2018 ICELAND Reykholt 21 - Tomato Land Plus

Today was a leisurely get up. It was a gray day, but no precipitation. Breakfast was on our own. Mike and I enjoyed oranges and cream cheese on toasted naan bread. We had no plans til a noon lunch reservation at the "tomato farm."

Notes: Meal reservations are recommended here. And, lots of photos on this one, as this place was trés fascinating, but most pix appear yellow-ish because of lighting in the greenhouse.

We left the apartment near 10:00. Destination today was Fridheimar Greenhouse near Reykholt. Their greenhouse is about the size of a football field (50,000 square feet).

They grow mainly tomatoes, but also some cucumbers, basil, and a few flowers for personal use by the owner. Lunch is served right in the greenhouse.

Outside was clear but chilly. Inside was comfortably warm from the geothermal energy used in the heating system. It allows growth of tomatoes year-round. It is also used to sterilize the soil mixture. 

The bore hole for the water well is about 200m (219 feet) away. Water temp is 95c (203f) when it comes to them. They use about 100,000 tons of water per year. The electricity consumed here is equivalent to use in 3,000 houses.

We arrived a little early, but they seated us fo, maybe a preserved tomato vine.

There were also lines of tables set up for the tour bus groups. Lucky us, just four.

We had a very nice waitress named Natalia from Moldavia. She wore cute little cat ears. How did she know at least two of us were cat people. Natalia gave us a quick description of the operation. Wish I would have had a recorder to collect all the details.

As you can see we were surrounded by tall organic grown tomato plants. They grow mainly four varieties from cherry to Big Boy size. Guys worked adjusting lights and skeins of plastic "string" (white cylinder-looking things).

They moved around on lifts or a rail system between rows with seats (so they did not have too bend over so much) or baskets for gathering.

Because of its geographic and isolated location, there are fewer pests and diseases. Bumble bees (not honey bees) are imported from Amsterdam to pollinate the plants. Bumbles are less aggressive. There are about 600 bees at a time and they visit up to 2,000 flowers a day.

The heating system is connected to an Internet weather station, so temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (used in photosynthesis and plant growth), and lighting are automatically controlled. Additional computerization for watering and fertilizer blending makes every day the perfect day to grow a tomato.
Here is what the potting systems looks like. Volcanic materials are used in the growing medium.Main stems were maybe two inches wide. 


We were surrounded by tomato plants, as far as the eye could see.

Eighteen percent of the island's tomatoes are grown here and every one is perfect.

OK, now for the delicious food and lovely presentation. Each item on the menu had tomato incorporated somewhere in the recipe, including dessert and sipping water (cherry tomatoes in carafe and glasses). Here are the drink and food menus. 

We started with a Bloody Mary. Natalia warned us that it would be on the sweet side because their tomatoes were sooooo sweet. And she was right. It was a little too sweet for my taste.

Then they invited us to the soup stand, for a helping of their famous tomato soup. It was self-serve and all you could slurp.

On each table was a huge basil plant and multi-bladed herb scissors. You could pick a few leaves and shear them up to top the soup.

As soon as we got home, Mike ordered a pair for us. He got the deluxe model with four blades on each side and a little cleaner tool.

On the soup table was an all-you-can-eat bread stand. This is the most spectacular display of bread we have ever seen (that includes Italy). There were at least five kinds--plain, green olive, pepper, fennel, pumpkin seed, and maybe more. All big beautiful loaves. My favorite was the olive. We had several infused oils for dipping at our table.

 

Bakers from the back room continually passed by our table with new loaves of freshly-baked warm bread wafting yeast aromas into the air. Our mouths were watering, but our tummies were full.

Mike and I were going to order a "tortilla" for each of us, but Natalia said to share. She was absolutely right. We took half to go after stuffing ourselves with soup and bread.

After the meal we waddled our way down an aisle that let us see all the tomato rows. There were lots of signs to education us on the operation. At one point we ran across the owner giving a description to a bus group. We could have listened, but instead continued on our own.

At the check-out was a variety of tomato products you could purchase, as well as fresh tomatoes. With our very full bellies, we just couldn't think of buying more food in any form.

In the stables out back, we had the opportunity to see more Icelandic horses up close. Just can never get enough of them. Two were nuzzling, one was taking a dirt bath, and one was getting a taste off a salt lick. Just too cute! In the summer they offer horse shows in 14 languages, but we were happy to observe and give a few pets.

