So, How Did We Get Here?
So, How Did We Get Here?
Every story has a beginning, and ours starts long before Arctic winters, farm life, and hospitality entrepreneurship were ever part of the picture. Before the -30°C mornings and frozen eyelashes. Before the brewery, the restaurant, and the guesthouse. Before the family of six.
In 2012, I was a 25‑year‑old product designer from , fully immersed in the creative industry and the pace that comes with big-city life. On paper, I was on a traditional creative path. But life rarely follows the paper version, the linear projection.
That was the year I met Kaisa.
There were no grand predictions then — only shared dreams, long shared dinner dates on Skype calls (remember Skype?), meals eaten miles apart but together on-screen, and that unmistakable feeling that this connection was something solid. Something rare.
In October of that year, I flew back to see her — and that’s when we officially fell in love.
We talked endlessly about what we wanted from life. Our ambitions. Our values. The kind of future we imagined. It was the first and most important conversation of our relationship, one that still grounds us today, more than a decade later.
Life took us between Finland and the UK:
We built a long-distance rhythm
We visited each other whenever finances allowed
We made plans, big ones
We created a shared bucket list
And eventually, we welcomed our first child
Becoming parents didn’t close our world; it expanded it. We promised each other, that we would never let parenthood dim the ambitions we had been shaping since 2012. This became the second defining conversation of our relationship.
2013 Winter
Visiting Kaisa’s family for the first time with 6 month old Freya outside of Haapala house.
We bought a house. We adopted a dog. We travelled to Iceland , where I proposed to Kaisa. And somewhere between all of that, we looked at each other and said:
“It’s time. Let’s push forward. Let’s switch things up.”
So, we rented out our house, packed our lives into two suitcases, put the dog on a lead, picked up our baby, and moved into a tiny apartment in Jyväskylä.
The story could have gone anywhere from there — but ours led north, into the wild and beautiful heart of Arctic Lakeland.
This wasnt the actual Iceland propsoal, it was two days after up a mountanside. Iceland changed us, and will forever hold a special plave in our hearts.
9 months old Freya came on all our adventure, a trend that continues.
The Pull of Finland
People often ask why we chose Finland, specifically Arctic Lakeland and the Kainuu region. How does someone raised in busy, urban, overstimulating London willingly trade everything for long winters, sub-zero months, and deep rural quiet?
The answer is layered.
1.Kaisa’s Roots — A Sense of Belonging I Didn’t Yet Have
Every time we visited her family home, a 5th‑generation farm with history stretching back to 1868, I felt something I couldn’t quite name. Something steady. Reassuring. Like being wrapped in soft quiet.
The old building had lived many lives:
A bank. A post office. A priest’s home. A school. A community hub.
Its walls were thick with stories. Tradition. Purpose.
And every visit felt like a deep exhale — a Nordic spa for the soul, long before we ever dreamed of designing guest experiences or building a hospitality brand rooted in calm, authenticity, and nature.
2.The Dream We Didn’t Yet Realise
In the very early days, “Haapala” wasn’t a place, it was a notebook. A concept. A dream.
HAAPALA V1, a restaurant concept in Helsinki, celebrating Kainuu flavours, cooked by Kaisa, with branding, service design, and experience crafted by me.
But then the phone rang:
“We’re retiring. What will happen to Haapala next?”
Suddenly the path shifted:
Haapala in Helsinki was out.
Haapala at Haapala was in.
The dream grew a home before we even asked for one.
3.A Slower, Safer Lifestyle
We wanted a place to raise our family that felt calmer, cleaner, gentler a stark contrast to my commute:
3 hours a day on a train or motorcycle, on top of 8–10 hours working in central London. Plus travel around the world on global supply chains meant time away from our new born daughter.
The Finnish countryside offered the opposite:
Quiet roads. Space. Safety. Time.
October, 2013 the first time I witnessed Aurora Borealis - Northern lights over a Lake in Sotkamo, Arctic Lakeland.
4. The food culture
Finnish gastronomy much like its other Nordic neibours, may not have global fame like French or Italian cuisine, but it has something else: depth, subtlety, roots, a deeply seasonal nature.
In Arctic Lakeland, especially near Vuokatti Ski resort, we realised something surprising:
No one was championing local, slow, authentic Kainuu flavours in a meaningful way.
The opportunity was sitting in front of us.
5. The wilderness + weather
As someone from Western Europe, the difference hit me immediately:
The air, crisp and clean.
The water, pure, smooth, untouched by chemicals.
The silence, less people - less polution, light polution, noise polution.
The winters, humbling and awe-inspiring.
There’s nothing like stepping outside and having your nose hairs freeze instantly. There’s nothing like the weight of an Arctic winter sky reminding you how small you are.
And then, in summer, those rare but glorious +30°C days.
A 70C‑degree annual swing, the living in the subbtle extremes, the adaptability to survive, this was a slow adventure in itself.
What we brought with ys (and what we didn’t).
If this were a story about security, we wouldn’t be telling it. We didn’t move with stability. Or a perfect plan. Or a safety net.
We moved with:
a baby
a dog
two suitcases
two passports
a temporary student position for Kaisa
a shared vision
a lot of uncertainty
We sold nearly everything, including all my motorbikes (yes, it still hurts), we didnt have a car to sell, and rented out our home earlier than planned. I stayed behind for three months to finish work and secure the house rental, flying out whenever I could.
We lived on faith, grit, and a stubborn belief that together, we could build something meaningful.
In November 2015, I finally joined my family in Finland and that’s when the real work began.
The first years: chaos + purpose (2015–2018)
People say moving is one of the most stressful things you can do.
For us, moving country on a small budget with a baby wasn’t the peak of stress, it was merely an essential step we had to take to strive towards our brighter future to build together. Just one small, on a Marathon journey together.
