Iceland review - 2016, Page 50

48 ICELAND REVIEW ICELAND REVIEW 49
rhubarb brittle at Rabarbía’s stall
and fresh, smoked and dried meat at
Seglbúðir’s stall. Saltverk Icelandic flake
salt, based in the West Fjords, seems to
be doing well. Eiður Ólason says he’s
worried that he didn’t bring enough jars
with him. The intriguing flavors, such
as licorice, lava volcanic, Arctic thyme
and birch, are proving popular. Eiður
recommends a customer try the licorice
salt in an omelet for “a kick” or with a
steak. The customer asks for some tips
on where to travel on her upcoming trip
to Iceland: “the West Fjords,” Eiður says
with a smile.
At an adjacent stall Sóley Birgisdóttir
and Elís Grétarsson of Ósnes are pre-
senting an assortment of marinated
herring from Djúpivogur, East Iceland.
“Some people think it’s too strong,”
Sóley tells me when I ask her how things
are going. “The plain one [made with
onions] is the most popular, followed by
the mustard and then the curry one. It’s
funny because in Iceland the curry one is
the most popular.” Next to them is Helgi
Hjörleifsson of the farm Bjarteyjarsandur
in Hvalfjörður, West Iceland, with his
award-winning double-smoked mutton
marinated in homemade wild blueberry
syrup. “It has a very strong taste—it’s
very smoky. People say that it’s not really
like anything else here in the UK,” he
says. Several people taste the mutton
while we chat. “It’s an acquired taste,”
one says. “Very smoky,” says another.
“Strong but nice,” states a third.
The Omnom stall is next. The only
chocolate in Iceland created from
scratch, Omnom has won multiple
awards from the Academy of Chocolate
and International Chocolate Awards.
The products are made with organic fair
trade cocoa beans with flavors including
burned sugar, coffee, sea salted almonds,
dark cherries and almonds, with licorice
and sea salt being the most popular.
Halla is starting to feel more relaxed
now that her meat has begun to sell. “I’m
really happy. Being here is also about
getting to see the market and meeting
other producers,” she says.
DEFINING SUCCESS
In the days that follow, the market hosts
a pop-up kitchen with Fanney, making
angelica lamb stew, and a VIP evening
aimed at business representatives. By
all accounts the market seems to have
been fairly successful. I catch up with
Eirný back in Reykjavík, at Búrið deli
by the harbor. “I didn’t really experience
the market. What market?” she jokes.
“I was on the phone the whole time.”
She says that most of the items sold but
some of the stock had to be sent back to
Iceland. “That doesn’t mean that it went
well or badly, we simply came with too
much. Yes, in an ideal world we would
have come back with nothing but it was
impossible to really predict how much
would sell,” she tells me. Eirný admits
that she is personally ISK 2 million
(USD 15,000) out of pocket but is cur-
rently applying for grants to cover the
additional costs.
Some producers naturally did better
than others. Eirný mentions Sólsker’s
smoked mackerel and iCan’s smoked cod
liver. “They like mackerel in the UK but
Ómar’s is not too salty, not too sweet. It’s
very subtle because of his smoking meth-
ods ... And I heard iCan was one of the
hot tickets at the market, too—there was
a lot of interest.” At the same time, other
products that were expected to sell well,
didn’t. “The cured mutton, for example.
We thought we were presenting one of
Iceland’s best products but there isn’t a
culture for it in the UK. Some people
actually spat it out and the producers
took that really to heart. Come on, peo-
ple eat sushi so why can’t they eat this?
Anyway, so that was a bit difficult. The
thing with iCan was that people were
reluctant to try it but once they actually
did, most loved it.” Eirný acknowledges
that the different market culture was a
challenge and that language skills or a
lack of confidence in speaking English
was a hindrance for some.
The market was successful in terms of
promoting Iceland, Eirný stresses. “As
for food tourism, that’s the largest grow-
ing area of tourism right now and I think
we definitely did our part in promoting
that.” She emphasizes that the market
was also a valuable learning and infor-
mation sharing experience. “I think the
producers took a lot from it. Of course
I thought it would be a bonus if some of
the producers made connections and sold
their products to the UK, but the main
reason was for it to be an enhancing,
energizing, motivating and inspirational
experience for producers. Spending those
days there, you come back with ideas. It’s
a bit selfish but I want to make things
better here. I want to empower artisan
food producers here in Iceland.” Eirný
says the market gave producers a unique
opportunity to get to know one another.
“Some of these producers have been
doing markets at Harpa together for 2-3
years but they don’t know one another
so this was a great opportunity to get to
do that. There was a lot of knowledge
sharing and friendships that formed and
I can say that out of this have come some
ideas for future collaboration.”
There has been interest from Borough,
and elsewhere, to hold the market again,
Eirný says. “We’ve been asked to do it
again but it’s too soon. I need to think
about it.” In the meantime, Eirný plans
to continue working with local producers
in Iceland and organizing the market in
Harpa. *
Smoked cod liver on Icelandic barley
crispbread.
FOOD