2018 ICELAND Golden Circle 20 - Ancient Places

We had a second chance to find Pingvellir (pronounced thing-vet-leer). The name means Parliament Fields. It is a protected national shrine of Icelanders, a nature preserve, and a UNESCO site. After originally settling in Iceland about 870, this area became the site of the oldest parliament in the world in the year 930.

As I said previously, it is not a building. The Alpingi (name of the parliament) met here outdoors until 1779. An official building was finally erected in 1881 Reykjavik.

Major decisions were made at this historic site, such as chieftains deciding that Icelanders would convert to Christianity. Also, in 1262 it was decided to give up their independence to Denmark and seven centuries later in 1944 to take back their independence.

It is said that the chieftains would gather on a higher elevation and the peoples would gather below them when decisions were made. Honestly, we saw no specific signs in the park and we could not pinpoint the exact location. Google Pingvellir and you often get this view over the Öxará River, but I'm not really sure if this is "the place."

More interesting to me was the location where two tectonic plates split and continue to drift apart. One is the North American plate which appears to be higher in most places and the shorter Eurasion plate. So technically Iceland straddles two continents!!! There are also two viewing areas. We saw the lower one first.

You had to walk quite a way from the parking lot up a pathway. It was icy so we had to take our time, but the phenomenon was soooo interesting and worth the walk. Steps leads up to a T in the path.

See the tall North American plate in the back above and here.

At the top take a left or right to follow a path between the plates. The left seemed a little more icy.

We took a right.

We explored that for a while and returned to the car. Then we drove around to the higher viewing point. There was a small visitor center and gift shop there. We found we could take steps down to the lower area, but we had already seen that.

This is a view of where we were at the lower level.

You can see the split here near the mid toward upper right. The Öxará River flowing into Pingvellir Lake.

More views of the split. Some wide and some narrow. The rift moves 3mm (about a tenth of an inch) annually.

Also saw some interesting fossils, or maybe rolls of lava. This is a close-up.

After that we turned toward home. Mike and I went shopping at the little grocery store.

I needed some "American" food, so baked up a frozen pizza in our oven. It was actually pretty good and hit the spot. Mike stuck on a roast beef sandwich and Skyr.

We relaxed the rest of the evening. Watching a little TV--Mash rerun, NCIS, news (thank goodness only a little on Trump). Was grateful for that break. Jotted a few blog notes before hitting the hay.

2018 ICELAND Golden Circle 19 - An Awesome Foss

Our next Golden Circle stop was Golden Falls or Gull Foss. Although it was a very cold and windy day, the foss was awesome and not to be missed. The water flow is anywhere from 109 to 2000 cubic meters per second, or can fill 60+ transportation containers per second. There have been times when the flow was so great that the sides of the gorge overflow...if you can imagine!

At one point in time, some thought to harness its power and convert to it to electricity. With much protest, I'm glad they came to their senses. The State acquired the foss in 1940 and it has been on the State preservation list since 1979.

When we arrived, there were probably 20 full-size tour buses and many more small vans parked among two lots. Again, so glad we were on our own.

There are two viewing areas. Here's pix from the higher spot. You can see how windy it was, but we could not feel the spray this far away.

Closer look. This time of year the foss was half frozen over and half gushing water.
It is not as wide as Niagara Falls between Canada and the US, but more "stair steps" of flowing water. Looked like there was a hiking trail down to an area much closer to the waters, but we sure weren't venturing there today.

The foss flowed into this river which seemed mostly frozen from this view. At mid-right, see the lower viewing area.

We were pretty cold and wind-blown, so decided to warm up in the visitor center. They had a gift shop with clothing (if you needed extra layers), local Icelandic goods, and a very nice cafeteria. The big feature was lamb stew, but I had my usual tomato-mozz sandwich. The others had tomato soup with ham and cheese or beef sandwiches. All was delish!

After warming up, we checked out the lower viewing area.

Some folks had hiked way further down to take photos. Must have had a fabulous view from there.

The wind seemed more fierce here and coming from a different angle. We were glad to have a barrier to hang on to, otherwise we would have toppled into the river.

At departure we found the circle road was closed due to winter road conditions, so we had to return back the way we came. Along the way, we saw more horses with their long tails and manes, and hairy legs and chins. And more horse candy dispensers.