Busy bakers
On the northside of Utsira’s harbour, there is a boat-house that clings to the edge of the rocks. Outside, the weather can behave like an old fashioned rather stern father, but inside in the Dalanaustet Utsira Building, a mother’s warm embrace awaits you. Bakers Karen Marie Stokka and Helen Valumsen took over Dalanaustet in December 2008 and started serving baked local specialities such as pastries, Nordland cakes, and potato cakes. Their work is aided by a rolling machine, unlike the old days when a good baker-woman who rolled smoothly and produced her wares at a high tempo was a much sought-after person.

In Nordvik Norwegian, German, Dutch and Swedish sailboats arrive all summer long. At Dalanaustet, they are served cuisine steeped in Rogaland tradition, while their boats rise and bob with the tide. The idea of a local pastry bakery situated at the edge of the ocean was not a risk, as was first thought. There are almost no bakers left who produce the traditional thin folded buttered pastries any longer, making this type of fare a thing of the past. With their own sales outlet, distribution to local shops and a wholesaler in Haugesund, Stokka and Valumsen’s modest bakery producing folded buttered pastries has given new life to an almost extinct tradition.