The family farm

A rich and complex history forms the basis for the farm as it is today. A farm isn’t owned, it is tended – from one generation to the next. Our family farm is a result of the work that has been laid down and the choices that have been made in the past. And what we do today provides a starting point and opportunities for the generations that will follow. That is the most important task of a farmer; to manage the resources one has been given, and to make things even better for those who will come after. We are all part of something greater. A cultural heritage. It’s about what we have, and what we are.

Klostergarden® has its origins in Utstein® Farm, the closest neighbour of Utstein Monastery, which is Norway’s only preserved medieval monastery. The buildings and the area in general have been put to many different uses through the years, including as a seat for chieftains, a royal estate, monastery, manor, family farm and a museum. Today, Utstein Farm is run by Inger Lise and Anders Schanche Rettedal, as the 11th generation. We have around 600 winter-fed sheep, 1600 pigs, 15-30 free-range pigs, 30 beef cattle with calves and a large preserved cultural landscape to look after. We have also established a farm shop, at the boat house next to Utstein Monastery. The production we have today is based on generations of knowledge and a genuine commitment to Utstein, the agriculture and animal husbandry.

THE 1700s

Utstein Farm has been a family farm since 1700. Christopher Frimann took control of Utstein and a large accompanying estate that same year. After his death, the properties reverted back to his father, Johan C. Frimann (1630-1707). The properties were then subsequently divided between Karen Frimann (1683-1770) and her sister-in-law, Margrethe de Fine (-1730). Widow de Fine bought the church from the state in 1724, for 23 Norwegian rigsdaler. Karen was married to general customs manager Johan Garmann (1675-1730), who is said to have descended from Fredrik II of Denmark-Norway. After Margrethe de Fine died, the property was consolidated under husband and wife Frimann and Garmann. Starting from when Garmann died, Karen maintained the properties and managed their interests until their son, Christopher Garmann (1720-1779), took over the properties in practice from 1750. At that time, the manor included Brimse, Finnesand, a share in the salmon fishing in the Figgjo river and the grounds of St. Olav church in Stavanger.

Christopher Garmann was the tax collector in the Ryfylke region from 1749, and then took up residence at Utstein. He was very interested in improving production, and wanted to reform the sheep husbandry. At that time, Utstein had somewhere between 70 and 120 sheep. He was familiar with different types of sheep than just the old Norwegian breed, and he became an enthusiastic proponent of importing and using fine-wooled English sheep. He studied sheep breeding and concluded that a major commitment to sheep would be beneficial for him and his wife, Cecilie Katharina Widding Garmann (1734-1759) as farm owners, for Norwegian business and the Norwegian economy. He even went so far as to write a dissertation on measures to improve sheep breeding, published in 1776. He looked to Sweden and Spain, and believed that the import and spread of rams from Spain, England and Eydersted in Norwegian sheep farming would provide a basis for economic development. The potential was particularly good on the islands, because there were no predators, the coastal climate meant little snow and frost, and the vegetation was well-suited to feed sheep. He also believed that the salt content in the seaweed prevented sickness in the sheep.

Garmann supplied sheep farmers in Stavanger county and the Bergen diocese with breeding animals, for which he received the royal Danish Landhusholdnings Selskab’s coveted silver medal in 1775. He was probably the first person in Norway to switch to a year-round grazing herd, and laid the foundation for modern fertilising methods. Extensive cultivation and tillage work has taken place on the property over the years, a factor which is clearly evident from the cultural landscape today. He was also responsible for planting the huge beech trees that now grace in the garden of Utstein Monastery. Garmann also initiated the start-up of a spinning mill in Stavanger in 1764. Physician, botanist and economist Georg Christian Oeder (1727–1791) stayed at Utstein in 1757 and on numerous other occasions through the years that followed. He highlights Christopher Garmann as a competent and experimental farmer. He also described Utstein as one of the prettiest farms in Norway.

