Lensvik is as far north as we are going on this trip, and in the winter it can be very cold, parts of the Fjord can freeze over and snow is a permanent fixture for a couple of months.
Because it is so far north, it doesn't really get properly dark at night, but in the winter it is dark very early in the day. Grain is also grown up here, but his is about as far north as it gets.
Lensvik is a traditional Norwegian farming area, although change is happening.
Fox farming has been a tradition in this area, with Silver and Blue Fox, and previously Mink housed in large sheds. The foxes are fed a fish meal diet, and are slaughtered for their skins in mid winter each year, when the fur is at its best.
Surprisingly the skinning and processing of the furs is done on farm, making it a fairly labour intensive operation, and then the furs are sent to a central Auction House to be sold, not unlike our wool industry.
While staying there we also visited a neighbouring Dairy Farm of typical size for the area, around 20 Ha, milking 40-50 cows. The big difference here was that nobody milked the cows, a Robot machine did.
The cows were permanently inside, and were fed a mixture of pellets and baleage made from the 20Ha, and the Robot did the milking.
We watched, intrigued as one after the other the cows lined up to enter the milking bail, knowing that they would get a measured amount of feed while in the machine, based on their live weight and production.
If they had already been milked the machine just let them out without triggering the mechanism that cleaned each teat twice, then put the cups on, tested the milk for quality, isolated it if bacteria was too high, fed the correct amount of pellets and recorded all the readings on its computer.
On average cows were milked 2.5 times every 24 hrs, and production increased by over 30%. If the machine had a fault, it automatically rang the serviceman, who could repair it on-line, and the owner, who also kept an eye on things with a web cam to his laptop by his bed.
The lights dimmed automatically at night and most of the cows went to their separate byres to sleep.
These small farmers also had their own new tractors, balers and mowers, a huge amount of capital tied up on a small block of land.
My cousin’s farm, was a Strawberry farm, and although farming the same land, they received much less in the way of subsidies.
Strawberries have been grown in the Lensvik area for over 50 years, the cold snowy winters and long hours of summer daylight make it ideal for Strawberries. The more snow in the winter, the better the season, as the snow acts as insulation for the plants.
All the Strawberries are sold locally, as it is a real tradition in the area for people to eat fresh Strawberries in season, and to make jam.
For the two weeks here, we had Strawberries for every meal, on our cereal in the morning, spread on toast or bread with cheese and at night with cream and wild Blue berries picked in the surrounding bush. with special Blueberry picking apparatus.
The farm also had 50 sheep to keep the grass under control, as the Strawberries must be rotated every 4 years. The sheep were housed inside during the very harsh winters, and went out onto grass in the spring.
Our time on the farm was like a tonic for us, Vanessa was up early every morning, and out in the fields by 7am helping organise the 35 east European pickers that come to the farm every year for the harvest.
The pickers are housed on the farm, and are paid by the punnet.
Liam was out helping to make boxes and load the crop and Jennie and I enjoyed helping on the farm, and giving Kay a bit of a spell from cooking.
When we got there the season was still in full swing, with Kenneth leaving at 4 a.m. to deliver to shops around the area the Strawberries picked the previous afternoon.
The pickers started at 7 a.m. and the mornings picking went straight to market and Kay sold these through her 3 stalls in the nearby town of Orkanger from 10 till 4 or 5 in the afternoon. We all had a turn helping sell at the market, with Jennie and I taking a stall on our own one afternoon. Despite not knowing a word of Norwegian we still managed to sell over 40kg, thanks mainly to a sign explaining we only spoke English, and we were Kay’s NZ cousins helping her out for the day.
Despite picking, eating and selling strawberries we fitted in a number of great outings.
Lars Arne very kindly organised a weekends fishing trip, to one of the outlying islands, Froya.
To get there we didn’t go by boat, much to Vanessa’s relief, the island is linked to the mainland by two 6km long tunnels, one of which is the deepest road tunnel in the world, and believe it or not it had a speed camera at the bottom of it.
We stayed in a little fishing village, at a place geared up to cater for German and Swedish fishermen, our fishing lodge was right on the wharf.
We spent an enjoyable time fishing in the boat provided, on a perfect Norwegian day, catching plenty of fish before returning to barbeque for tea. Liam was happy, as he caught the most fish and got to drive the boat. Halibut were the biggest fish to catch there weighing over20kg, but alas we didn’t catch one.
We drove back late that evening, and although it never gets completely dark at this time of year, I counted over 30 wild deer on the way home.
Norway has a wide variety of animals, and we saw Otters playing, Moose on the young grass paddock, and although we didn’t see any of the wild Bears, Wolves, or Foxes, one of the pickers surprised a Lynx in the bush near the farm.
Another evening after work, Kay and Lars Arne organised a canoeing trip on one of the nearby lakes, within 15 minutes drive we reached a beautiful, pristine lake, and spent a great evening canoeing to the far end of it, and taking in the majestic scenery. Hard to believe after continental Europe, that you could have such a place all to ourselves. Lars Arne provided the entertainment by falling out of his boat before it got going, and we all had a swim at the top of the lake.
Another experience for the Kiwis was a traditional Norwegian Sunday lunch, consisting of a first course of sweet rice pudding with butter and cinnamon, followed by boiled potatoes, salted raw meat and crisp bread, yum Yum.
Jennie and I had another interesting day taking the fast ferry into Trondheim (half an hour), instead of an hour and a half by car. We struck another beautiful Norwegian day for this trip, and Juliet and Rune gave us a great guided tour of Trondheim.
Trondheim is the religious and cultural capital of Norway, and features a massive, ornate, cathedral,
It is also very much a University town, with 25000 students livening up the city for most of the year.
Alas, all too soon our time in Lensvik came to an end. Kay, Lars Arne, Kenneth and Juliet had made us feel like part of their family for a short time, and we will always treasure our time spent in Lensvik.
I am sure that we will be able to repay them one day for the warmest hospitality you could imagine. Already Vanessa and Liam are making plans to travel back to Norway, one day, which is great because this trip was always, as much about making family connections, as about seeing the world.
It was a sad tearful, goodbye the morning we loaded up Vladimir and headed south towards Geiranger and the next part of our Norwegian experience,