Tuesday, August 31, 2010

On a Mouse Hunt

Soon moose hunting season starts here in Sweden and we are on our warm-up - on a mouse hunt! ;-)

Lately we heard a lot of rustling and peeping under our house (standing on piers) - MICE!

Normally mice and cheese go together but we used German salami - very efficient! Within a few days we caught eight mice - enough for a mice goulash - and today there were even two mice in one trap...they just can't get enough...look for yourself!


P.S. No worries, we didn't actually eat them! ;-)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Pickled and Smoked Whitefish

A few days ago we wrote about how we begin to fill up our winter stocks with blueberries. The last days were dedicated to whitefish, which we wrote about in one of our earlier posts when we had our first potatoes with pickled whitefish from last year.

Whitefish is not only good as pickled fish but also very tasty smoked. We prefer smoked whitefish to smoked perch as it's a fattier fish. Smoked perch is quite dry. In fact, the taste of smoked whitefish reminded us a bit of mackerel.

Smoked Whitefish
First we dry the fish, then cook it and afterwards smoke it.


Cooked


Smoked


Pickled Whitefish
Cut the filets in pieces, season and flour them

Frying prepared whitefish pieces over open fire

Fried whitefish filet pieces 
(Looks delicious, doesn't it?! Well, you may take a bite here... but...one step missing for pickled fish!)

Preparing the vinegar pickle

Got hungry?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Blue of Berries - Blueberries

Autumn is knocking on our door and it's time to fill our winter stocks. With the first frost the yummy blueberries will get wizenly and that's it then.

Picking them is very time consuming. It takes ages if you want many kilos...


The Scandinavian equipment for picking blueberries (and cranberries) looks like this:


Take a bucket, two collectors and a sieve...


...Svempa helping...or sth like that... ;-)


There you go! Doesn't look too bad actually...


...and now we'll get the reward! Some of the famous Swedish Fil (curdled milk) with fresh blueberries and if you like some honey. Yum, yum!

Want some, too???

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Hiking The Bear's Ring (Karhunkierros)

Time is flying! A week ago we finished our hiking tour in Ruka, north-east of Finland. We hiked the Karhunkierros (Bear's Ring) in the Oulanka National Park. We did 80km in five days from north (Hautajärvi) to south (Ruka).




The trail is very well marked, quite frequented and if you don't want to rely on free spaces in one of the huts along the trail you bring a tent with you as we did. On the one hand it means more baggage to carry with you but on the other hand freedom and some privacy.

In the beginning of the tour it rained a lot and on the third day we had some difficulties to keep our clothes and shoes! dry. That's when we used one of the huts for a night.

However, during the last two days weather changed and we could enjoy the beautiful views over the Ruka area. Quite a hilly area actually. We walked it at the end of the tour as our backpacks got lighter (less food) and - as odd as it may sound - felt much more fit after three days of hiking (getting used to carrying heavy backpacks and long distances).

The trail is good for beginners because there are several exits along the trail leading back to a road and civilization. At many places along the trail there are even given the exact coordinates in case of emergencies along with a number you should call in such events. Never seen anything like it!

Every few kilometers there are either shelters, huts and fire places with fire-wood, an axe and a saw free to use. A good thing is that they are close to water so you never have a problem with having to carry too much water with you.
Personally we thought the trail was a bit too frequented but that of course depends on the season.

If you have never done a multi-day hiking trip and need hiking equipment or more information about organizing such a trip or just want to play safe going on a guided tour we can recommend booking a tour with Lotta from Hiking in Finland. We met her on the trail and she was very open and helpful.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Hiking & Canoeing (video)

Finishing our video of the month took a little longer than expected as so much has been going on lately. Despite holiday guests, gardening work, renovating we met some lovely people from southern Sweden and Ukraine. Bless you guys and have a safe journey back home!

So here is our video from July about hiking and canoeing in the Swedish Fjäll (mountains). Enjoy!



Monday, August 2, 2010

Boletus Day

Wow! What a day! We've never seen so many and we didn't even look for them - boletus that is. Actually we wanted to go for a walk and swim afterwards but they just smiled at us... one after the other... Anne started collecting and soon Jan got infected and it was the two of us collecting until 2 1/2 bags were full. Now we are convinced that YES it's a good mushroom year!

This is the result after about two hours:
Unfortunately over half of them had worms inside but there were still plenty left for drying. Our winter stock is filling up...

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