Tasting Room: Barbera meets bocce at Suncé N6 TravelSan Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, May 12, 2013 | Section N The view of Qooroq Glacier after a 5-mile hike from the village of Igaliku. Above, the GREENLAND view of Qooroq Glacier after a 5-mile hike from the An island of ice, village of Igaliku through lush meadows full of warmth and past mossy waterfalls. Left, a Sparsely populated, but with welcoming folks colorful house with a By Margo Pfeiff platter laden with one of their crispy- nautical skinned, slow-roasted lambs on the theme in Larseraq Broberg steers our tiny boat dining room table alongside a pot of Qaqortoq, South around bobbing blue “bergy bits,” rem- reindeer stew, the prize of a local hunt. Greenland’s nants of once-grand icebergs that have There are potatoes, turnips and carrots largest drifted to the head of a long fjord in from the garden and herbs like subarctic town. South Greenland, where he drops me at angelica harvested from the wild. Des- the sheep farm of Lars and Makkak sert is tundra blueberry cheesecake. It’s Nielsen. I follow the couple and their a meal similar to the one Makkak re- feisty border collie across a grassy field, cently created for the television series “A kicking up wafts of wild thyme en route Taste of Greenland” that is broadcast to their red farmhouse. internationally and a hit in Europe. “The sheep eat the thyme and it fla- The Nielsens’ daughter, Maria, just vors the meat,” says Makkak, setting a Greenland continues on N4 Photos by Margo Pfeiff / Special to The Chronicle READY, SET, GO By Christine Delsol Gold Country festival honors historic farm’s diverse caretakers Gold Country’s history isn’t only about 1 San Diego showcases Mis- 1 Tahoe Rim Trail Challenge: gold. The Wakamatsu Farm Festival hon- sion Trails park: San Diego’s Six of Lake Tahoe’s most scenic ors the Nisenan tribe, the first Japanese Mission Trails Regional Park, sites beckon all comers to complete colony in America, the gold seekers and one of the country’s largest urban the inaugural Tahoe Rim Trail the Veerkamp family, all of whom made parks, puts its varied offerings Challenge: Hike, bike, snowshoe or their lives on the Wakamatsu Tea and on display during Explore Mis- ride a horse to each destination by Silk Colony Farm in the foothills of Pla- sion Trails Day, whose theme the end of the year. Registration cerville. Performers and exhibits include this year is “Connecting Children opens Wednesday. Participants will American Indian dancers and artists, With Nature.” Free guided na- be invited to special events created Gold Rush living history, Japanese artists ture walks and talks throughout just for Trail Challenge members and martial arts, organic farm tours, a the park, a special coyote pro- and have access to the members- petting zoo, live music and an interactive gram and lots of live animals will only website where they can access art exhibit inspired by the farm’s history. appeal to children. The visitor the six destinations’ GPS way- center will keep children’s crafts points, track their progress and Vitals: Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. adults and activities such as free pony share pictures. June 1 challenge $20, youths $7, younger than 10 free. rides and a climbing wall going kickoff. $55 general (includes Trail 941 Cold Springs Road, Placerville. all day. Saturday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Challenge membership), $20 cur- (530) 621-1224, www.arconservancy.org/ Free. (619) 668-3281, www.mtrp. rent members. (775) 298-0012, wakamatsu. Wakamatsu Farm Festival 2012 org/emtday.asp. www.tahoerimtrail.org. N4 | Sunday, May 12, 2013 | San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com FROM THE COVER Photos by Margo Pfeiff / Special to The Chronicle The town of Qaqortoq, population 3,200, is a charming cluster of colorful houses perched on a steep hillside overlooking a harbor. Land of ice and warm hearts Greenland from page N1 glaciers and trailheads. I hop onto the little wooden boat back from university in Calga- Puttut, chugging through ry, Alberta, chats excitedly in waters dotted with ice along- English and Danish about side hillsides dotted with planning her wedding cos- sheep en route to my first stop, tume, explaining that her out- the village of Igaliku. fit will feature the same col- On board, two archaeol- orful traditional beaded collar ogists are heading to Igaliku she wore on her first day of for a dig. “It was the seat of the school and at her confirma- Norwegian bishop during the tion, but atop white fabric. rural era of the Norse — they “And, of course, I’ll be wear- were not Vikings, who were