On the Skarbø Farm, our passion is truly sustainable food production. We want to share this passion through creating memorable experiences.
Kristine grew up as the Skarbø odelsjente – the girl to inherit the farm. She grew fond of cows, mountains and her home town, but also became quite curious of the world at large. At sixteen, she had the golden opportunity to spend a year in Tokyo, and later studies and work brought her around the world, culminating in a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Georgia, USA. On the way she fell in love with Carlos, and living together in the metropole of Medellin, Colombia, they decided to head back to Norway and the family farm.
Carlos comes from Andalucia, Spain. He grew up in the city, but has roots on the Granada coast and Sierra Nevada, where several relatives are farmers. His family always cultivated grapes and made their own wine, and filled their city garden with chicken, vegetables, avocado and citrus trees. In holidays Carlos and his siblings took part in small and big adventures in the Granada countryside with their grandparents, and his family still keeps goats and cattle grazing in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Carlos became an engineer, and when not on the farm, he works in the municipal administration of Stranda.
Skarbø is among the older farms of the area, and people have lived and cultivated the land here for more than a thousand years. The farm stretches from the fjord and up to the summer farm (seter) Smørhola in the mountain right above. Down from the hills runs the Skarbø river, dividing the forests and fields in two, and forming the farm’s name: Skar bø means cut field. One fine day in the 1870s, great grandfather Rasmus Skarbø was working down on Storåkeren (“the big field”), below the farmstead. As he worked the soil, he found a sword from the Viking Age.
It is with deep respect that we think back at our forefathers and -mothers, who for centuries sustained and were sustained from the very same land that we today care for and live off. Day by day, year by year, generation by generation, they steadily made the land more fertile, laying the foundation for our use of fields, forests and pastures. We hope that for millennia to come, future generations can continue to live and grow food here, and therefore do our best to continue the legacy of farming in a holistic and integrative manner, in harmony with the local landscape and all that is alive.
History
Farm life
Skarbø is always bustling with activity. Our goal is for both people and cattle to have a good time. The farm is, as it has always been, a family project, and we are three generations working together. We have twenty handsome dairy cows, a herd of heifers and calves, seven hens and a rooster, the barn cat Siri and the house cat Mina Bella. In addition to lots of fresh grass, we grow fruit and berries, vegetables and potatoes, and then we forage in the forest and fish in the fjord.
Enjoying untraveled food is a great joy in farm life. In spring we work the soil and sow new seeds. In the summer it is full speed ahead, with cultivation, mowing and grazing, both on the hills around the farm and on the moors in the mountain above us. In the fall, it's time to harvest and press and juice and salt and pickle. We think we are lucky to drink fresh milk, and we like to make our own milk products. Now we want to share this joy with you, and have therefore started making cheese, must and cider on a slightly larger scale.