Ended up in Iceland to milk sheep
The heat was almost unbearable the day a journalist was on the east, as there were certainly various heat records that will be struck late. The weather station named 26 degrees, but the thermometer at the food car showed a full 31 points. It was pretty good to cool down with one delicious rhubarb sheep ice cream! But who should this woman be thinking about milking sheep, starting the company Sauðagull and creating from the milk ice cream?
Ann-Marie Schlutz came to Iceland nine years ago and speaks excellent Icelandic. She is now a corporate owner in Iceland but has a degree in cultural science.
« I first came here for summer work in 2016 and immediately got the strong feeling that I should be longer. Later I met my husband and so this developed, » she says.
« I worked four summers at the wilderness center and learned Icelandic through the job. The people there were very good at teaching me Icelandic and also my father-in-law, because he only speaks Icelandic, » says Ann-Marie, but the couple live mostly on the town of Egilsstadir.
Milk forty sheep
How did the idea come to light?
« It started so I started making cheeses from sheep milk, just for myself. So I took the cheese to the Christmas food market in 2018. I couldn’t sell it but I could give a taste.
Sheep gold became a reality in 2019 and Ann-Marie has had enough to spin since.
« I found this fun; this is a lot of development because I had to develop all the products, » says Ann-Marie, who eventually had to build a working facility for the farm for the food production that was so upset.
« My father -in -law on the sheep and I work on the farm and milk the sheep, » she says.
How do you milk sheep?
« Basically like you milk cows. This is done with gadgets but the difference is that the teats are smaller and just two on sheep. It has to get used to it but it only takes a few days. We start to milk in sheep and I milk for four weeks. Forty sheep and therefore get twenty liters of milk a day, which is not much, but the cheese making needs less of sheep milk than cow’s milk.
Travelers download in the ice
Ann-Marie went on various courses, received grants and then started creating feta cheese, confectionery and ice cream.
« I have four types of sheep ice that I sell here on Hengifoss, but we also sell meat soup, vegetable soup and waffles made after my grandmother’s recipe.
« I am a full-time job with Sauðagulli myself and with staff here over the summer in the trolley and in the sheep farm, » says Ann-Marie, but Hengifoss Food Truck is open until October and attracts travelers who walk up the waterfall. You can read more about the company at saudagull.is.
« People usually come here after the walk, » she says, and it is safe to say that there is plenty to do on good weather days.
« It’s wonderful to live here and always such good weather, as you see, » says Ann-Marie, laughing.
« It’s unusual today. We tested three meters and they all showed 31 degrees in the shade! »
Ann-Marie is happy to the east and does not want to be anywhere else.
« I would never have believed that I would end up in Iceland to milk sheep! » She says, laughing.
