-Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following.
-The Stavanger region -- adventurous shores, deep fjords, lively towns, and the iconic Preikestolen.
The Edge of Norway.
-Norwegian Alpinco -- connecting mountain spots, steep slopes, alpine villages, and outdoor activities all year round.
-In Sigdal, Norway, where mountains rise and forests whisper, Anne-Line and Courtney create Norwegian gifts so you can bring a piece of Norway with you.
Nordic Box -- memories from Norway.
- Oh, take me home, take me home where I belong -VGAN Chocolate, Norwegian flavor.
- I can't take it anymore [ Jet engine roaring ] -In this program, Nevada, you're going to show us an area that you're quite familiar with.
What can we expect?
-You can expect amazing food both from land and sea.
The most wonderful people.
So community driven.
And a landscape that's going to take your breath away.
-Stig, have you been here before?
-No, I haven't, but I'm here now.
-And what do you expect?
-I expect great food and hopefully a martini.
-I expect that, too.
-Welcome to "People of the North."
Join me on a journey where we will meet people who live, work and enjoy life right here in the far North.
[ Plane engine roaring ] [ Engine revs ] [ Laughter ] [ Boat horns blows ] I'm taking you to meet the fantastic people of the North.
-I think we just grasped the last part of autumn.
-I do, as well.
-Winter is coming.
-Winter is coming!
-Aukra is a coastal municipality with islands shaped by the sea, welcoming people and thriving local businesses, community activities and rich daily life and bring people together.
Here there is always something to explore, from coastal trails to village life.
Hollingsholm Farm is very special.
Nevada from Utah is of course always ready for a saloon visit with a next generation Western Norway cowgirl, Henrietta.
-Now, this is my kind of saloon because we have food.
-Yeah, we do.
-This looks amazing.
-The local meat that we make, it's the traditional Norwegian fenalar.
-Yeah.
Which is the cured sheep.
-That's right.
And we also make our own flatbread.
This is really nice when you just break up a piece of flatbread and then you dip it into the sour cream.
And... -Is this a lingonberry?
-Yeah.
That's right.
-Yeah.
And then you put the meat on top.
-So good.
-I know.
-So this is your own animals.
-That's right.
-And then the process of fenalar, which is so traditional Norwegian, is that you'll dry, you'll cure it, and then you'll hang it and you put it in a stabbur.
-That's right.
-Which is the traditional food storage house.
-Exactly.
-Is this what you would typically feed guests coming here?
-That's a nice gesture to give to the people that are coming here.
-We love.
We love to have this.
It's a good combination of the saloon, the American saloon, but with very traditional Norwegian.
-Exactly.
Yeah.
-Perfect.
-Herring has been an important source of living at these islands.
One family company is still keeping the tradition alive with a heart for herring.
-Stig and I have been invited to a very special occasion.
Because here at Juvik Herring, the local association of the Norwegian Rural Women have gathered.
-We're having a workshop where we're learning how to prepare herring and how to eat it in different ways.
-And I see you have this fillet here.
Can you show us how to make a traditional herring dish?
-Yeah.
This is a spiced herring.
Traditionally, we divide it into bits like this.
[ Speaking Norwegian ] And then we have just a potato that's boiled.
Peel off the skin if you like, or you can eat it with the skin.
It's up to you.
After that, some sour cream and butter.
Then we have this beetroot.
And on top, a lot of dill.
And this is a traditional way of eating herring in Norway.
-Mm.
Mine was very good.
-I think mine was even better.
[ Laughter ] -And this is what rural women love.
[ Laughter ] All these rural women.
-They do a lot of great work.
And they keep the food traditions in Norway alive.
And we're here to keep them alive and to evolve them, also.
-They are fantastic.
-They are.
They're very important.
-There is more than food that makes Hollingsholm Farm an important community asset.
-We have alternative educational for young kids who somehow doesn't fit into the regular school.
They can try out different work.
-Anyone who needs an alternative type, who maybe don't want to be in school can come here.
And what do they do when they come here?
-Mostly they look out for the animals.
We have two cows and sheeps, and we also have 10 horses.
-Do you have a saloon in the back?
Tell me a bit about the connection and why.
-It's more of an interest, actually.
