The farm at Hjuksebø

I trained as an engineer at Televerket, the old Norwegian telecom service. Since then I have worked in telecommunications and later in quality assurance in Kongsberg, so I have no professional background in food.

The interest comes from my two grandmothers, born just before and just after 1900. They cooked before there was electricity and fridges, and I loved being in the kitchen with them. That is where my interest in traditional Norwegian food began: cooking with what we can grow here, and preserving food so it keeps through the winter.

I have always had trouble with my stomach, and wondered whether my diet played a part. Many years ago I read an article in Aftenposten about fermented food and fermented cabbage. I made it, and it worked, but I did not think it tasted very good and did not know how to use it. The jar stayed in the fridge.

Then I met Freddy, who had eaten it growing up. My sister went on a course with a neighbour who made something like today's kimchi. So I made my own and adjusted the ingredients until I liked it. That was around 2010 or 2011.

At a lunch at work I mentioned that I make Norwegian kimchi. A colleague tasted it and wanted to buy some, so I started making a little more.

In late summer 2019 I stood at the market square in Bø together with a neighbour. It was the first time I sold to a larger crowd.

In January 2020 we joined the REKO ring Midt-Telemark in Bø. Then came covid, but REKO was allowed to carry on, with plenty of distance and face masks. Skien followed that spring, Porsgrunn after the summer, and later Kongsberg and Notodden.

The first shop to sell our jars was Life helsekost on Tuven in Notodden. Since then many farm shops have asked, and today the jars are in many of them. Three catering companies in Telemark use three of the products in a lefse roll where every ingredient is from Telemark.

We have used organic ingredients from the very beginning. Residues of pesticides could affect how the bacteria behave, and we want a clean fermentation.

Everything on the smallholding is organic, with no pesticides and no artificial fertiliser. The products are Debio certified, and so are the fruit garden, the berry garden and the vegetable garden.

We do not grow the cabbage ourselves. We use several hundred kilos a year, and one bad harvest would leave nothing to sell, so we leave that to professional growers. Most of it is bought locally in Notodden. Organic red cabbage is harder to find, and we are working on getting growers nearby to grow it for us from the 2027 season. The labels are printed at Notodden Trykk, and the work clothes come from the same place.