From grain field to guest experience: NRK highlights Day of Week's work on short local value chains
By Day of Week
A local ingredient carries far more than flavour. It carries knowledge, quality, landscape, craft, local biodiversity and the story of the people behind it.
But for more people to experience it, the ingredient must also become easier to find, use and share. In the story, NRK follows the grain from Øvre Åbål Gård in Birkenes to the kitchen at Under. The story shows the potential in collaboration between producers, chefs, tourism and market, but also the need for better systems around and between them.
This is where Day of Week comes in. We build digital infrastructure and system support that make local ingredients easier to find, plan, use and share.
Øyvind B. Sandåker
CAIO & Co-Founder, Day of Week
Interviewed by NRK at Øvre Åbål Gård
From the grain field and the mill
The story begins in the grain field and the mill at Øvre Åbål Gård. Here, Leif Johann Rugsland, Hilde Undem and their family have built a new venture around grain, quality and stone-ground flour with a clear local identity. It is about soil, weather, season, knowledge, testing and processing. But it is also about the market: Who can use the ingredient? What do the bakers and chefs need? How can quality, availability and story become easier to understand, plan and communicate?
From there the story moves on to Under, where head chef Bernt Sætre and his team work with ingredients, nature, craft and guest experience at an international level. Under shows why local food is not just about purchasing, but about identity, quality and the taste of a place.
Because even when the producer invests, the chef is curious and the guest wants food with a story, the system between them has to work better. It must be easier to get an overview of ingredients, season, quality, volume, availability, logistics, the kitchen's needs and the stories that follow the food.
This is the system gap Day of Week is working to close.
NRK filming in the mill at Øvre Åbål Gård.
An innovation task and a societal task
Local value chains for food and drink are also about more than local identity. They are about business development, preparedness, tourism, sustainability, producer economics and better use of the resources around us.
Together with Kristiansand Municipality, Day of Week leads the AI and technology development on the Norwegian side of a joint Nordic Interreg pre-project on short and circular value chains for local food and drink. The project is carried out together with the City of Gothenburg as lead partner, RISE in Sweden and Madland in Denmark.
The goal is to develop a shared Nordic knowledge base for how short value chains can become more robust, profitable and better connected between producers, processors, chefs, restaurants, tourism and market.
The need is just as relevant in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. And far beyond the Nordics.
Siv Kristiansen
CEO & Founder, Day of Week
Interviewed by NRK at Øvre Åbål Gård
Kickoff for the joint Nordic Interreg pre-project in Gothenburg. Photo: City of Gothenburg.
The Nordic pre-project on short and circular value chains for local food and drink is co-funded by the European Union through Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak.
When tourism becomes part of the food system
Food is an important part of how people experience a place. This is confirmed by Visit Norway and Innovation Norway, who point out that good food experiences can strengthen attractiveness, sense of place and value creation in tourism.
“For many travellers, the taste of a place is an important part of the experience. Local food can tell something about the nature, the culture and the people who live there. Good food experiences can make a destination more attractive, while giving guests a stronger experience of the place they visit.”
Aase Marthe J. Horrigmo, Director of Tourism, Innovation Norway
South Cape Collection, the group behind Under, Lindesnes Havhotell, Rosfjord and Lomsesanden among others, shows how food, nature and tourism can be closely connected.
The sourdough bread from Under. Photo: Bernt Sætre, Under.
“In South Cape Collection we bring together different places and experiences at the very south of Norway – from Under and Lindesnes Havhotell to Rosfjord and Lomsesanden. What we share is that nature comes first: the sea, the light, the beaches, the forest, the seasons and the ingredients around us. When local producers, the kitchen's signature and the guest's experience are connected more closely, the meal becomes part of the whole journey and a way of experiencing Southern Norway.”
Kathrine Ubostad, Co-owner / Concept & Product developer, South Cape Collection
More actors need to be better connected
Øvre Åbål Gård and Under show one concrete ingredient story: from grain and mill to kitchen and guest experience. Jens Eide shows another important part of the same picture: meat, processing, craft, quality and the link between farmer, butcher, chef, restaurant and market.
What these actors have in common is that they hold knowledge and quality that can create greater value when it becomes easier to find, plan, use and share.
For producers, this is about better access to relevant customers, a clearer range, a stronger brand and a shorter route to market. For hotels and restaurants, it is about being able to build their own local food system around the producers, ingredients, kitchens and guests that are relevant to them. For municipalities and regions, it is about strengthening local value creation, preparedness, tourism and business development. And for guests, it is about better meal experiences, more knowledge and a stronger connection to the place they visit.
This is just the beginning
The NRK story helps make the need visible. Day of Week is now entering the market and seeking collaboration with producers, hotels, restaurants, catering, canteens and other actors who want to develop new local food systems in practice.
For us, this is about building digital infrastructure and system support for short value chains for food and drink. But just as much, it is about the people: the producers who invest, the chefs who create, the municipalities that pave the way, and the guests who want to understand more of the food they eat.
That is where innovation begins. And that is where the societal task lies.