headed into town. In Trondheim we had a casual walk to the train station getting a coffee along the way. We took the 11:10am train from Trondheim central station and headed about 1.5 hours north to Levanger where we then boarded the 1pm ferry to Ytterøy Island.
When we got off the ferry, we were greeted by Karl, his daughter Lisa, and her boyfriend Christopher. After we were introduced to every one and chatted for a bit they took us sightseeing around the island where we saw ancient viking burial sites and went inside an old sulfur mine and at the same time taught us some history of the island.
The first stop was the sulfer mine which was just a short hike from the ferry landing. This mine was originally created by people looking for copper. They had no luck in the search for copper but did find a good source of sulfur which was mined and shipped to England for use in the chemical plants there. Karl told us that many of these mines were dug before dynamite was created. To bust the rocks the miners would build large wood fires and heat the rocks up. As the rocks cooled they would crack and could be hauled away. This process was repeated many times at both this and other mines on the island. We were also told that the island was completely logged off at one point due to this process. The mine we toured went further underground but we did not dare to go there as it really wasn’t safe and was partially flooded and filled with water.
Danger: Open Mine
After the mine tour and short hike in the woods we all packed into Karl’s minivan and got a tour of the island. This is when we were driven by several ancient Viking burial sites and other neat areas of the island. Unfortunately, since we were sitting in the rear seats of the van we were not able to get any good pictures of the graves as we drove by. The roads on the island were typically narrow and winding as they made their way through the country side and between farms. An interesting practice on the older farms is to have the road pass through directly in the middle of the barnyard between the house and the barn. At the time this helped the farm as it made things easier to move and haul, but, today it seems like a nuisance and hassle (at least to me) but has not been changed.
Then we went to their beautiful farm.
Karl is a very busy farmer. He milks cows…
…raises happy pigs in a cage free environment
…. turns happy pigs into sausage and other products
….and somehow fit in the time to show his farm and island to three happy visitors.
We enjoyed going out in the woods and seeing the pigs, while taking a coffee and lefsa break on this boulder.
We mingled with the pigs.
They like to bite your shoes.
After our visit with the pigs we made our way back to the house and had tea on the front deck with the family. We chatted about where we are from and showed them on a map. They were not very familiar with the upper Midwestern area and seemed to find it interesting about how much snow we get in Houghton and how cold it can be in northern Minnesota. Both of which are MUCH more severe than what is experienced in this part of Norway. Karl’s wife, Anne Marie, was not able to stay much longer after the visit over tea as she was dressed up and preparing to play in a concert that evening. She plays saxophone for a local organization.
Later we were even treated to an excellent dinner, featuring some of the farm raised meat. Pork steaks along with marinated pork pieces were the main feature and were both excellent. Lisa was returning to NTNU that evening, so she gave us a ride back into town. It was the perfect day and we feel really lucky to have this insider view of island and farming life on Ytterøy. We were told only a handful of Americans have visited this island with a population of 500.
In total Karl has 50 pigs and approximately 30 to 40 milking cows – we are not sure on the cows though. Another interesting bit of trivia – the island at one time had over 1100 people living there but at the turn of the century approximately 600 immigrated to the US. Karl said many people on the island like to believe that they have a rich uncle somewhere in the states.
Below is a gallery of more photos from the day and as always, click to enlarge. Be warned, we took many pig pictures and couldn’t really delete any.
