Our chef and host Janne Lansipuro talks about Kaarnaranta
The drive to the farm from Vantaa where the airport is located, was beautiful. Very sparsely populated terrain with little farm houses...that simple, beautiful Scandinavian country farm look. Paula told us about the traditional paint colors used on the homes; a rusty red which is made from red earth pigments. A mustard yellow that was called "Russian yellow" and a soft slate colored blue. We are on our way to a B&B called Kaarnaranta. It is located in Isnäs Village (www.isnas.fi). Kaarnaranta works with an organic, bio-dynamic farm called Labby (www.labby.fi). The old city near by is called Porvoo (or Borgå in Swedish). There's been lot of connections with Estonia, the country on the other side of the Gulf of Finland, where they speak a language closely related to Finnish. Thank you Janne for the corrections!
Our chef Janne Lansipuro introduced us to our first course, a soup made with pike, carrot and apples. A hint of citrus...salt and sweet. After 24 hours of traveling, it was absolutely sublime to sit and savor around a long farm table with all our new friends; Sirpamaria, Mikko, Pinja and Paula.
The second course was buckwheat blini with trout roe and Muikku roe, a kind of small herring in the salmon family. Salted mushrooms, sour cream and chopped red onion. I have to say, this dish was a "I have to be by myself for awhile" kind of dish. The slow deliberate mouthfuls were a kind of meditation. God, I love eating like that! Exquisite.
Mikko was telling us about an experiential exhibit they have at Heuruka now about eating. It's a tasting and savoring exercise. I said that if we all learned to eat like that, to be present in the moment with the beautiful food, the earth's bounty, then there is a good chance we could transform our food system. Deliberate, conscious eating could not happen around a Big Mac.
Next course: lamb "parts" in a berry wine reduction and the all too familiar but no less delicious roasted root vegetables. Carrots, parsnips and potatoes in a rosemary olive oil glaze. It was quite good and those oven roasted root vegetables tasted like home!
The last course, baked apple with chocolate, plum and mint sauce. The farm produces herbs and sells them. One of the things they produce is a delicious tea, made with spruce, calendula, corellian mint, peppermint, cinnamon and lemon basil. It was a perfect top off to a wonderful dinner. Thank you Janne!
You will have to bare with me about this food stuff. You see, I think food, and I mean good food...real, whole food, beautifully prepared is an art form. It is beauty and gratitude you can taste and ingest. It is life affirming. It is humbling. So hang in there with me as I take you with me on a gastronomic journey through Finland!
Next stop the sauna!
4 comments:
Glad you are able to post from Finland, great stuff, my mouth is watering and tummy is growling in response. That baked apple sounds amazing, as does everything else. And the sauna....sigh.
Hei Gail,
Thanks for your kind words re the food. It was my pleasure to cook for you.
I few corrections, however (and it is no blame on you- after x hours of flying and jet lag i probably couldn't have followed my rambling, either..):
Our B&B is called Kaarnaranta, it is located in Isnäs village (www.isnas.fi). The organic farm we work with is Labby (www.labby.fi). The old city near by is called Porvoo (or Borgå in Swedish). There's been lot of connections with Estonia, the country on the other side of the Gulf of Finland, where they speak a language closely related to Finnish.
The saw mill in Isnäs was operational till the 1990's. The red pigment in the traditional red paint is from red earth pigments.
It's nice to hear you seem to be having a good time in Finland!
Janne
Your posts are great! My mouth is watering, and i love the historical information!
Love to hear about dishes with pike, which are so plentiful in the Adiondacks. All sounds yummy!
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