And then we build a saloon after that.
-I like it.
It's very welcoming.
So this is an old family farm.
-That's right.
It's been in my father's family for about six generations.
From the earliest stage.
It was just for surviving, like in regular Norwegian farm, but the recent years, it has been more of a learning alternative arena, like today.
It's special because you can make the day for someone else more special and meaningful.
Yeah.
-Having a modern day job does not mean that you must give up the inspiring island life and move to the big city.
On this old ferry quay, there's a guy inside here called Hallvard, and he's working with projects all over Norway from this remote place.
Hi, Hallvard.
-Hi.
Welcome, welcome.
-Thank you.
-This was a storage building.
This used to be a ferry terminal for about 50 years ago.
And here they stored all sorts of products that came to the island here.
So there was a lot of stories about this building, what's been here, especially in the Second World War and everything, there was a lot of action going on here.
-And here you work as an architect with projects all over Norway, out in, some would say, the middle of the ocean.
-Exactly.
-And what kind of projects are you working on?
-I work a lot to renovate these old buildings, um, which often have a fantastic view and are located directly next to the ocean.
And this is a big part of my work.
Reinvent old buildings.
The material in these buildings are fantastic because today, you can't get the quality of wood anymore that these buildings are built of.
So this, if it's taken care of, this wood can stand for many, many more years without any problems.
And also the history in the wood that's created over time, things that are maybe scratched into the wood, maybe these patinas that you get over many years.
And this creates a unique atmosphere in the buildings.
-On the northern edge of Aukra, a vast industrial site plays a crucial role in Europe's energy landscape.
Kitty, we are on the northern end of Aukra and here is a big plant -- Nyhamna.
What is produced here?
-So this is a gas processing plant.
We are making gas in from three gas fields in the Norwegian Sea.
It comes here, and then we mix it and we fix it, and then we boost it, and we send it off to UK via a long pipeline called Langeled.
It's almost 800 miles, actually.
And when it was built, it was the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world.
-How much energy do you produce here at Nyhamna?
-Well, it's difficult to use figures and numbers, but say that this is the electricity production from hydro power in Norway like this, then one and a half times more, that's the energy that comes out of Nyhamna.
-Wow.
-And it's quite clean because we use hydro power to run this plant.
So the CO2 footprint is very low.
And by using gas instead, for instance, from Norway, they decrease their CO2 emissions significantly more than the entire emission from Norway.
And they can close their coal plants.
And they recently did that.
The last coal plant in UK was recently shut down.
So this is a really important step toward the low carbon future that we're all heading for.
For many countries, it's a first step.
And then we have to spend time going over to the renewables, but it takes time.
-For more inspiration, visit our website, peopleofthenorth.net.
Stig and I are down at the factory getting hands on experience with the salt making process.
-Shake it.
-Shake it, baby, shake it.
It's very manual, everything.
Fantastic flake salt.
The Norwegian word is "ocean snow."
You figure that out.
One kilo to pounds.
If we worked here, we would have spent the whole day making one bag.
-The salt is from out there.
200 meters out, 80 meters down.
-The entrepreneur behind the idea of pristine salt from Aukra started with an American traveler.
-We were up here on a holiday.
I was looking out at the ocean after fishing, and I thought to myself, why on earth is no one making sea salt in Norway?
It's the most beautiful sea water I've ever seen.
So the next day, I went out and collected water.
I put it into a pot in a crab cooker.
And I made a really terrible batch of salt.
But I was totally hooked.
-I mean, it feels like this is a really amazing area for entrepreneurship.
Did you feel that sense, as well?
-Yes, we have a lot of support from other local businesses on the island, and I think people are surprised by things that are happening in smaller places.
They can't conceptualize of it.
The opportunities that are here have been amazing.
So what we have today is our flake salt, which was the first product that we made.
It took a lot of refinement until I was happy with what I was making, and then getting feedback from chefs, not just from Norway but all over the world is an absolute thrill.
-My goodness, that's amazing.
-When people taste it, I want them to inherently understand that they are tasting a country and a sea.
And so this is a fingerprint of this place.
-But they can also come here and visit you.
-Yes, they can.
-And get a taste and actually get to see exactly where it's coming from.
