Kristine grew up as a farm girl on Skarbø. Here she became very fond of cows, mountains and her village, and also felt a great desire to explore the world. At the age of 16, she got a golden opportunity to spend a year in Tokyo, and later studied at NMBU, which led to a PhD in anthropology in Georgia, the USA. As a student and researcher, she had the opportunity to live in many places around the world. Along the way she met Carlos, and when they lived in Medellin, Colombia, they decided to return to Norway and become farmers on Stranda.

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 can be found on the staff of Stranda municipality.

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.