Icelandic Geothermal Foodways

Specialised

Cooking with the ground: hverabrauð, rye bread buried in a hot-spring field at Laugarvatn or Hveragerði and left to steam for a day; eggs boiled in hot pools; and — far more importantly in economic terms — GEOTHERMALLY HEATED GREENHOUSES, which since the 1920s have let Iceland grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and bananas at 64°N. ⚠ THE GREENHOUSE IS THE BIG STORY, not the buried loaf, and the bread tradition is local and modest rather than nationwide and ancient.