Iceland review - 2013, Page 40

38 ICELAND REVIEW
PHOTOS By PÁll STEfÁNSSoN
oAsis in THe snow
One frosty mid-winter morning in the rural
South Iceland community of Reykholt
Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir discovers
what makes this subarctic country
ideal for greenhouse farming.
from humble beginnings in the
early 20th century, horticulture
farming in greenhouses has grown
to cover almost 200,000 square meters
of land in South, West, North and East
Iceland, supplying the Icelandic market
with vegetables, flowers and trees. As pro-
duction expands, consumers traditionally
not too keen on greens have come to
appreciate the freshness of locally-grown
goods. With easy access to water hot and
cold and pumice from volcano Hekla—in
which plants thrive—Laugarás, Reykholt
and Flúðir, upcountry South Iceland,
form the cradle of the island’s greenhouse
farming.
faMily affair
“It’s a job like any other. Sometimes
I enjoy it, sometimes I grow tired of
it,” smiles Helgi Jakobsson at Gufuhlíð,
second-generation cucumber farmer. “I
can’t say I eat a lot of cucumbers,
though.” Aptly named ‘Steamy Hill’—the
greenhouses are heated by a geothermal
borehole outside—the farm produces
640 tons annually, which is 40 percent of
the country’s total supply and more than
any other local farm produces. Icelandic
cucumbers hold a 95-percent share on
the domestic market.
Stepping into Mediterranean tempera-