Närpes

Närpes (Finnish: Närpiö) www.narpes.fi is a town in Ostrobothnia, Finland.

Närpes is the Tomato Capital of Finland. In the greenhouses all around the local people grow the main harvest of finnish tomatos all year around. If you buy Finnish tomatos in any supermarket in Finland, chances are they come from here. And people are proud of that fact. Otherwise this place is spread out over a large foresty area and you need a car to get around.

Närpes is unilingually Swedish and thus many of the inhabitants do not speak Finnish that well, so it's probably much easier to speak English than to express Finnish "survival sentences" in the town. The town has its own, ancient Swedish dialect swedia.ling.umu.se, so understanding the local lingo can be a real challenge, even for native Swedish-speakers.

• Car
• Buses from Vaasa (Vasa) and Pori (Björneborg)

• Car, distances too wide

• The old church has one unique thing: over 150(!!!) little log houses which were built as stables so local people travelling all the way to Sunday church could keep them safe.

Tomatos

To Kaskinen (Kaskö), an idyllic harbour town, an enclave of Närpes and the smallest town of Finland.