The family breeds Icelandic horses and hosts shows from May 1st to September 30th, although stable visits are available year-round.įriðheimar is open daily from noon to 4 p.m. Horse lovers should inquire about Friðheimar’s on-site equestrian center. The meals here are simple but memorable, and guests may buy nicely packaged goodies to go: tomato honey, tomato chutney, green tomato jam, etc. To drink: hollowed-out tomatoes filled with Birkir, a bracing birch schnapps. Sitting amongst the plants, you’ll be treated to bowls of steaming-hot tomato soup served with dense black bread (baked in a geyser, no less!), green tomato-and-apple pie, and homemade tomato ice cream. Fridheimar: Loves it - See 768 traveler reviews, 1,002 candid photos, and great deals for Selfoss, Iceland, at Tripadvisor.
Visitors willing to make the scenic hour-long drive from Reykjavík to Selfoss can tour the farm and have lunch at Friðheimar’s tomato-centric café. (Amazingly, every last lumen at Friðheimar is powered by Icelandic geothermal energy.) To pollinate the tomato flowers, the farm looks to its army of 600 bumble bees. In Iceland’s long, dark, unforgiving winter months, the twisting tomato vines bathe under 17 hours of artificial light-about the same amount of electricity used in a town of 3,000 people. Today, they care for 10,000 plants inside a state-of-the-art nursery. The husband-and-wife team bought the property more than 20 years ago but didn’t start growing tomatoes until 2002. Friðheimar is an organic greenhouse founded by agronomist Knútur Rafn Ármann and horticulturist Helena Hermundardóttir. This, no doubt, will only increase tourism and culture in the area.When Iceland is deep in the icy clutches of Old Man Winter, one family-run farm in Selfoss still feels like summer. In 2018, the town announced that it was creating a new town centre, in which it would have reconstructions from historical buildings all around the country. Sports are very popular in the town, most notably football, basketball and handball, largely due to the student population. The town also has the Bobby Fischer Centre, a museum on the life of chess champion his grave is located nearby. Every year it has the Sumar á Selfossi festival, which translates to Summer in Selfoss, which includes a fete, musical performers, and an evening bonfire. Selfoss is a cultural hub in the southwest. The same geological forces that threaten the town, however, also provide opportunity for it, as the activity in the area means that the greenhouse industry has flourished. In 2008, an earthquake struck the town, damaging roads and buildings, killing a number of sheep, and injuring 30 people. More recently, it has become seen as a desirable place to move for those who want to escape the stresses of city living or raise a family closer to the nature. Its exponential growth over the next decades came from the rise in trade due to the bridge, and the establishment of a large dairy farm and local store which needed employees. The town was small at the beginning of the 20th Century with just around 40 inhabitants. This bridge was so important to the country’s infrastructure and economy that is was guarded by British troops in World War Two, after the Allies invaded Iceland following the fall of its colonial ruler, Denmark, to the Nazis.
More commerce came to the region in 1891, when a suspension bridge was built over the river Olfusa, connecting the agricultural south to the capital. However, it was not permanently settled, according to the Book of Settlements, until just after 1000 AD.īeing inland, Selfoss was an agricultural centre, at a time when most economic centres were the fishing towns (the coastline is 15 kilometres, or nine miles, away). Records of the lands near Selfoss date back to the first man to permanently move to Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson it was said he spent the winter of 873 to 874 AD here, beneath the mountain that overlooks the town, Ingólfsfjall.