The Tuomainen farm

The Tuomainen farm was originally called the Vinikka Farm, named after Johan Petter Vinikkia who built the house in 1851. He emigrated from Tornedalen in Sweden in 1845 and settled in Outer Kven City. During the 19th century there was considerable immigration to Vadsø from Finland and Tornedalen in Sweden, the migrants were called ”Kvens” in Norway. During this period the Norwegian and Kven settlements in Vadsø were divided between Outer Kven City/Ulkupää, Inner Kven City/Sisäpää and the town centre where Norwegians lived.

The Kven and Norwegian housing standards differed greatly until the end of the 19th century.
Vinikka pledged his farm to H.F. Esbensen before the turn of the century. Over the years Esbensen had many tenants living on the estate. It has been claimed that at one point, the farm was able to accommodate twelve separate tenants living on the farm. In 1919 Karolina and Karl Tuomainen purchased the house. The Tuomainens were fishermen and farmers. They kept sheep, cattle and horses.  The Kvens had used horses on their farms in Finland and Sweden, and continued this practice after their immigration to Varanger. Today, the visitor can view harnesses and other tackle exhibited in the stables. The majority of these were made on the farm.

The house was originally built as a Varanger house, where the house and barn were combined under the same roof. This house type is characteristic for the Varanger area, and is a testimony to multicultural influence and climate adaptivity. The house originally had a hall in the middle, with the barn built as an extension at the rear with an internal connection between the two. This was a practical arrangement in Finnmark, where winters, with their frequent gales, are harsh.

In 1928 the main entrance was moved from the southern to the northern side of the house and what had once been the hall was transformed into a kitchen. After the 2nd world war the main building, as far as the stables, was raised half a story; the stable itself was extended and access from it to the main house closed.

The farm’s first sauna was a smoke sauna. Evidence of this can still be found in the soot-blackened roof. At the top of the wall there is a hatch that used to let smoke out. Until 1932 it was one of the Outer City’s public saunas, where once a week the neighbourhood would gather for a sauna. In 1938 the sauna was turned into a workshop. A small ”field forge” for domestic use was installed together with a window to let some light in. In the 1950s the family stopped keeping cattle, and the barn was rebuilt into a new sauna. This sauna is still used every other week by the ”friends of the Tuomainen sauna.”

The Outer City inhabitants also utilised the baking oven at the farm, where, once a week, or every fortnight, they would come to bake their bread. They would often bring wood for payment, firewood being precious in the Vadsø area because the climate here limits tree growth. The bread would be placed to rise on wooden plates under the bakery’s roof. Kuumavesileibä (warm water bread), jälkiarinaleibä (fireplace bread), puolivahva (kven cake) and kalkukko (fish bread) were among the sorts of bread baked. For Christmas several pounds of wheat bread was baked.

From 1938 to 1959 the bakery at the farm was rented to a private bakery. Parts of the outhouse were rebuilt, and became a shop, where bread and cakes were sold. Nowadays, during the summer months, this is the museum shop. The old baking oven has been reconstructed and is now used as a part of the museum’s activities. 15-20 loaves of bread can be baked simultaneously, and the museum has baked buns, Danish pastries, salmon and lamb, all with great success. It is always popular when the bakery is in use at the farm.

Ida Tuomainen and her brother Alf were the last inhabitants of the main house. After they died during the 1980s the farm was bequeathed to the Vadsø city council. Today it serves as a testimonial to their lives, but it also conveys an impression of everyday life in Outer Kven City in the late 1800s.