Strawberries, Digging, and Bread

The beginning of our workaway: Week 01

We have just finished up our first week in Mosvik, Norway. We are doing a workaway through helpx which means we live with a family and help them in their garden, around the house, and with any other projects they have. It is a family of 4 (Hein, Astrid, Fridtjof, and Frederik). In return we get to live with them, eat their awesome homemade food, and enjoy learning about their way of life.

That night for dinner we feasted on fresh mussels and homemade bread on their back patio.

So far the work has ranged anywhere from super hard, to days off taking walks in the fjord nearby their home. Every morning we pick strawberries from their garden and every morning we get two heaping bowls of strawberries. The strawberries just keep coming which means fresh strawberry jam (honestly the best thing over homemade bread)! The other day we drove just 10 minutes from their home, and hiked a bit to a beautiful secluded lake where we picked mussels…LOTS of mussels. That night for dinner we feasted on fresh mussels and homemade bread on their back patio. Speaking of food we even barbecued whale meat which you can buy in grocery stores here. It tasted like steak and liver mixed together…it was amazing.

Our biggest project has been digging up part of their land and removing all of the large rocks so that the soil is plantable. This has been some HARD work! To go from sitting on our butts all day at our office jobs to having to dig and carry large rocks under hot sun has been a challenge to say the least. It has been nice to be up and moving our bodies though. We are very lucky that another couple from Spain is working with us. They are super awesome and make the digging, picking, and cleaning much more enjoyable.

We have learned how to make an incredible amount of home made goodies. Cream cheese, yogurt, bread, sour dough starters, jam, and most importantly, beer. This past Sunday we spent all day grinding malt, boiling mash, and blending hops to create 120 liters of beer for the tap located in their kitchen. We got to learn first hand about the process that makes one of my favorite drinks. While complex, it is rather simple. All you need is four ingredients (water, malt, hops, and yeast) and a day of your time. After grinding the malt in Hein’s makeshift malt grinder, the sign of a true handyman, we added water of different temperatures to extract the sugars and proteins needed. It was incredible how flavorful the malt was before and how bland it was after the mash extraction process. After this was done, it was brought to a boil, then at various intervals the hops were added to help bring that classic flavor of beer. Then after boiling, the beer was drained into a fermentation tank that was loaded up with the yeast. Now only to wait a few more weeks to let the yeast do it’s job…

We also got to experience beekeeping which is quite the adventure! I donned a full bee suit including gloves and a full protected hat. I still can’t believe I voluntarily put myself that close to that many bees but I guess there is a first time for everything! The bees were incredibly noisy and got very active when we opened their boxes. This is Astrid’s first year beekeeping and she is experimenting to see when she will be able to harvest the honey. It was awesome to see the bees up close while they worked. We even got to spot the queen bee! Although there was no honey yet I am excited to see if we can taste some in the next weeks.

I think our most exciting moment so far was seeing the first northern lights of the season.

I think our most exciting moment so far was seeing the first northern lights of the season. They looked like light green clouds in the sky until we took a long exposure picture. The long exposure picture really made the green color stand out and it was magnificent!

So far it has been a great experience. Time has seemed to flow nicely, melting together into one big sunny and active day. We are loving it all.