ing white sealskin pants and warriors,” says the Danish kamiks,” or boots, she says. National Museum’s Jette Arne- Then the 27-year-old Nordic borg. “They traded back to beauty leans across the table Europe luxury items like wal- and speaks to her father in her rus ivory tusks.” Then they native tongue, Greenlandic, an suddenly and mysteriously Eskimo-Aleut language. Maria Makkak Nielsen with a vanished in the 15th century. may look as if she walked off a tundra blueberry cheesecake Greenlandic boots and cooking supplies at the Ipiutaq guest Once ashore, it’s an hour’s street in Copenhagen, but she to end a home-cooked meal. farm of Agathe and Kalista Devisme-Poulsen. easy hike up and over a slope can trace her Inuit ancestry for toward Igaliku (population 30), generations. times the size of Texas, yet try’s warmest area, where supply route to Europe. Nar- considered one of Greenland’s Even after a week of touring with a scant 57,000 folks — summer temperatures reach sarsuaq was Bluie West One most scenic villages. It appears the remote toe of Greenland, about 90 percent of them Inuit, into the 60s, a lush landscape air base from 1941-58. After suddenly over the rise, an the world’s biggest island once known as Eskimo. As it that inspired Eric the Red to prowling the well-stocked little idyllic smattering of red, tur- hasn’t eased up on delivering hurtles toward independence bring hundreds of settlers to military museum, I dined on quoise and yellow houses on unexpected cultural, culinary from Denmark, it faces a slew farm cattle, sheep and horses musk ox sliced and seared on a the shore of a fjord. Laundry and wilderness punches. I may of 20th century issues, like the around A.D. 950. blisteringly hot black rock, flaps in the breeze, chickens be at the end of a roadless world’s fastest rate of climate South Greenland is still the delivered to my table in the are herded by enthusiastic fjord trafficked by polar bears warming and Chinese mining country’s agricultural hub — town’s only hotel, once the sheepdogs, and a schoolhouse and walrus, where the nearest conglomerates eying the rare its tender lamb is a sought- military barracks, where I accommodates three students. sign of neighbors is a smatter- earths and other minerals after commodity in Europe. spend the night. Dinner at the eight-room Igali- ing of 10th century Norse ru- emerging from beneath the That makes it an off-the-beat- ku Hotel is a lively crowd of ins, but there is nothing back- vast ice cap that covers three- en track foodie destination for Scenic villages archaeologists and their field ward about this intriguing quarters of the island. Yet, in those who also like to hike, In the morning I head for workers, as well as several part of the world. It is at once many ways it is still wired to kayak, get to know unpreten- coffee to the cheery Blue Ice Danes on school break hiking rural and fiercely local, yet its hunter-gatherer past. tious locals or just cruise spec- cafe-shop-outfitter to meet the a multiday trail. also sophisticated and world- Most of the population tacular waterways beneath owner, Frenchman Jacky Si- “It’s called allemandsret, savvy: traditional, yet stylish. perches on the ice-free west glacier-topped fjords. moud, who operates the meaning we can camp free on coast fringe. While the tourist I land at Narsarsuaq (pop- scheduled small boat shuttles private land as long as we Land of low density mecca is north of the capital of ulation 158), South Greenland’s and charters up and down the avoid cultivated fields and Greenland is a unique Nuuk at Disko Bay, where gateway, on one of this moun- fjords. These boats are the grazing sheep,” says one of home-ruled Inuit nation with- parades of giant icebergs calve tainous country’s few run- only way besides commercial students. in the Kingdom of Denmark. from the ice cap, I headed ways. Most were built during helicopters to reach South A German couple is also The least populated country in south to a region less traveled. World War II by the U.S. mil- Greenland’s handful of small trekking, but staying at some the world is more than three South Greenland is the coun- itary as part of an aircraft towns, ruins, sheep farms, Greenland continues on N5 SONOMA COAST TAHOE AREA MAUI BODEGA BAY & BEYOND – Vacation Home rentals Granlibakken --- 74 Acre Resort MAUI CONDOMINIUM AND HOME RENTALS Reserve now for Memorial Day Weekend and the Lodge rooms, studios, 1 to 8 bedroom townhomes Premier Vacation Accommodations in Wailea and Makena, Summer Months while selection of Homes is GREAT! Hot buffet breakfast, pool, hot tub, tennis, day spa Maui. 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