The Idholmen Farm on Finnhamn

The farm shop is about as far away from a discount warehouse you can get. It is a small nook where summer guests on and around the island buy vegetables, different types of oils and vinegar as well as flowers to decorate their cottages or boat cabins with. "Quite often restaurants and stores on Finnhamn and Svartsö buy their produce from the shop, however it is difficult to reach any large volumes on this small farm", says Martina, if she could only offer produce to the taverns when there is excess production, then there would be considerable volumes to deliver.

Her childhood dream was to operate a large farm.

"When I was 13 years old, I decided to become a farmer and when I was 26 I started studying agriculture. However, it was difficult to afford your own farm near Stockholm, so when I received the offer to lease the farm on Finnhamn there was not much to hesitate about, I took the bait directly. In addition, Finnhamn is one of the few island which is extremely close to the outer archipelago and that means a lot to me", says Martina.

"When I got to the farm in 1990, it had not been farmed fulltime in more than 50 years and was, to say the least, unkept", she says. “Today the farm is highly active with hundreds of hens that live in small mobile homes during the summer, a small number of breeding Aberdeen Angus cows and during the summer I also have pigs that work the garden. Skärgårdsstiftelsen (the Archipelago Foundation), that owns Finnhamn, pays for the maintenance of the farm buildings which were in terrible shape when I moved here, but are now in very good shape”.

The Idholmen Farm is a KRAV-approved farm and is visited by an inspector at least once a year. The inspector makes sure that KRAV-regulations are followed; e.g. that the animals have approved fodder, have sufficiently large areas to move in and have access to pasturage and that no chemical pesticides, artificial fertilizer or gene-manipulated products are use in the manufacturing of the produce.

"It may seem natural not to use pesticides and other expenses on such a small farm, but I still choose to be a member of KRAV to give the customers that security that KRAV-certification gives", explains Martina.

The oil and vinegar sold in the shop are flavoured by Martina personally and are rapidly consumed among all the produce for sale. The shop is always open, but not always staffed - she trusts her customers to place their money in the small box by the cash register.

"We only market ourselves locally as well as on the surrounding islands and are included in Finnhamn's homepage, however the farm is popular and I sell everything I produce. It is difficult to profit from the sales since I only produce at a small scale. I can receive EU-support if I apply for it, which I naturally do, however it is a small sum for a small farm. Farming out here is not primarily about making money, but keeping the countryside open, but I do naturally want to make a profit”.

Skärgårdsstiftelsen (the Archipelago Foundation) currently has approximately 14 farm leaseholds and 30 side-leaseholds which help to keep the countryside open and as in previous times, the grazing animals are transported to nearby islands and islets so that even these are kept open. Without these farmers, the cultural countryside of the archipelago would quickly grow wild and not be as accessible a place that we Stockholmers and other tourists can enjoy all year round.

By: Lisa, editor