I love locally produced food

• bentehaarstad

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I went to the Christmas market in the city of Trondheim before Christmas. The market lasted for 10 days and is now closed, so why post this now? Because the ones selling food are in town regularly, on the Farmers Market. And also because I think locally produced food is so good. Wherever you go in this world there is often a market selling locally produced food, and this has usually the best quality as I see it. And I have seen photos on many blogs showing markets that are ten or hundred times bigger and more sumptuous than ours. Of course, since farming is not that easy so far north. But I like what you can get on this market and all the others around. The people above, from Hognamat, have produces sausage from musk ox, and salami from sheep and deer, among other meats.

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My favorite sour cream (rømme) I buy from this man, when he is in town. He has goats and 8 cows from almost extinct Norwegian breeds. The graze in the mountains during summer and the produce from Brubekken Gardsmeieri is organic and also from non-pasteurised milk. The latter is quite unnormal in Norway. The sweet and brown goat cheese is typically Norwegian, they don’t even make this in Sweden.

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Svein Håpnes from Skånaliseter Gardsysteri is producing 20 different kinds of cheese. They are all made from pure goat milk. These are also highly recommended.

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Knut Garshol and Klippfiskbutikken is from Kristiansund, the capital of bacalao. His family have worked with this dry and salted fish for 120 years, and he certainly is an expert. He is even making the peculiar, Norwegian speciality, lutefisk, from bacalao. I got some, and I must say it was even better than the regular lutefisk. On the picture below are the two guys producing meat and salamis from wild deer and the old, Norwegian sheep. Cheerful people like all of them. It seems both the sellers and the customers are happy on this market, and I recommend all to use a local market when possible. There are some more photos in my Julemarkedet photo gallery.

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70 thoughts on “I love locally produced food”

  1. Bente , wspaniałe zdjęcia, wspaniała inicjatywa.
    Bente chciałam u Ciebie kupić zdjęcia Twojego psa, ale bardzo mi przykro nie mam tylu pieniędzy.
    Może kiedyś będzie mnie stać…….
    Bardzo, bardzo serdecznie Cie pozdrawiam i życzę w 2014 Roku Dużo Fantastycznych Zdjęć i Duuuużo Pieniędzy i Szczęścia.

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    1. Witaj Maria, i dziękuję za miły komentarz. Czy uważają Państwo, kupując zdjęcie mojego psa, w tym przypadku to kosztuje bardzo niewiele, jeśli znajdziesz zdjęcia w swojej galerii i kupić tam. Jeśli tak, to wybierz dla Twojego osobistego użytku. Są one około 3,50 złotych za 1 zdjęcie (dla sieci), nieco więcej dla większej sprawy. Mam nadzieję, że rysunek. Mam nadzieję, że masz dobry dzień!

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  3. Very interesting ! —– with your recommendation, I would like to try though, shame
    I can not be there at moment. —– what you failed to tell us was, “unique to Norway
    — even not in Sweden” or last breed etc —– “Why” ?
    Is the taste too peculiar (or too disgusting to other people) or the productivity was too low ?
    Here in England, Goat Cheese is a regular item though it seems all of them from Greek,
    Eastern Europe etc and (as far as I know) I didn’t see it from Norway — Why ?

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    1. Hi Yoshi. I am not sure why the brown goat cheese in unique to Norway. The productivity is quite big, because so many Norwegians use this cheese on bread for breakfast, and even lunch (we eat bread even then). Maybe because it is not a real cheese, since it is made from whey, not the original cheese substance. There are a lot of variety, and some are mixed with cow milk or cream. About the normal white goat cheese, we have many now, but most are made by local craftsmen on the farms, few are from the industry, maybe they were unpopular for some decades? Now we also import a lot of cheese, like feta etc., etc.

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  9. Love the pictures of your local markets, especially the bread( I am a bread baker myself). If you are ever in Oregon in the spring or summer check out our farmers markets.

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    1. I am also a bread maker, sometimes, but I guess you try some very interesting ancient recipies or ingredients sometimes. Oregon markets in spring, yes, I must cross my fingers for an opportunity some time.

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      1. Thanks for the comment! If you ever see your way to Oregon, let me know.
        I’m so pleased to meet another bread baker. I have had the chance to make some interesting breads with ancient grains,most of which I had to recreate the recipe from nothing but ingredients.

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  13. Very nice Bente. We bought our Yule-dinner at the farmer’s market in Oslo. A big piece of reindeer stake. I deboned it and cut it into pieces (it was around 4.2 kg all together). We ate Rudolph for both Yule and New Years! 😀

    We’ve always loved the farmers market. It’s one of few places that you get to buy high quality stuff. Plus: you don’t need to pay the greedy middle men from any of the 4 chains that are running the food market in Norway.

