16 Apr 2009, Posted by Nora Pouillon in Guests from Washington D.C., 0 Comments

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Aki and Jari met me for breakfast at the hotel. We walked through the old market hall, which is just in front of the hotel and has stores inside, like the Eastern Market in D.C. I bought a great poro skin (reindeer skin). I had a taste of dried poro meat but it was too salty for me.

We started our farm tour and left Helsinki by the scenic route to see the nice villas along the shores, the parks and the great granite boulders. The Finnish landscape is beautiful, serene and calming with the snow-covered fields, the aspen and spruce trees as well as the frozen lakes. There were ice-fishermen on the lakes. Red farmhouses with white trim dot the landscape.

After an hour of driving we came to a small farm called Kolattu where the owners, a couple, made cheese, mostly goat cheese. The couple explained that they used to have goats themselves but it was too complicated with the EU regulations. So now they buy the milk and concentrate on making cheese. They make two-week aged goat cheese, two-month aged feta cheese, and 15-month old cheddar cheese. They are also experimenting with goat brie. Because it was close to Easter they made a special baked egg cheese from cows milk. It is nicely molded cheese that is baked until browned and it tastes like cheesecake or cheese strudel. This couple worked very hard and the women explained that when they were building the business they had four children, one set of twins.

Then we drove on to the Swarfvars, a farm and web-store of organic products. They have 400 customers and the minimum order is 50 Euros. The owner had an original Lapland cow breed, Lapin Leahma or forest cows. He raises his cows for meat and has 20 heads. A local slaughterhouse and processor makes sausages and smokes his meat. He sells fresh vegetables, fruit and dried-goods coming from all over Europe. He buys containers from France to Helsinki. I had a long talk with him about the complications with the EU regulations and how difficult it is to comply with these regulations on a small farm.

Then we drove to Bovik, another farm, again a great couple, both farmers. The woman was from Estonia and he is also a photographer and musician. They had many sheep raised for meat and wool. There were a lot of newborns when we were there. They also raised about 30 old breed cows called kyytto cattle for meat. The farmer was a very intelligent and innovative businessman. He had a store on his property were he sold wool, sweaters and lambskin. Then he had other dwellings including a teepee, which he rented out for company retreats or gatherings. The location was beautiful. The best part is that he receives money from the government to bring his animals to the islands in the summer to graze in order to create a traditional landscape. He mentioned that it makes the meat of his animals taste delicious.

We then went to Waudeville, a micro-green glass-house farm where they grow edible flowers and micro-greens. I was not very impressed.

We drove back to the city and had dinner at a small restaurant owned by Antto and run by Antto’s partner (I forgot his name). It was an interesting restaurant that looks like a small tavern, built into a rock. It had a tiny kitchen and a very small prix-fixe menu. I had a heart of poro carpaccio, herring and pork cheeks in ginger broth. I met some other Helsinki visitors, Travis Price and his guide and Eeris the third partner of Eat & Joy. The food was wonderful, a great concept and talented chef. It was a great evening.