My name is Dorthea Joensen, and I am a tenant of Signabøgarður. I am the oldest of two siblings, and in 1990 I took over the tenancy after my father. He took over the tenancy after his father, who in turn took it over after his foster father, who had the tenancy for a while when my great great great grandfather died at a young age, until my grandfather was old enough to take over the tenancy. Sheep-farming and dairy cattle have been the main income at Signabøgarður. When I took over the tenancy of the farm, dairy cattle were a part of the farm, but we discontinued it in 2008. Today, the work on the farm includes sheep-farming, geese and hens, breeding Faroese horses, and offering guided tours for tourists with stories, walks and souvenirs of sheep.
My parents helped with the work on the farm as long as they were able. Today, me and my husband, Evald, work on the farm together with our daughter, Signa, and our son in law, Jenus. We do have other part-time work as well.
We get a lot of welcome help from family and friends, though mostly during the busy seasons, for instance sheep herders, sheep slaughterers, and kitchen helpers. It is very important to me that we have people helping that have been on the farm often and that they feel comfortable here. We also have customers that have bought from us through several generations. To produce food is something that we consider to be a very important job. You do not necessarily see the result in a monetary way, but most of the people that help us are paid in meat. We feed a lot of mouths with our 240 sheep.
The days vary greatly depending on the season. From November to May, the horses and breeder sheep are in the stables, which means that feeding takes place there both morning and night. If there is snow in the winter, the sheep are fed hay daily. From March 1 to the middle of May, we give all of our sheep hay and compound feed every afternoon. From June 1 to August 31 we are open for tourists Mondays and Thursdays, where we take them on walking-trips, tell them stories and prepare the table for them with food from the farm. In addition to these activities, we do all the regular chores throughout the year that come with having sheep. We administer medicin to the sheep in March, round them up in July for shearing, and round them up again for slaughter in October. The lambing in April and May involves quite a lot of work; it is a tiresome, yet rewarding, time when you get to see new life start almost every day. We do have some potatoes and rhubarb growing in the field, so we also spend some time on that during the spring and summer.
The outfield of Signabøur is on the shadow side, which results in very tasty meat. The grass grows slowly and continues growing for most of the year, resulting in a good and fresh taste into the late fall, which you in return can taste in the meat. The sheep is out in the field the whole year round. During the winter and into the spring, the sheep are fed straw fodder in addition to what they eat in the field. During the spring they are also fed compound feed.
Food has always been the main production on the farm, but we also make some handicraft products, breed Faroese horses, and work with tourism as well. We work up wool and horns from the farm and use them for knitted wares, buttons and other ornaments that we sell to the guests. During the summer we offer walking-trips with stories about the farm and the Faroese horses. After the walking-trips, we offer them food from the farm. On demand, we also coordinate other events with food and a cosy atmosphere on the farm.