-Yep.
We love to have people visit us.
And ultimate goal would be to have a small visitor center.
So hopefully somewhere down the road.
Yep.
Good.
-We are on the rugged coast where the sea can get more than rough.
The locals are very familiar with these dramatic waters.
Our host, Per Olav, has a national dramatic story that still touches people out here.
-Hustadvika is probably the most dangerous part of the Norwegian coast.
The length of Hustadvika is 30 nautical miles.
Not so very long, but it's extremely dangerous.
It has been a lot of accidents with boats the last 100, 200 years.
Maybe the most known accident was the Rokta That was a cargo boat heading from the northern part of Norway, Alta, 3rd, 4th of April, 1938.
They were heading south, and they were trapped by very heavy weather.
And it was a snowstorm.
So they lost contact.
They ended up in Galleskjaerene, which we see just in front of us.
The people on land, on the islands, they saw something happened.
And when the daylight came, they started searching.
They found a boat almost upside down, and they thought nobody was alive.
Altogether it was 96 people joining the rescue operation, and they managed to save six of total 12.
Unfortunately, also two of the rescue guys, they died in this operation.
-The whole nation was actually following this live on Norwegian radio.
-Yeah, that is correct.
So that made it even more dramatic.
-The boat is still there?
-Yes.
-It's still a stretch of the Norwegian coast where you should take extra care.
Remember the name Hustadvika.
The richness of the sea and what it keeps on giving is fantastic at Aukra.
Stig, as a keen scuba diver, are joining locals who knows where the treasures are, in search of something for a lovely dinner later.
The cold, clear water holds so many treasures, like the magnificent, really large scallops and exotic fish, a Paradise for hungry divers.
For more inspiration, visit our website, peopleofthenorth.net.
On the western tip of Aukra, at the Rindaroya, fisheries are still more than active.
From a humble start in 1863, Vikenco has grown to be an international fish supplier, located in an ideal environment for raising and producing salmon.
Per Olav, we are out here at the Rindaroya.
Tell me the story about the fishing industry out here.
-The industry started back in the 1850, and at that time, it was Norwegian winter herring.
The herring industry in Norway had a collapse in the 1960s.
The old herring factory was closed down.
And then the founder of Vikenco, he bought the old factory.
So 1973 was the start of Vikenco.
-One who has worked with Vikenco for many years and really knows its story, is Florida fishmonger and entrepreneur Danny Woodson.
Fancy meeting an American fishmonger out here at the brink of the Atlantic Ocean?
-You know, I retired about two years ago after many years of working with them.
-Tell me a little bit about what kind of operation you were running as a fishmonger.
-Our whole goal was to try to figure out how to take, you know, the fillet into a probably, I'd say, a more marketable aspect.
Everything was salmon, so even, you know, none of the other species really held up well.
But the salmon you get the shelf life out of.
So our whole world revolved around these guys and, you know, the value added dishes.
-And this was out of Florida?
-Yes, out of a little east of Tampa.
-What kind of products are you making?
-We are making all kind of salmon products.
So whole fillets, portions, mainly fresh, but also we do frozen.
We try to utilize as much as possible.
For consumption now we are producing salmon heads, backbones, bellies, bits and pieces, skin, whatever.
The last 20 years, we have focused on overseas markets, and we are using a technology.
We call it Vikenco SuperGreen.
Instead of using wet ice on the products, we are using dry ice, which has huge benefits both when it comes to the temperature in the product.
We can lower the temperature down to 28, 29 Fahrenheit.
And also we reduce the gross weight when it comes to fresh and air freight.
-And why are you out here?
You could have put this factory near a big city.
-In the island of Aukra, there are 2,500 people.
Today, we have more than 300 employees, and with this new factory we have behind us, we can increase that number to 400 people.
Somebody has to take care of the community.
And it's a fantastic place.
-That is true.
Welcome to Ona, a small but very much visited island you can reach by the public local ferry.
Once a bustling fishing community, today a place where there is adventure for us tourists.
The old wooden houses on Ona are really charming, painted in calm white, red and yellow, a reminder of the fisheries that made people settle here.
Ona rich maritime heritage blends effortlessly with the island's rugged coastal landscape.
