Iceland review - 2016, Page 47

ICELAND REVIEW 45
In early October, 15 Icelandic small-scale food producers presented their
goods at London’s Borough Market, treating visitors to a taste of their
homeland. Zoë Robert and photographer Áslaug Snorradóttir
traveled to the British capital to join them.
This has never been done before,”
says Eirný Sigurðardóttir, mar-
ket organizer, owner of Búrið
delicatessen in Reykjavík and self-de-
clared “curd nerd,” at an evening recep-
tion at the Icelandic Embassy in London.
Eirný is busy chatting to journalists
when the photographer and I arrive. She
seems—perhaps unsurprisingly—a little
stressed. The party marks the begin-
ning of a week-long trip to the British
capital by a 30-strong group represent-
ing 15 Icelandic farmers, fishermen and
other independent food producers for
the purpose of presenting their goods
at the famous Borough Market. Eirný
and Hlédís Sveinsdóttir, who organize
the triannual Artisanal Food Market
in Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavík, are
behind the initiative. “Of course the sea-
food industry has been promoted over
here, but what I really wanted to do was
present small-scale producers. They are
taking a lot of risk with this. One has
taken a ton of lamb with them, for exam-
ple,” Eirný tells me.
PRESENTING ICELAND’S FINEST
An array of tasting samples are arranged
on the table. There are pieces of smoked
mackerel and trout; mackerel pâté; mor-
sels of smoked and cured lamb; leaves
of dulse and sugar kelp; dried fish;
smoked cod liver; marinated herring;
angelica lamb stew; flatbread and rye
bread; fermented organic vegetables;
beetroot and blueberry butters; artisan
chocolate; chocolate truffles; a choc-
olate platter with dulse and angelica;
baked kale snacks; and shots of Icelandic
whey, berries and herbs. The embassy is
quickly filling with journalists and food-
ies, travel company operators, embassy
staff, the Icelandic food producers and
other guests. First Lady of Iceland Dorrit
Moussaieff makes an appearance too.
The mood among the food producers
is one of anticipation. Today they’ve
been visiting British farms with the local
farmers’ association, but tomorrow the
work begins and they’ll spend the day
setting up their stalls. Most of the pro-
ducers I speak with describe the London
trip as an adventure and say they’ll just
wait and see what comes out of it, with-
out mentioning any grand expectations.
Naturally, though, they wish to raise
interest among British customers, with
some hoping to expand their already-ex-
isting export markets.
The trip is sponsored, in part, by
the public-private partnership Promote
Iceland. Project manager for fisheries
and agriculture, Áslaug Þ. Guðjónsdóttir,
explains that the agency was quick to get
on board. “The market ties into what
we are trying to do with food tourism
in Iceland. It’s a great opportunity,” she
says.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Two days later the Icelandic Pantry
guest market section at Borough Market
opens. Some of the producers work on
the presentation of their stalls, others
chat to one another or simply wait for
the first customers of the day. Eirný is
busy as ever, fielding questions, mak-
ing last-minute arrangements—and, as
it turns out, trying to arrange for the
delivery of some of the missing prod-
ucts which were shipped from Iceland
a couple of weeks prior. Farmer Halla
Steinólfsdóttir’s organic angelica lamb is
among the products yet to arrive on site.
Halla and her daughter Hrefna look a lit-
tle awkward standing behind their empty
stall but Halla isn’t giving anything away:
she’s in good spirits and spends time
chatting with the others. “I might have
to buy some meat from you, Erlendur
[another lamb producer at the market],
or maybe you will have all sold out by the
time my lamb arrives and then everyone
will have to come to me,” she jokes to the
rest of the group.
Ómar Fransson of fisheries company
Sólsker makes some of the first sales of
the day with people curious to try his
hot-smoked mackerel and smoked rain-
bow trout. “I’m happy. It’s a great start,”
Ómar’s wife, Sveinbjörg Eiríksdóttir,
tells me. Sólsker’s mackerel received the
gold medal for smoked fish awarded by
Eldrimner, Sweden’s center for artisanal
food, and they’re proud to share the news
with customers.
Borough Market dates back to 1756,
while the London Bridge area has attract-
ed traders selling grain, fish, vegetables
and livestock from as far back as the
11th century. The market has over 100
individual stalls selling fruit, vegetables,
bread and other baked goods, deli goods,
seafood, meat, drinks and other products
from Britain and around the world.
As midday approaches, curious shop-
pers, directed by the signs advertising
the Icelandic event, start to trickle in.
I meet market development manager
David Matchett over coffee. “It’s great to
have the producers on site to be able to
tell the stories behind their products,” he
says of the Icelanders.
OVERCOMING PRECONCEIVED
IDEAS
Matchett explains how the Icelandic
Pantry came about. “I got a call from
Eirný—she has a lot of passion—and she
wondered if we could do something with
Icelandic produce. The produce and the
producers represent sustainability, herit-
age, freshness—all the elements that we
look for in traders at Borough,” he tells
me. However, he admits he wasn’t imme-
diately sold on Icelandic food. “When I
learnt about some of the products, it was
quite challenging. The idea of sheep’s
head or fish smoked with sheep dung did
not initially sound tempting. However,
what was quite noticeable is the direct
connection between the environment
and the product. It was irresistible. It
helps to get people to connect with the
food, where it comes from. It seemed so
right.”
Matchett speculates that the smoked
cod liver will perhaps be one of the most
difficult products at the market to sell.