Turf Houses 101

With packs in tow, the group ambled up a farm road, an hour from Solheimar, to a little turf house where we would be staying the night. Hannes, our turf house expert, and his lovely wife Christine welcomed us with coffee, homemade fry bread, and chocolate cake, the first of many opportunities to enjoy some wonderful Icelandic home cooking.

While we sipped coffee, and heard a quick overview on the weekend’s activities we had a chance to admire the beautiful room where we would be staying that night. Originally built in the 1800s as part of Hannes family’s farm, he and his brother had rebuilt the place after several decades of neglect. The interior walls had been reconstructed from the original planks of driftwood collected over a hundred years ago. The beds, only a little longer than five and a half feet long, were covered in knitted quilts, and hand carved bowls, spoons, and figurines lined shelves above our heads. I asked Hannes if groups often came to stay in this turf house, and we were all surprised when he told us that other than the CELL Maymester group, no one had ever stayed here before. The house will actually be turned into a museum next summer after the completion of the exhibition hall that is being built down the road.

Hannes shared with us a little about his childhood growing up on the farm and how many generations had lived in the room where we were sitting. He pointed to one bed and said that at least a dozen of his ancestors had been born and several, including his grandmother, had died in that very spot.

After we had settled in a little Christine asked for some help harvesting salad greens for dinner, and Michelle and I were treated to a tour of a garden full of lettuces, mustards, and rhubarb. Another garden on a different part of the property held potatoes, carrots and turnips, and a third was full of arugala and other tasty greens. We then had a chance to tour the buildings and take a look at the projects we would be helping out with the next day. The complex had several buildings all built into a single hill to keep everything warm and snug through the long Icelandic winters. We could all see how practical that was as we stood outside in some of the coldest and windiest weather we’ve experienced thus far in Iceland. In addition to the house where we were staying, there was a workshop, a fish drying shed, a small stable for two horses, a forge, and an outdoor kitchen, which Hannes said was one of the oldest of it’s kind. He described it as a true iron age structure.

While touring inside the new building for the museum we got to see a few of the artifacts that it will hold, including some scythe blades used for cutting turf. The large windows, which Hannes has designed to capture passive solar energy, gave us the perfect viewing area to enjoy a brief, but intense hail storm. Then it was off to enjoy some more of Christine’s fabulous cooking. Fresh salad was followed by a traditional fish soup and homemade bread (courtesy of Hannes and our very own Caleigh) and ended with bowls of Icelandic moss in warm milk and honey. Christine had collected the moss herself close by and said it was an old Viking remedy that would keep us healthy. Dinner was followed by a slideshow and lecture on traditional turf houses: history, building techniques, and regional differences in architectural designs. One particularly interesting bit was seeing how one farmhouse had changed over time to suit the needs of its inhabitants. Because turf houses need to be rebuilt once or twice every generation, adding, removing, and remodeling are fairly common. Before heading off to bed, several of us who were working on knitting projects had the opportunity to ask Christine for advice, which was very helpful. She even demonstrated the proper Icelandic technique for us, which I certainly have not mastered yet.

The next morning, we were given a lesson in how to build a turf wall which requires arranging a number of volcanic stones in a flat and sturdy layer, packing them with earth, and then adding a layer of turf on top. This is then repeated until the wall is a sufficient height. One team worked on a wall at the front of the house while the other worked to repair a wall of the kitchen damaged in the last major earthquake. Two lucky boys even got to drive out to the turf field on the tractor and help cut the fresh turf we needed for the walls. The afternoon was clear and sunny, although a bit nippy and windy.

Wall building went very well on the whole, although most of us felt that we didn’t work hard enough to deserve all of the wonderful food that poured out of Christine’s kitchen. A delicious lunch was followed only an hour or two later by pancakes with whipped cream and homemade rhubarb jam! We were all very full and very happy when we left on our little turquoise bus late that Sunday. We all hope that the museum opening goes well for Hannes and Christine, and I would suspect that more than one of us is trying to figure out how they can construct a turf house for themselves back home.

~Laura

Photos by Meg