Let's see what this charm has to offer.
Lobster is definitely something that you can explore here.
Oddgeir here is taking us out.
He's a lobster fisherman.
This is how you make a living?
-Yeah.
See, it's more like for fun.
Because I'm retired.
-I assume that far out here, the lobster tastes very well.
-Yes, it does.
It's fresh.
-Come on.
-I got it.
-Look at this.
Hey, it's crab!
-[ Chuckles ] -So far, success.
It's gonna be a lovely evening here tonight.
Yep.
We got the big one!
Look at this, Oddgeir.
That's a prime quality Ona lobster.
That's a nice one, huh?
-That's a nice one.
-Three pounds?
It's the perfect food.
Perfect for food.
-Yes.
-This small island has two wonderful inns, Ona Havstuer and Onakaia, run by Sindre Trerrfjell.
-Now we are at Onakaia, and I'm going to make a dry martini.
And this time, I'm going to make a martini with some local botanicals we found out there on the island.
This is going to be served together with some scallops we dived for this morning.
That's going to have honey and lemon glaze.
What's the story about Onakaia?
-We bought this place five, six years ago.
Started redoing and building the apartments for rental.
After a while, we thought we need a pub.
It took a year or so, and here we are today.
Our own pub.
-Skal.
-But these are just for us two.
20 more people inside.
-Yeah, we have some work to do.
-We have some work to do.
-Okay.
-Let's go.
Let's go.
-We have found the best ingredients from sea and land.
And we've activated all of Ona and Aukra to make a real feast tonight.
And with a community feast, there's lots of work.
All hands on deck or all hands on the seafood.
Someone's cleaning scallops.
Someone is laying the table.
Someone is cleaning the mushrooms.
Someone is cutting the sashimi.
And someone is drinking.
I'm sure that you get the drift.
-All right, Stig, so today we're going to be making a little surf and turf, which is water and land.
So we're going to combine some of those ingredients we've got.
I think we'll keep it simple because this is amazing.
And this is really great flavors that don't need a lot.
We're going to cut this lovely tenderloin into a little bit smaller pieces.
Then when it's all ready and cooked, we'll cut it thinner.
And we're going to serve it with a piece of that, the scallop on top, and then a little garlic butter.
-Sounds delicious.
-It's that simple.
Combination of land and water.
Yeah?
-I'm going to help you a little bit.
I'm going to do the herbs.
-I need some help so you can chop the herbs for me.
-Yeah.
-We're going to season it with this amazing sea salt from HAVSNO.
Do a simple sear.
-For more inspiration, visit our website, peopleofthenorth.net.
-Looking good there.
I'm impressed by the chopping skills.
-Did you hear that?
It was good.
-It is good.
-All right, I'm gonna have you keep an eye on these little babies.
-I will try my best.
If I fail, I will never enter the kitchen on this TV show.
-[ Laughs ] Oh, look at that color.
That's beautiful, Stig.
Okay, everyone, thanks for coming together.
We're going to start off our feast tonight with a little taste of land and sea.
A little surf and turf.
We have this beautiful tenderloin.
We also have these delightful scallops that Stig had dived for earlier, and it's a little bit of the garlic butter on top.
So really simple.
So the flavors of these beautiful ingredients should shine out.
So dive on in, as we would say.
-Hey!
-A visit to Aukra will give you a wonderful taste on how nature, food, and people can be the perfect recipe for the good life.
And if you're looking for a bigger change, there are exciting jobs available.
Happy travels!
-Tellus Works.
-For more inspiration, visit our website, peopleofthenorth.net.
-Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following.
-The Stavanger region -- adventurous shores, deep fjords, lively towns, and the iconic Preikestolen.
The Edge of Norway.
-Norwegian Alpinco -- connecting mountain spots, steep slopes, alpine villages, and outdoor activities all year round.
-In Sigdal, Norway, where mountains rise and forests whisper, Anne-Line and Courtney create Norwegian gifts so you can bring a piece of Norway with you.
Nordic Box -- memories from Norway.
- Oh, take me home, take me home where I belong -VGAN Chocolate, Norwegian flavor.
- I can't take it anymore [ Jet engine roaring ]
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