Suomen mansikat

There are many things to celebrate in the short Finnish summers, and I discovered my favorite a couple of days ago. It is the Finnish strawberry, or Suomen mansikka (SUO men MAHN seek kah). The outdoor markets livened up again sometime in early May with the earliest produce: some local produce, most of it grown indoors, and some imported fruits and vegetables. The strawberries at this time were imported from Spain and Portugal. It had been months since I last ate a fresh strawberry, and I pounced on these giant, deep-red beauties. They tasted good, definitely strawberry, but they were giant, their skins were a little tough, and it took a few days for them start making juice. Nothing out of the ordinary from the grocery store variety that I was accustomed to in the U.S. In a conversation with friends, the Finns began discussing when strawberry season might start. Kindly, they turned to me and said, "Do not make the mistake of buying the strawberries from Spain, they just do not compare to ours." Too late! I had just enjoyed a heaping spoonful on my oatmeal this morning! Could they smell it on me? I kept my mouth shut to prevent a confession and to obscure any seeds that my toothbrush might have missed. 

And so I lived for a few weeks, enjoying sliced Spanish strawberries with my breakfast. Until one day in early June, our local produce stand had a small section of mansikat with Suomi written below it. They were 2€ more expensive than the Spanish berries, but I thought a little splurge was probably worth it. That and the Finns had complained about the higher price of their strawberries, but said that would never stop them from buying local berries over imports. As soon as I got home, I popped open the box and selected one for washing and devouring. I knew in an instant that consuming strawberries from Spain had indeed been a mistake. The Finnish berries were smaller, maybe the size of a ping pong ball at the largest, bright red, and with just a faint citrus taste. 

Strawberry season started as a trickle of berries and they have peaked early, I am told, thanks to the heat wave we experienced in early June (P.S. The weather is still better here than on the continent!). The strawberries are harvested mostly by migrant workers from Estonia and Russia, however they are scheduled to arrive in early July. So it shamefully seems that many berries will be left in the fields. The Finnish berries are at a season low price now and people are scooping them up by the kilo. Conveniently, the berries come in 5 kg (~11 lbs) box for your preserving.

What to do with so many berries? Freeze them, make them into jam, and eat a few, of course! It was very convenient that the forecasted sunny afternoon had turned rainy. My hands are still tinged red, and we are thankfully no longer at risk of having to eat Spanish strawberries again until next spring when we have forgotten just why not to buy them.

Hyvää Juhannusta!

Happy Midsummer! Friday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. In Helsinki, the longest day clocks in at 18h, 55m, 53s (the Finns LOVE numbers and have fantastic record-keeping and statistics of all kinds). That means that the sunrise was at 3:54 AM and the sunset was at 10:50 PM. During the roughly 5 hours of night, it doesn't get completely dark. There is of course, dusk and dawn to extend the day a bit, and in between, there remains a faint glow in the sky. Further north in Finland in the Lapland region is truly the land of the midnight sun. From about June 7 until roughly July 6, there is no sunset. This is what it looked like at 11:00 PM this weekend:

Even 19 hours of sunlight is difficult to imagine until you experience it. You think that it wouldn't be so strange and that in fact, wouldn't it be great to have a few extra hours of light? That is what we always ask: a few more hours in the day. However, the extended days sneak up on you and tinker with your internal clock. The middle of the day is no different, but you start to find that dinner time becomes later and you tend to sit at the table longer. Once you finally realize that it is 8:30 and that you should put the now-cold left-overs in the fridge and get on with the evening, you think that it is kind of already too late to start some laundry, or to do the other things on your list for the night. Instead you go for a short walk or bike ride because it looks like it is about 6:00 outside. But the short excursion also turns out to be much longer than planned, pushing back your bedtime by nearly an hour. Oh well, you think, I am not so tired and it's so light that it's hard to sleep anyway, despite my east-facing windows and black-out curtains. You finally fall asleep only to wake on your own a few hours later to bright and beautiful sunshine, cursing your alarm for not going off before learning that it is only 4:00 AM. It is thus that your sleep deprivation begins. Strangely, you don't really notice your sleep deficit at first; the sun seems to provide extra energy to make you forget that you are getting less sleep. Then about every 4-5 days or so, you crash. Hard. And sleep for 10+ hours only to repeat the cycle all over again. I am beginning to think that this may be part of the reason that Finns are the highest per capita consumers of coffee.