THE 1800s

Johan (Jan) Garmann (1755-1799), Christopher’s eldest son, took over Utstein after his father’s death. He married Wenche Garmann (1760-1788) in 1780. He died at the young age of 44, and sold the grounds of St. Olav church just weeks before his death. This despite the fact that the deed from 1750 stated that they could not be sold and separated from the property. Their son Johan Garmann jr. (1787-1844) took over ownership of Utstein. He was only twelve years old at that time and grew up living at his uncle Christian Lerche Dahl, county clerk in Bergen. The farm was run by tenant farmers for ten years. In 1810, Johan married Adel Lucie Marie Rosenkilde (1778-1852) and they moved to Utstein. There was a large increase in the number of tenant farmers in this period, which meant a stable supply of labour, and provided a foundation for extensive cultivation. They incorporated all this cultivation work into a system. At that time, Utstein was one of the largest farms in the county of Rogaland.

In 1849, the farm was split between the brothers Børre (1817-1892) and Christopher (1811-1894) Garmann in a so-called samfrendeskifte (division of a disputed estate between relatives). Christopher stayed in Garmannshagen and Børre at the monastery. Back then, they had 300 sheep, 113 cows and 24 horses. Christopher was elected mayor of Rennesøy in 1858. After ten years, in 1859, Christopher sold his share back to the farm (evidently not to be reelected). In time, he moved back to the farm and devoted himself to woodturning, making spinning wheels, among other things, as well as sailing. Børre was a farmer and increased the overall crop land. Like his grandfather, he was a pioneer in sheep husbandry, bringing Scottish Cheviot sheep into the country, and selling breeding animals. ‘Klostersmalen’ – the ‘monastery sheep’ – was a well-known concept in Western Norway. This was a period of growing animal husbandry, and of more investments in running the farm, such as building a mill and purchasing sowing machines for root vegetables and grass. This is how he laid the foundation for more modern agriculture.

Eilert Gerhard Schanche (1859-1933) was the adopted son of Børre Garmann, he was the grandson of Børre’s aunt on his father’s side. He took over the farm in 1885. Eilert had an agricultural education from Aas Landbruksskole (Norwegian University of life science). During the period when he and his wife, Alexandria Rosenkilde Schanche (1858-1923), ran the farm, they implemented an extensive cultivation effort, which made it possible to streamline operations and improve productivity. Back then, they had the largest sheep herd in the country. At the same time, he played an active role in public life, including as mayor of Mosterøy township and as a Member of Parliament (1892-1909). He was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. The monastary church was handed over to the State in 1899, not including the nave, which remained in the family’s ownership. In 1910, he passed the farm on to his two sons, Børre (1890-1919) and Eilert (1892-1979) Schanche.

The 1900s

The brothers Børre and Eilert sold off the island of Fjøløy (approximately 450 acres) and ran the farm together until Børre died in 1919. Eilert was a talented farmer, but times were tough for farmers in the 1920s/1930s. Eilert and his wife, Tören Fremgaarden (1889-1995), ended up in financial difficulties. They entered into talks with the Catholic church, which wanted to take over control of the property. It ended in bankruptcy and the bank took over the farm in 1933. Eilert was county secretary for Høyre (the Conservative party) from 1933 and was part of the editorial staff in the local newspaper Stavangeren. In his older days, he published the book “Livet på den gamle slektsgård” (Life on the family farm) (1973).

The family lived at the actual Utstein Monastery manor all the way up to 1933. The monastery buildings, which up until then had functioned as a farmhouse on the farm, were handed over to the Committee for preservation of Utstein Monastery in 1933/34, subsequently Stiftelsen Utstein Kloster (foundation) (from 1953). Now the monastery itself is run by Museum Stavanger.