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    1. I agree with you on most of this, Guzman. And reindeer would be my favorite meat 364 days in a year (I don’t eat it as often though), but for Christmas dinner my favorite is lutefisk. I guess you know what fish I mean, even if everybody living outside Scandinavia don’t…

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  16. These Norwegian markets would be my paradise. I love those sweet, brown goat cheese. We can buy it here in the supermarket, too. But I prefer to buy it on a Norwegian Alp. So delicious. And I remember eating pultost while my last holdidays in Norway. It was nice, too. On Rennebumartnan some years ago, we tasted Gomme and bought immediately some. It was so great. And I found some recipes how to make some in my Norwegian cookbook. So I’ll try it soon. And you can’t imagine how I miss Rømme here in Germany. Moskus pølse must be very good. I ate once moskus paté. It was to die for. And I would love to buy some klipfisk on a market….. I’m hungry now. 🙂
    Ha en riktig god helg!! 😀

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  24. You have a really amazing market. There are local markets in France but all the produce is not always local. Often they are just merchants who sell goods from mobile vans rather than shops and set up their pitch in a different market everyday.

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  28. I completely agree that buying local food is not only better for the community, it generally tastes better! A lot of times there’s less processing and (yuk) chemicals in them. Hmm. lutefish huh… That I may not try. Ha! I love that everyone looks so happy there, I have to come visit before I croke.😉

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  30. Once again, you take our breath away with your lovely pictures. So evocative of a time when going food shopping was still fun. The food they sell in supermarkets never seems to taste of anything and there’s always this horrible sterile atmosphere with flickering neon lights and awful background music. This looks such a great day out, for vendors and buyers:) Thanks for sharing with us.

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  32. Ahhhh! The breads and cheeses! I love Farmer’s Markets. We have one here in our town from May through November. It is my favorite place to shop during the months. Great shots, bente. Gives me a warm feeling, even from such a cold climate. 😉

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  35. I enjoyed looking at your photos! I always love to go to food markets whenever I’m visiting a new city. Not only do they have the best food, but you get to meet with so many interesting people!

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  38. Mmmm….the bread, the cheeses, the smiling faces and the sour cream man (his stall is so neat and tidy, well laid out…I like that), forget the meat (for me anyway). A lovely supper …. that’s all you need, and a glass of lovely pinot noir red wine to complement it. When are you preparing supper, bente?

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  40. I’m glad I read this post just before supper. I’m now starving. I agree, locally-produced food is the best. I used to live a few blocks from the year-round farmers’ market in Edmonton, Canada. I loved being able to buy fresh food and get to know the producers. Beautiful shots. I would love to come visit your market. Now, I’m off to eat some locally-caught Lake Winnipeg fish 🙂

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  41. Great post. Makes me want to head back to Norway immediately!

    It is one of the great things about traveling to me. There are so many local foods that just don’t leave the local area. So, traveling is the only way to get them.

    I did find baccala recently to include in a holiday menu. I was curious about why this typically-northern specialty was also popular in southern Europe. So I did some research. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was introduced by the Vikings 🙂

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  43. When I was a teenager on Long Island (New York) in the 1960s, there was a cheese shop a few miles from home, and my family used to try cheeses from various countries. One that I remember very well from Norway is gjetost, which is caramelized and therefore sweet, and therefore also unlike any cheese I’d ever had.

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  44. Jeg havde ellers lige spist frokost, og nu er jeg sulten igen 🙂
    Du har ret, Bente. Lokale produkter bliver kendt i lokalsamfundet og anbefalet imellem folk. Som producent er du tættere på kunderne, og det tror jeg, giver nye ideer og hurtigere ændringer, hvis der er ‘skønhedsfejl’ i produktet. Desuden giver det god mening at fødevarerne ikke skal fragtes over lange afstande.
    Dejlige billeder af hyggelige folk, 😀
    Hanna

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  48. Hurrah for locally produced food! The market there looks wonderful. I had some venison salami for supper last night, produced right here on this farm. 🙂

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  50. Vilken härlig, inspirerande och charmig marknad! Ja visst är närproducerat speciellt(gott)!
    Saknar god brunost i Sverige. Får alltid ta med i bagaget. (Misvaer är favorit)
    Varma inbjudande bilder av högsta klass!
    Kleeeeeeem o allt gott till dej!

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  53. Nothing quite like local food – and one of the great joys of travelling 🙂 I keep looking at our local markets but never ‘see’ a picture – you’ve done a great job here!

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