Iceland review - 2016, Page 57

ICELAND REVIEW 55
COMMUNITY
According to the 2014 count, the biggest
bird colonies on the island consist of
9,800 Arctic tern, 2,300 eider duck and
2,295 fulmar pairs.
As Úlla drives us back to the village,
we spot teenagers in between the tall
plants by the side of the road, armed with
sickles. “They’re cutting angelica,” she
explains. The young men and women are
harvesting angelica leaves as part of their
summer job for local company Hrísiðn.
The leaves, the health benefits of which
apparently include reduced urinary fre-
quency, are dried and sold mostly to
SagaMedica, a major Icelandic producer
of herbal dietary supplements. Owner and
manager of Hrísiðn, Bjarni Thorarensen,
also makes his own brand of tea out of
angelica leaves and spice of out angelica
seeds—which are picked later in the
season. Bjarni sells his products to meat
processing company Kjarnafæði, and to
Nettó supermarkets and Heilsuhúsið
health stores. “The angelica on the island
has been certified as organic by TÚN
[certification office],” he says. Hrísiðn
produces approximately 1,200 kg (2,640
lbs) of dried angelica annually. Demand
is increasing. “I could produce as much
as 2-3 tons per year,” says Bjarni. “There
are more than enough angelica plants
on the island. My dream is to be able to
employ 2-3 people full-time.”
FISHING FOR LUCK
The islanders’ livelihood depends mainly
on seafood, with around 20 people work-
ing either on boats or in fish processing.
Local company Hvammsfiskur produces
stock fish, whereas Norðurskel, which
cultivated blue mussels, has gone out
of business. Companies have come and
gone and so have the people. During
the herring boom mid-last century, the
island’s population peaked with as many
as 1,000 inhabitants in the summer.
People have lived continuously on
Hrísey since the settlement of Iceland
in the 9th century AD, but until the mid-
1800s, primarily on the farms Ystibær
in the north and Syðstibær in the south.
Then the legendary Jörundur Jónsson
(1826-1888), or Hákarla-Jörundur
(‘Shark-Jörundur’), moved there with his
Local company Hrísiðn provides teenagers with a job harvesting
angelica leaves during the school break.
View from Hrísey village of the mountains of Látraströnd
on the eastern coast of Eyjafjörður.