The son, Eilert G. Schanche (1914-1995), bought the farm back based on freehold rights, and moved back to Utstein. He lived at the monastery until he could build a new farmhouse on the farm in 1937. He married Gudrun Lûtzen (1924-2010) from the Faroe Islands, and they had a daughter, Elin (1961-). Alongside his brother, Nils (1915-2005), he invested a lot of work in bringing the farm back up to standard. He had an ability to combine modern farming with landscape preservation, and to see the bigger picture in all of this. He grew up at the monastery as his childhood home, and had his farming training on the farm, in addition to Jæren folkehøgskole (folk high school), the agricultural school at Tveit, as well as from working in forestry and farming in Vestfold County and on the Faroe Islands. He gave up milk production in 1950, and started to produce meat and grain instead. Together with a couple of other farmers in Rogaland, he travelled to Scotland and brought back eight pregnant Angus cows, making them the first to introduce the beef breed Aberdeen Angus to Norway. He was a qualified expert assessor, and took part in processes such as the major surveys in connection with the Ulla Førre and Eidfjord hydropower developments. He won Rennesøy municipality’s culture award in 1993.

Elin Schanche and her first husband, Ole Rettedal (1961-), took over the farm in 1988. That’s also when the first tractor made its way to Utstein. She had two sons with Ole; Anders (1981-) and Endre (1985-) Schanche Rettedal. She remarried in 1994 with Jone Gudmestad (1965-) from Hodne on Rennesøy. They had the twins Astrid and Eilert (1995-) Schanche Gudmestad. Elin ran the farm alone for several years before Jone took over the daily operation of the property. During their time, the farm was one of the largest sole proprietorships in the country within sheep husbandry, and they also had both pigs, Angus beef cattle and rutabaga production. They modernised the farm and led new cultivation. When Elin and Jone ran the farm, the family developed Klostergarden® as a trademark, and started the process of building a brand name, while also managing the preservation process for the Utstein cultural environment. Elin has had and still has many roles in the community, including as fourth deputy Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party, representative on the municipal council in Rennesøy and the City of Stavanger, she took part in the Cultural Heritage Committee appointed by the Norwegian Government, and she has held several board positions within agriculture and other business activity. She is the municipal director of Kvitsøy, and resides in one of the houses on the farm with her husband, Jone. He now leases the Rosenkilde farm on Fjøløy, is a beekeeper as well as an accountant in Rennesøy og Randaberg Rekneskapslag. Endre runs several companies and has taken over the Rettedal family farm at Madla, where he lives with his family. Astrid is a teacher and runs a farm at Fjøløy with her family. Eilert lives at Mosterøy and is working in the oil industry after having served his compulsory years of service at the Norwegian Military Academy.

The 2000s

Inger Lise and Anders Schanche Rettedal took over the farm in 2012. Before this, Anders worked for a private equity fund and Inger Lise worked as a communication expert and politics and public affairs manager in the energy industry. Anders has a master in finance and strategic management and Inger Lise has an MBA in branding, specializing in innovation. Now we’re operating the farm full-time. We’ve refined the brand-building, niche production and other ventures on the farm. Our products have won the Spesialitetsmerket specialty label award from the foundation Norsk Mat (Norwegian Food) and reached the finals in the Norwegian food competition Det norske måltid on numerous occasions. We’ve built up a stock of Limousin and Wagyu beef cattle and started outdoor pig husbandry. We also repurchased the Sorgenfri parcel and are leasing multiple farms in addition to our own. We’ve won the Business Development Award for Agriculture as well as the Marketing Award in Rogaland County. We’ve taken on multiple board positions within agriculture and business at the local, regional and national level. Anders is currenctly head of the Norwegian Suffolk Association and Rogaland Sheep and Goat Association. Gydas Jordepler is now cultivating potatoes, cabbage and Jerusalem artichokes in our fields. We’ve developed concepts in the intersection of tourism, food, culture and nature, and also spearheaded the preliminary study and feasibility study for VisitUtstein, which allows several of the stakeholders on Utstein, Fjøløy and Mosterøy to coordinate their activities. We’re attempting to achieve profitable and diverse farming activities that we can pass to our son, Johan Christopher. We want to ensure that farming is a real and profitable alternative if he is interested in taking over the farm once that time comes.