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| Living the high life in Norway (Spring 2007) |
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These Norwegian homesteaders keep history alive in the mountains
By Dennis McClintic
Perched on a ledge high above a fjord on Norway’s west coast is a mountain farm that has been inhabited since the Viking era. Called Ytste Skotet, this 10-acre farmstead is being run today as a demonstration farm to instill a sense of rural heritage in the nation’s urban residents by giving them hands-on experience of what life was like for their farming forebearers.
Only 3.2% of the land in Norway is farmed. Most of the rural residents running those farms live on small acreages and work off-farm jobs, similar to the lifestyles of many Homestead readers. The farmsteads tend to be scattered around the countryside, many in remote areas, making it difficult for landowners to run efficient operations. Adding to their challenges, farm incomes no longer compete with wages from the steadily growing oil and gas sectors. As a result, more and more farms are consolidating and young Norwegians are losing a connection to their past.
Ottar Longva, a government and agricultural advisor in the nearby town of Alesund, says Norwegians believe it is very important for their children to gain an appreciation of what life was like in Norway in the past.
“What is very special about a place like Ytste Skotet is it is so close to the modern Norway,” Longva says, “but in the way of living, it is very far away. Life on this farm is how many Norwegians’ grandfathers and grandmothers lived years ago, but the children rarely know anything about that until they come to this farm.”
The non-electric farmstead is made up of a farmhouse, barn, granary, hay-storage sheds, and various other outbuildings. The restored farm buildings lie in an idyllic alpine meadow setting overlooking a spectacular fjord, which is defined as a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes. The Storfjord that lies below leads to several scenic places with World Heritage status. In fact, National Geographic Traveler magazine selected these Norwegian fjords as the world’s best nature-based travel destination in 2004.
Tough travel
Getting to this isolated mountain gem isn’t easy. You have to board a boat in Dyrkorn and ride across the fjord. After being dropped off at a well-worn and weathered guest dock, you briskly hike up a very steep sheep and goat trail for about a half-hour. Along the trail, you’ll observe lots of ferns and fauna as well as two huts that were used decades ago to store leaves and alpine grass as supplemental winter feed for livestock housed at the farm above.
At top, a cheerful Ronnaug Bjorlykke greets schoolkids, local visitors, and foreign tourists who come to tour and experience the farm. Her mother, Brit, and brother, Rasmus, help with guests and meal preparation. Meals often include a traditional sour-cream porridge, dried reindeer meat, cheeses, and flat bread. Drinkable water comes from a nearby river where all are welcome to bathe. Schoolkids come here to experience how their ancestors lived in pre-industrial times,” Ronnaug says. “They use old methods to harvest hay, gather vegetables, cook with wood stoves, and tend to pigs, sheep, and horses. If they choose to stay all night, they can sleep in wooden beds inside the house or sleep in the hay mow out in the barn. Last year we had about 3,000 visitors.”
Bjorlykke lives on the farm from May through September, and moves in town during the winter off-season when the farm is vacant. The farm is now owned by the Friends of Stor-fjord Foundation, which sources funding from the regional community and government to maintain the facility. Most of the maintenance work is done by volunteers. “Working at Ytste Skotet, I’ve learned not to take things for granted that surround us in our daily life like electric power,” Bjorlykke says. “I’ve also learned to calm down and not stress out trying to make things go faster. At a place like this, everything takes more time to do than with modern conveniences. I’ve also learned to live without a shower. A bath in the river is really refreshing!”
Long history
According to Bjorlykke, Skotet was first settled around the year 1000. The farm is mentioned in Snorri’s “Kings’ Sagas,” a history book familiar to Norwegians. Although life was never easy at Ytste Skotet, it was a productive and self-sustaining mountain farm since Viking times. It is considered one of the best grain-producing farms in the entire Stordal region. Norway recently celebrated its 1,000-year anniversary and Ytste Skotet was chosen as a millennium destination because of its cultural significance.
The last farm family to work the land for a living was Oluf and Karoline Skotte with the help of their three children Ole Andreas, Olav, and Jenny. The Skottes bought the farm in 1905 for $462. Oluf died in 1944 and Karoline kept the farm running until 1954 with the help of Olav and Jenny. Olav recalls some of his early days on the farm. “We typically had four or five cows, 20 goats, and eight sheep. Not a very big operation. When we moved it was not because the capacity of the farm had diminished, but primarily because the Norwegian society was transforming itself forcing everyone living on the outskirts to move. I will admit difficulties arose on farms like ours because school children had to be away from home most of the school year. We also knew if we were going to stay on at Ytste Skotet a new house would have to be built, so we decided to move.”
Hard work
“Ole Andreas was the first to move away from the farm,” Olav continues. “When he began building his house in Orskog, we used some pine trees in our woods. The way down to the sea from our farm was a steep and difficult trail. We used a gasoline-powered winch to slide the logs down to the next farmstead, and from there down to the sea. The first year we let the lumber float to Solnor, and the second year to Glomset. Many times mountain farm life was a lot of hard work, but we also had many good times.”
Jenny says she fondly remembers her youth when her family took the lengthy trips over the top of Skotet mountain, where her farm was located, to visit relatives and friends. She was allowed to play with two other young girls on the other side of the mountain - folks that she called her neighbors.
Living in some of Norway’s most hidden and remote locations, people from mountain farms placed great value on the rare times they spent together socializing. One big social event was the Christmas banquet held every year at one of the shoreside farms. Families would row across the fjord to attend, often biting lips as salty spray from oars wet their faces.
“We would meet at Stordal church for a sermon and then go to a shoreside farm for a feast,” recounts Oskar Johan, who grew up on a Skotet mountain farm. “Guests arrived around noon and the meal was served soon after. We played all sorts of games and held a dance that lasted into the wee hours. It was desirable to have Christmas beer at these parties. The young men would grind malt in water mills. Everyone would stay overnight, so hosts prepared quite a few beds all over the floor. One year a winter storm set in and guests couldn’t leave for a full three days.” Oskar’s brother, Hjalmar, is the only one of his six siblings who still lives the simple life on Skotet mountain. “I have stuck with this place mostly because the others moved away,” he says. “I thought it would be a shame to let this farm become abandoned. I’ve been farming it for 27 years now. Like the people running the farm at Ytste Skotet, my wife and I will try to continue this rich mountain farming tradition. It’s a lifestyle that’s worth passing on to future generations.”
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