Back to Juhannus (YOU-han-news). This translates to mid-summer, which I think is nearly correct as I think that we are about half-through summer here in Finland. Juhannus may seem like a small thing to celebrate, but it is the most popular holiday after Christmas. It is a national holiday and flag day and on Friday, all of the shops must close at noon for the rest of the weekend and mass transit operates a Sunday schedule the entire weekend. This holiday is a little different from the rest, though. First, there is no dedicated pulla. Second, Helsinki turns into a ghost-town, the stuff of apocalyptic movies. It is the unofficial start to the summer holiday (most Finns are entitled to 30+ working days of vacation a year, and what's more... they take it!), and most people escape city life for their countryside cottage. Not only do they leave, they high-tail it out of town en masse. It is the one time of the year that there are traffic jams in Helsinki.

The traditions of Juhannus are age-old. Lasting from pagan times are bonfires on the beaches. There is no witch-burning here as there is in Denmark, but it likely originated to ward off evil spirits, too. The Finnish Swedes dance and sing around a Maypole, something borrowed from continental Europe. Juhannus used to be a very popular time for weddings as all of the workers had a day off, giving family a chance to travel for a wedding. However, this tradition died with easier traveling and not wanting to give up the holiday weekend for a wedding. Most of all, Juhannus is a time for people to be with their families, surrounded by nature, to have a sauna, and to cook food on a grill. We lucked out on the weather this year and had beautiful days to celebrate summertime. Happy Midsummer!

Helsinki Happenings

This post is a few weeks in the making, so it is picture-packed and a bit out of date. Allow me to brag a bit: early June in Finland was warmer than it was in much of continental Europe! Perhaps the squeaky wheel gets the grease? However you want to explain it, the sunny and breezy mid-70's weather was an absolute delight. This weather lasted about a week and now we have highs around 60 and occasional days of light rain.

Screen shot from Finnish Meteorological Institute

We are approaching 18.5 hours of daylight. This means that the sun rises just before 4 and sets at 10:45. I have empirically discovered that light-blocking curtains only block a certain amount of light, especially on east-facing windows. Recently, I have been waking at every hour starting at 3:30 just absolutely certain and panic-stricken that I had missed my alarm. I think it is time to dig out the sleep mask I use while flying. Only another week until we reach the top of the roller coaster of daylight and begin the steep fall to 6 hours of daylight.

Since the spring/summer weather has arrived, there have been ample opportunity to spend time outside. Each weekend is filled with at least one outdoor event. Here are a few of the sights we've come across in the last few weeks:

Hanami
There is a Japanese-style park in our neighborhood with over 120 cherry trees. Hanami is Japanese for Cherry Blossom Festival. The day long event featured several traditional Japanese events.

Siivouspäivä

The people of Helsinki realized that during their spring cleaning, they were throwing away tons of items that were still good that they just didn't use anymore. Much of this ended up in the landfill. Being the environmentally-conscious people that they are, a city-wide garage sale was organized. This biannual event has been a big hit. People who are selling items register online with their location and categories of items for sale. There is even an app for that. These events have been organized with the second-hand shops and electronics recycling centers and they have temporary collection centers around the city for the items left over at the end of the day.

North Karelia Festival
The Senate Square was filled with tents selling handicrafts and stages with performers from the Finnish region of North Karelia. Most of the rest of Karelia was lost to Russia after the Winter War (winter of '39 - '40). We had no idea this was going on and just happened upon it while out and about enjoying the weather. Here is a map of North Karelia and a few pictures from the festival:

Wildlife
Not surprisingly, there exists here some different wildlife than what I was familiar with in Iowa. Most frequently, I see European red squirrels:

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Snails:

And finally, hares. This one has been wandering around our neighborhood for the last 2 months and it has been a challenge to get a good picture of it. It has very keen hearing and as in the children's story, is very fast. Brent and I try to pull out our phones as fast as we can whenever we see it, and still have not gotten very good pictures of the hare. Here is the best we have achieved so far:

Can you see it? Here's some help:

In person, he stood out clearly, but review of the pictures suggest that his camouflage is quite effective. These have been the sights of Helsinki that we have taken in over the last few weeks. Hope you are enjoying the start to your summer!