‘I have no sense of rhythm, I’m afraid.’

Jens looked in his basket. ‘But you do have taste for food. Are you a foodie, by any chance?’

‘Something like that. Do you have any coriander or avocados?’

‘I’m not sure what coriander is, so probably not. Avocado I do know, but we don’t have any at the moment, I’m afraid. You can order whatever you want and we’ll get it from the mainland for you, free of transport charge.’

Jack took out a green pepper from his basket. ‘So this is about it?’

‘For the more exotic stuff, yes. Most people on the island have their own kitchen gardens, I’m afraid. Oh, and just so you know, the root vegetables, all of them, are grown right here on the island,’ Jens added with a happy smile.

‘Isn’t it too early to harvest anything from a garden? What do people do in the meantime? Watch the seedlings grow?’ Jack started to empty the contents of the basket onto the counter.

Jens chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t put it past some of them. But to answer your question, we do have a good selection of vegetables in the frozen section over there.’

Jack couldn’t help himself. He burst out laughing. ‘I’ll check it out,’ he said. ‘What about cheese?’

‘Well, follow me; we’ll see what we’ve got.’ Jens trotted over to a small fridge. ‘I’m afraid we don’t have any Stilton or cheddar; Norwegians don’t like it much, I think. But we do have Norzola, which is as close as you get to blue cheese. Not sure what you would make of Old Cheese,’ he said with a wicked grin.

‘I guess that depends how old it is,’ Jack said, intrigued now.

Jens chuckled and pulled a small black package from one of the shelves and held it up.

‘This, my friend, is a fresh mould cheese, made from cultured milk. You will not get it anywhere else in the world. You see, this is proper Viking cheese, and only the bravest dare taste it,’ he said, his eyes challenging him.

‘Viking cheese?’ Jack took the cheese from him. ‘I’ll give it a try.’

‘Oh, yes. The Vikings used it as an aphrodisiac. However, I doubt that would work today. The smell of the cheese is a bit pungent.’

‘How do you use it?’

Jens smiled. ‘I put some on bread with lots of butter and perhaps a dollop of lingonberries. Alma refuses to eat it if there’s no bacon. Other people eat it with mayo or just put lots of butter on it, or eat it as it is.’

‘Do you have any eggs?’ Jack dropped the cheese in the basket.

‘Not yet, I’m afraid. Perhaps later today. We get them fresh from one of the farms, and the hens can be temperamental.’

Jack hid a smile. ‘But you have oils, right?’

‘Of course, over here.’ Jens showed him a small rack with a few bottles of Greek olive oil and some rapeseed oil. ‘When I tell Alma you have been here, she’s going to want to know where you are staying. Everyone is wondering about that!’