I don’t know what it is about fruits and vegetables with me lately. First, it was bananas in Turkey, then lemons in Bulgaria, and just recently I recalled this story about carrots in Iceland!
At the beginning of December, Bipin and I flew to Iceland to attempt the record for the piggyback mile. Everything had been arranged at the last minute so although our friend, Snatak, was happy to have us stay at his place, he hadn’t had any time to prepare for us. The morning after we arrived, he had to run off to work, but kindly told us that we were welcome to anything in the frig. There wasn’t much. I found some yogurt, some cheese and, no exaggeration, about 20 pounds of carrots!
Wintertime in Iceland is pretty rough. Being so far north, the island only gets a few hours of sunlight a day and the darkness can become oppressive. Knowing that eating carrots helps to improve eyesight, my hypothesis was that Icelandic people must eat tons of carrots to improve their night vision. When I asked Snatak about it, he laughed and explained that the carrots were actually for a juice fast he was planning to embark on. However, before he could get started, a friend of a friend got ill and he lent them his juicer and now he was stuck with oodles of carrots.
Anyway, later that day, Bipin and I managed to break the piggyback record and, to celebrate, Bipin decided to go surfing! I had no idea, but it seems that there are actually decent waves on the shores of the North Atlantic and a small group of hardy Icelandic souls occasionally go winter surfing. (It must be a modern phenomenon, though. It’s hard to imagine a Viking riding a surfboard, battleaxe in hand!) Bipin rented a surfboard and a wetsuit, we piled into a SUV, and Snatak drove us out to a remote spot on the other side of the island where the waves were supposed to be good.
Unfortunately, the waves were too good! The wind was raging and the waves were up to 14 feet high. Bipin wisely opted not to go in and was happy just to walk on the beach. I got bored and to my delight, I discovered some horses on a farm near the ocean. The horses were beautiful and they enjoyed being petted. Snatak told me that although Icelandic horses are small, they are extremely strong and they have a style of running that is totally unique. I was dying to feed the little guys, but we had no food in the car and we were miles from any store. And then it hit me – the carrots!!! We had to come back with the carrots!
And that’s what we did. The next morning, we emptied Snatak’s frig of the healthy vegetables and drove out to the farm. I was full of anticipation. These horses were not going to believe the treat they were in for. As soon as I spotted the horses, I grabbed the hefty bag of carrots and bolted from the car. And guess what? These horses not only have a unique running style, they also have unique taste! They didn’t like the carrots! Who ever heard of horses who don’t like carrots? They would take a carrot, halfheartedly nibble on it and then spit it out.
Snatak, always the tolerant host, said he knew of something that the picky eaters would definitely like. So we headed off to the nearest town, picked up half a dozen loaves of the darkest, healthiest bread we could find and drove all the way back. I know it sounds crazy : it’s not as if the horses were starving or anything, but I was determined to give those animals a treat. Fortunately, they loved the bread.
On the drive back to Reykjavik, I thought of a creative way to use the excess carrots, but I didn’t have the nerve to share my idea with Snatak. Since the horses liked the bread so much, Snatak, in his spare time, could bake the horses carrot cake! Anyway, the horses were fine as they were, and the time I spent hanging out with them was worth it’s weight in pure (24 carrot) gold!
