"Baking and meeting people is the best thing I know."

Alma was only 14 years old when she started the summer café in 2017 with two of her classmates on the View in Storuman. There were two summers before she took over the business with her family. This year, Alma celebrates her tenth summer in the view.

"Baking and expressing my creative side is the most fun thing I know," says Alma, who likes people coming and fiking with her up on the View that’s on top of the slalom back.

I also meet a lot of people when I have dinners, memorials and weddings. You’ll see so many pages of people and participate in the important events of their lives. It is great fun.

Alma Ludvigsson has always loved baking. Already in the ninth when it was time to choose high school, she felt that office jobs weren’t for her. She had run the summer café a couple of summers with two classmates and the choice fell on the restaurant and food program in Östersund.

When the comrades jumped off one by one, she chose to run the café herself on the third summer using her mother and grandmother. And on that road it is.

A real family business

During Alma’s second year in high school, the café building, which previously served as a heating cottage, was placed on sale by the then owner Hotel Toppen, who in turn bought the building of the outdoor promotion. Alma's parents, who run gasoline, were not late to nap. They had seen how much Alma burned as a pastry and letting her continue to run the café seemed a matter of course. Said and done, they bought the house and despite the somewhat tough start when she was rowing both the study and the café, Alma has continued to run the View with the help of the family.

They just thought it was very fun that I wanted to bet on it. My teacher also supported me. I had to bake cookies in the apartment and my mother and grandmother also helped.

Nowadays nursing Alma all baking and cooking all the food, but surely it helps to have a family that supports. Her mother dishes and cloths and handles the papers while her father, cohabitant and two brothers are helped with security and other technical needs to be fixed.

"It's really a family business, but it's me who's the face out," Alma said.

There was also a pandemic in between. Then they painted and freshened the premises, and people had to sit outside and cook.

"It was exciting, but I had the summer season in the back of my head. We were three girls who were going to start a business and there were some troubles and jokes, but we had learned a lot.

Extra jobs as a fitter

Plans are available to develop the business and the hope is that she will be able to run the Views full-time, but at the moment the café keeps the summer open and during the winter months she receives cake orders and has catering activities for calories, weddings and memorials. As an extra work during the off-season, she works as a tutor at Råsunda Mechanical, and is fortunate to decide the schedule.

"I have a very good boss who lets me come and go the way I want as long as I finish before it’s time for delivery.

Driving companies and working in Storuman is perfect, says Alma, who immediately wanted to come back here when she took the student.

"Much because I have the family here, but also because I knew I wanted to continue developing the view. But then it’s fun that everyone knows everyone, I’m a real pladder maja who likes to talk to people. As soon as I walk outside the door, I meet someone I know. And then it is about being close to nature. The whole family is chasing and spending a lot of time outside.

Development with an anniversary

Alma is thinking about the benefits of living and working in Storuman, perhaps for someone who is thinking about moving here or staying.

– Vill man gå på stan och shoppa en lördag kanske Storuman inte är optimalt, men är man en naturmänniska är det perfekt. Det är ett väldigt nära samhälle, alla vill hjälpas åt och finnas för varandra.

I skrivande stund håller stugan på att byggas ut med en gammal timmerstuga från Gunnarn, och förhoppningen är att kunna inviga i mitten på maj, lagom till ett viktigt jubileum.

–Pappa fyller 60 och brorsan 30 så vi ska ha 90-årskalas.

Text: Monica Wiksten Gideonsson
Photo by Madeleine Rinman