– You don’t farm today to make money. You do it because you like it. The economy in agriculture is generally poor.
– If we were to continue to operate by sending the animals to the slaughterhouse and got paid for it, then this farm would not have existed.
That’s what Siri Folven Bull says at Bull farm in Karlsøy municipality in Troms.
She sits in the feed feeder and ensures that around a hundred cows of the Aberdeen Angus breed get one of the day’s meals.
Then she sits down and chats with the animals she is responsible for.
It was in 2013 that two brothers, Siri’s husband Birger Bull and brother-in-law Kay Morten Bendiksen Bull, decided to take care of the entire production line for each of their uses.
Since then, the neighbors on the Bull cattle farm and the Vang goat farm have built their own butchery and started food production, an online shop and a cafe in the hamlet of Grunnfjord.
Siri is clear that she and her family are living the dream.
– You don’t get the good farming life if you go bankrupt. I can’t imagine working with anything other than animals, food and nature. The fact that we have achieved all this, and that we have so many supporters who believe in all the craziness we come up with, is absolutely fantastic, she says.
Siri Folven Bull is the boss of the approximately 100 cows in the barn at Bull farm in Karlsøy.
Siri Folven Bull is the boss of the approximately 100 cows in the barn at Bull farm in Karlsøy.
Siri Folven Bull chats with Olava the cow. It is the oldest suckling cow on the farm. Olava was born in 2009.
The cows in the round barn are fed with the help of a feeding robot, which Siri controls.
Siri Folven Bull chats with Olava the cow.
Weekly visit by tourists
The farm shop is full of people on a normal Thursday.
Several of the villagers have stopped by to drink coffee and eat a piece of cake.
– The cake was absolutely beautiful, says Raymond Mathisen.
He is also a farmer in the same village.
Ion Vlad, Lillian Pettersen and Raymond Mathisen are among the guests and residents enjoying a piece of cake.
Photo: Kari Anne Skoglund / NRK
The couple Morgane and Emmanuel from Toulouse in France are among the other guests at the farm sale.
They are on a ten-day holiday in northern Norway. When they were looking for the northern lights the night before, they discovered the cafe and shop outlet.
– When we saw the shop at three in the morning, we were so curious that we had to visit during the day, says Morgane.
Kay Morten Bendiksen Bull tells the French visitors from Toulouse about the products they sell in the farm shop in Grunnfjord.
The French couple pick up souvenirs to take home.
They were on a Northern Lights trip when they came across the farm shop, about an hour’s drive from Tromsø. They became so curious that they wanted to go back.
The farm is located just before you reach the end of the road in the village, well over an hour’s drive from Tromsø. Among other things, the French bought with them honey, a decorative leather heart and toppings of beef and venison.
– There are exciting souvenirs to take back to France.
Where do you prefer to shop for food?
Unraised, direct from the farmer
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