Get Away Summer
— Håøya

In summer, rain or shine, it’s good to be in Håøya. The large and wild island in the middle of the fjord of Oslo is a horn of plenty when comes the foraging o’clock. For the last Get Away of the year, we felt like putting on our hiking boots and go exploring the edible bounty of the season for a campfire dinner between sea and forest.

Håøya has no power supply but, in the summertime, the island is home to a herd of 130 Kashmir goats roaming happy and free amongst the bushes. They belong to Helge, a very charismatic goat farmer whose voice echoes in the forest twice a day when he calls them. They come trotting to the wooden« milking parlour » as he likes to say. The story of Håøya Naturverskted begun when Helge, farmer, Jack-of-all-trades and proud owner of a herd of Kashmir goats, was offered by the Commune of Oslo to leave them grazing on the island during the summer months. The goats have a key role in the process of rewilding the land: they keep vegetation under control and help clearing the hardly accessible zones like cliffs and bushes.

Read full story here.