Renovating the old dairy
By January 2016, only weeks after arriving, we started planning and fundraising for the future business. In February, we decided if we wanted a second child, it needed to happen before renovations became too intense.
Couple of months later, we were blessed with another positive test, Kaisa was carrying our second child. Mission accomplished.
Back to the grind towards our future, every weekend after Monday-Friday studying and rainsing a family on a shoe string, Friday at 16:00 we drove 5 hours north to Haapala with 1 year olf Freya and Dexter the dog in tow:
Fridays: 16:00 Jyväskylä → Sotkamo (5 hours)
Saturdays: 7:00-19:00 Work 12-hour days on the barn → Sleep
Sundays: Work Sunday morning → Drive back home another 5 hours 13:00-18:00.
Monday: back to studying. Eat. Sleep: Repeat.
It was hard, enjoyable because we were together, a shared purpose and vison, but not without many challenges. We had no shortage of passion, vision, courage/ naivety. Time and money, these were the hardest.
Time! We struggled to fit it all in an still leave time for us and each other.
Money! Money was even harder to come by than time, and whilst studying and opening doors projected 2 years away we new its wasn’t going to turn around any time soon, this was planned, and known, but living that way whilst staying mentally strong and true to your vision without losing sight is the key to success. Money was so tight that the car was often fuelled just enough for the next destination.
Once, we were not so lucky, running on fumes (us and the car) we completely ran out of fuel in -1°C with a baby in the car. Luckily, we found a house with people in, the kind couple rescued us with a petrol can and 5 litres of fuel.
We never told anyone, until now of course. To ashamed I think on reflection of being accused of being irresponsible, for us at least it was being incredibly focussed on building a dream that being this poor was part of that sacrifice but we knew not all though the same, why should they, they couldn’t see our vision. Vulnerability felt like a luxury we couldn’t afford.
Learning everything from scratch
Hospitality, construction, renovation, fundraising, entrepreneurship, branding, operations, nothing came pre-learned. We built every skill the slow way: by living it. we had no contacts in these areas, and with a tiny budget everything had to be learned, skills honed and put into proactise often all of them multplie times an day for over 2 years until open, and of cource the learnign doesn end there. neith do the sacrifices.
Parenthood without a safety net
Being an international couple meant living far from both families at different times, no matter where we lived. Especially during our Jyväskylä years nearest friends were 3 hours away, nearest family 5 hours away, my family, 15 hours away.
No babysitters. No weekend help. No easy breaks. Yet at the same time it was so exciting, eveything was new, scary and exciting all at the sme time. But we had each other, and a ridiculous amount of determination.
Building Haapala BnB Oy
The idea became a plan.
The plan became a company.
The company became a building site.
The building site became a business.
Today, at time of writing in early spring 2026, Haapala is:
8 years open
10 years registered
12 years since the original idea
And still growing.
The brewery + restaurant & accomodation
This deserves its own blog post, a full two-year adventure of building something entirely new in the region. We’ll share that soon.
The family
Also growing, 4 kids (yes we had two more after open), 2 Dogs, Kaisa and I.
The places
We have since opened 2 further venues, Pioppo - napoli pizzeria and craft beer taproom, Kuppi & Kaneli- artisinal bakery and coffee shop.
Seasons, struggles, growth
Seasonality in Arctic Lakeland is a rollercoaster.
Beautiful — but brutal.
Predictable — but extreme.
Rewarding — but demanding.
Every year gave us more grit, more clarity, and more purpose.
What is Arctic Farm Table?
Our new platform — Arctic Farm Table — brings all the pieces of our life together:
Arctic
The atmosphere, the seasons, the raw beauty of Lapland-adjacent life.
Farm
Heritage, roots, the 5th‑generation family story we’re continuing.
Table
Hospitality, gastronomy, connection, and everything that happens when people gather to eat.
Arctic Farm Table is:
our family’s story
the behind-the-scenes of our work
our food and farm lifestyle
our business journey
our Arctic life in all its simplicity and wildness
Why we’re telling our story now
From 2015 to 2026, life didn’t leave much room for documenting anything.
We were:
moving
renovating
learning Finnish (bloody hard)
having four children (also hard but easier than finnish language)
building five businesses across three venues
navigating a pandemic as new business owners…
surviving economic turbulence
adapting to border closures, inflation, and labour shortages
For a decade, every hour went to keeping life moving.
Only now, finally, do we have the mental space to reflect, write, and share. time though, the slow pace is still a challenge, maybe just the way were built or maybe we suffer Stockholm Syndrome, learnt behaivour from the years of punishment to build the future we so badly craved.
Arctic Farm Table is our way of opening the door.
To tell the full story.
To celebrate the beauty of slow Nordic life.
To honour the simplicity of Nälkämaa — the “hunger lands” — and its food culture.
To show the highs and lows of family, farm, and entrepreneurship in one of the quietest corners of Europe.
Now feels like the right moment.
The Future
We’ve done a lot in the past 10 years — and yet, in many ways, we’re just getting started.
We’re in our thirties.
If we’re lucky, we have another 30–40 years to build, grow, create, and share.
There are big plans ahead.
New chapters.
Untold stories.
Work we can’t wait to show you.
And Arctic Farm Table will be the place where it all unfolds.
A warm Invitation, join us at the table
If you’re curious about:
Arctic life
Finnish farm heritage
Real hospitality
Nordic gastronomy
Building a life from scratch
Or simply following a family who decided to leap before they had guarantees
—we’d love to have you at our table.
Subscribe below and follow the next steps of our journey.
We're grateful you're here.
Craig
The full crew in Haapala Pirtti room, summer 2024.
