Iceland review - 2016, Qupperneq 69

ICELAND REVIEW 67
milk has various health benefits, including
being more easily digestible than cow’s milk
and less allergenic.
POSSIBLY PLAYING THE HORN
About 80 goats from Háafell are slaughtered
each fall. “Every part of the goat gets used,”
Jóhanna states, “The horns are brittle, but
we’ve been asked to sell buck’s horns to
Norway where they would be used for making
whistles. We also make pâté from the meat and
have ice cream made for us from the milk. I
make shoe inserts from tanned hide and have
knit bracelets from the wool for my family. For
a while, I made hats and bags from the hide,
but I never got to bed until 2 am, so my family
said, ‘Enough.’”
Since 2009, well-wishers of the farm have
been able to ‘adopt a goat.’ The idea comes
from the SOS Children’s Villages, where peo-
ple provide financial support to children,
especially in developing countries. Goat lovers
can choose a goat to dote on with an annual
contribution of ISK 10,000 (USD 82), which
goes toward the cost of feeding the animal,
and, in return, they get two free family visits
to the farm a year, in addition to receiving
periodic news of their adopted goat.
BEEN THERE BEFORE
During our conversation, Jóhanna frequently
stands up to serve her guests, offering a cup
of coffee and giving a hug to her grandchil-
dren and numerous relatives. The warmth she
generates is in sharp contrast with the cold
spring air blowing in whenever the door is
opened. “We have six children,” she recounts,
“five of them born in six and a half years. I
wanted to have ten, but my husband thought
six was enough. Holding them in his arms was
getting hard on his back.” Clearly, the focus
subsequently shifted to a smaller kind of kids.
Jóhanna appears unstoppable. You get the
feeling she has always been around goats.
Indeed, there are those who believe she’s been
around them longer than most: “A psychic told
me I was a goat farmer in an earlier life,” she
admits. With this much energy and tenacity,
it wouldn’t be surprising to learn she has had
many lives. The story of this hard-working
woman reads like a fairy tale, for, with the help
of friends the world over, she has enabled her
flock to cross a rickety bridge and overcome
the troll that lurked thereunder. *
FARMING
From top: Gleymmérei and Ljúfa.
“In 1999, we adopted the last
four hornless goats in the
country ... They would otherwise
have been slaughtered. It was
only then that we became
serious breeders.”