Cattle owners at farm Holtssel in Eyjafjördur, northeast Iceland, have started to produce boutique ice cream at home.
“We wanted to try something new,” farmer and ice cream manufacturer Gudmundur Jón Gudmundsson told Fréttabladid. He and his wife, Gudrún Egilsdóttir, got the idea from an ad in a British farming magazine from Dutch ice cream company Farmhouse.
“Farmhouse uses as much home produced ingredients as possible,” Gudmundsson explains. “We gave them a call and they invited us over for a visit.”
Farmhouse provides the couple with flavorings and recipes. The Holtssel ice cream is sold in the stores of supermarket chain Nóatún as well as in retail store Heilsuhúsid in Akureyri. It is also served at a few restaurants in Iceland.
Gudmundsson and Egilsdóttir make the ice cream themselves with the assistance of two Swedish girls who live and work at their farm.
“Italian sorbet with strawberry or raspberry flavor is my favorite,” Gudmundsson says. “Everyone should find a flavor to their liking. We even sell ice cream for diabetics,” Gudmundsson adds.
The Holtssel ice cream can also be bought at the farm directly. The home produced ice has been so popular that the farmers have problems with keeping up with demand.
This Christmas the company will offer 20 different flavors of ice cream. Ice cream is eaten all year round in Iceland and is a common dessert at Christmas.
Photo by Áslaug Snorradóttir, published in Iceland Review 43.03.
