Reykjavík Grapevine - Nov 2019, Page 40

The Reykjavík G
rapevine
Best of Iceland 2019
40
Taste The Tröll
A culinary day trip around the
Tröllaskagi peninsula
Words: a rawlings Photos: John Rogers
Pink oyster mushrooms peek over
the edge of a basket at the entrance
of Vellir. The mushrooms have been
grown as an experiment on the or-
ganic farm. Their unusual appear-
ance at the outset of our day trip
around north Iceland’s Tröllaskagi
peninsula lures us into the store’s
embrace.
Bursting berries &
herbs
Southwest of Dalvík in the valley of
Svarfaðardalur, Vellir attracts locals
and tourists alike. It is an organic
farm bursting with berries, veggies,
and herbs, with a rustic country
store featuring gourmet foods pre-
pared on-site, including smoked
Icelandic cheeses and fermented
foods. Open throughout the sum-
mer months, they’ve turned selling
produce directly from the farmer to
the customer into an artform.
Along with Vellir’s owner, Bjarni
Óskarsson, we walk through green-
houses stuffed with strawberry and
raspberry plants. He then leads us
to the jewel of the farm: an old cow
shed reclaimed as a banquet hall. A
long table forms the centrepiece of
the hall, with natural light stream-
ing in through a floor-to-ceiling
window along the eastern wall. The
hall holds antique farm and cooking
equipment of all kinds, a veritable
museum of ways now past in Icelan-
dic history.
We return to the store and buy
all the oyster mushrooms. Locals
crowd every corner of the shop as
its purveyors prepare ice cream and
cheese tasting boards at lightning
speed. Talk of the shop is the annual
Great Fish Day festival, so we head
to its host town Dalvík next.
Great Fish Day
Vellir’s mushrooms have sparked
an unanticipated culinary focus on
our day trip. Tröllaskagi, itself, is a
mountainous region named for the
trolls rumoured to live there. But
it is the local emphasis on farming,
fishing, and drinking that makes our
journey one to remember.
In Dalvík, the café and bar Gislí,
Eiríkur, Helgi is a must-stop. And
this day, it feels as though every res-
ident of the town agrees. Like Vel-
lir’s country store, the café is full to
bursting with hungry, happy people.
To accommodate the volume of vis-
itors, the café’s lunch buffet offers
fish and vegetable soups with fresh-
baked bread. We tuck into a window
seat to watch locals amass on the
village for Great Fish Day.
The three-day festival is the cul-
tural event of Dalvíkurbyggð’s sum-
mer season. Held every second Sat-
urday of August, fish soup is offered
free at the harbour as a means for
the community to meet the local
fisherpeople. Its draw far surpasses
locals, though, as in past years it has
seen upwards of 200,000 attendees.
Our destiny is not fishy for this trip,
however, so we continue north to
Tröllaskagi’s northernmost town of
Siglufjörður.
Pure beercraft
Baldvin Júlíusson greets us at Segull
67, the family-owned craft brewery
of Siglufjörður. The brewery has
opened for a private tour of the fa-
Distance from
Reykjavík:
450 km
How to get there:
Route 1 to Route 82
Travel: kukucampers.is
Accommodation: keahotels.is North