Iceland review - 2012, Page 78

76 ICELAND REVIEW
SkálANeS loAf
One of my hobbies is baking bread. There’s
something so elemental about watching a
loaf of bread rise, knowing it will be deli-
cious. Often I make multiple loaves, giving
the extra bread away to delighted friends.
When I travel, I love looking in bakeries
where all sorts of treats await. While gor-
geously executed cakes and pastries always
get my attention, sometimes I’m taken in by
the simple things. A plain fig-filled cookie
that I ate at a bakery one morning in the
capital was better than the jam-filled iced
cookie bar I passed by (I got one later. The
fig cookie tasted better.)
One Sunday our group of volunteers
climbed into vans and Jeeps and headed
out to the Skálanes Nature Centre and
Seyðisfjörður on the easternmost edge of
Iceland. After fording rushing streams in the
vehicles, we trekked up the road past fields of
purple lupine to the farmhouse where lunch
was served.
Skálanes is a nature preserve but it’s also a
working farm: cattle are raised there, as are
chickens and ducks. The farmhouse is open
for visitors to stay for periods of time and
as much as possible the food served here is
locally sourced. It was lunch time and we
were all pretty hungry, so the homemade
soup with vegetables and pasta along with
home-baked bread was gratefully received.
Around the East Fjords, sometimes the best
bread is the loaf served with soup.
After lunch we hiked to the sea cliffs to
watch the birds, but it was past the nesting
season for puffins. I was tired from a week
of working hard and hiking, so while others
continued to the cliffs, I rambled back to the
farmhouse and lay down on the bench by
the duck pond.
fOOD
International students at Skálanes Nature Centre.