In Norway, up until the mid-1800s, we relied on subsistence food storage: ingredients were preserved and stored over long periods. Fish and meat were dried, salted, smoked, and fermented – often using combinations of these methods. Herring is the fish that sustained most lives, at least over the past thousand years. Dairy products from cows – and also goats, sheep, and reindeer – were important parts of the diet: cheese and butter, sour and sweet milk. Barley and oats were common grains, used in flatbread, porridge, and soups.

From the mid-1700s, fishermen in Northern Norway began trading for rye flour with the Russians when they met during the Finnmark fisheries. Wild plants and berries provided access to vitamin C.

Through the 1800s, potatoes began replacing grains. At the same time, a new diet slowly but surely began to spread. Among farmers and coastal fishermen, however – like here at Kvalnes – the subsistence-based diet remained common into the 1970s. A diet based on ingredients that today’s researchers largely recommend.

In our summer restaurant, we continue and develop this way of eating. That means food based primarily on ingredients offered to us by our surroundings – resources people before us have used and prepared in ways we know through personal, oral, and written traditions.

Welcome!