Tomato Soup in Iceland
- Sharon Konwinski
- Aug 6
- 3 min read
A Recipe for Adventure
Picture this........
Tomato harvesting is complete. Your tomatoes have been stewed, boiled, canned, pasted, and even frozen. The kitchen is clean, except for a few random splash spots.
This has been a labor of love and now it’s time to sit down and enjoy your self-proclaimed status as an expert on tomato everything. Tomorrow morning there will be time to search up recipes for tomato soup and tonight your plan is to wash some celery in preparation for a well-deserved Bloody Mary
HMM…check those thoughts. Is there something you need to do before this tomato season is complete? The answer is yes. Don’t overthink this and don’t brush this thought off. Inexpensive plane tickets to Iceland are easy to purchase online. During your Icelandic visit, enjoy world renowned tomato soup while sitting at a table in a beautifully arranged greenhouse. This is what I did.
I had lunch in one of the nine greenhouses owned and operated by Knútur Rafn Ármann and his wife Helena Hermundardóttir. Froheimar is the name of their business. The natural and relaxing environment of this greenhouse restaurant is by design, the restaurant is only a part of a multi-faceted farming system that they have grown since 2002, through vision and demanding work.
Froheimar supplies Iceland with 18% of the country’s tomatoes. They harvest 370 tons of tomatoes each year. Approximately 24 tons of the tomatoes have imperfections. The imperfect tomatoes are pureed into pasta sauces, or chutney. I wish I would have tried the tomato ice cream made from imperfect tomatoes.
Their farming and restaurant systems have sixty full-time employees. Froheimar provides low-cost staff houses for their full-time staff. Seasonal workers stay in the campers that are scattered throughout a huge green field. Our server was a full-time employee, she and her boyfriend moved to Iceland from Belgium. She spoke with us in fluent English. I learned that most everyone in Iceland speaks English.
While this business and its growth are remarkable. There is another part of their story that commands respect. The business has continued to develop in an environmentally friendly way. They are committed to using green energy, pure water, and organic pest controls. Tomatoes are 90% water and the water used to grow them at Frioheimar is filtered spring water. Because of the lava rocks filtering Iceland’s rivers, it is not unusual to fill water bottles in their rivers. I stood inside a glacier and drank the clean melting water from its walls.
Their business belongs to a group of horticultural farmers in Iceland who own the Horticulturists’ Sale Company (SFG), which sells and distributes horticultural products. SFG uses carbon-neutralized transportation thereby contributing to binding soil and reducing soil erosion in Iceland and carbon in the air.
Recognizing the need for carbon neutrality is not new for Iceland. They have been harvesting renewable energy for more than a century. Iceland is aiming for a balance of omitting carbon and absorbing carbon by 2040. A hundred percent of Iceland’s electric and house-heating needs are now being met by renewables.
Trolls are a part of Iceland’s folklore. Their landscapes are scattered with lava rocks and according to stories passed down over generations, some of the rocks come alive as trolls. These rocks look like troll statues, and they have troll names.
Iceland is magical. Tourism is high and the people share their island home and their climate worries with tourists. They have conducting funerals for their melting glaciers.
When you are enjoying your tomato soup in my favorite Icelandic greenhouse, you will be to captured in experiencing this magical place to think about your kitchen cupboards at home. Your soup will be awaiting you for our long dark winter ahead. Well not so long and not so dark. Iceland has less than 5 hours of day light each day in January.
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