Kham Pha
Lapland: The land of summer morning and autumn day is only a few hours long
Lapland is a wild area in the Arctic circle of Finland.With a total area of over 100,000km2, it occupies a large piece on the map of the country that is said to be "Santa's homeland".
The vastness is like that, Lapland has only about 180,000 residents, accounting for about 3.4% of the national population.The cause is very simple, this place is too harsh to be able to live.
In Lapland, a day of summer lasted almost 24 hours.Conversely, when the autumn comes, the sun goes down the mountain as soon as it has just been grown for a few hours.
Just turned to early September, the snowflakes hurriedly fell.In October, they were so thick enough to cover the ground.Winter lasted for 7 months, until April next year, piling up a layer of snow and ice to nearly 2m high.
Interestingly, spring has just come, snow and snow also melt extremely quickly.The ground has germinated again.In the summer, the fruit begins to ripen.Also from this time are the busiest days of local residents.
Residents gathered like primitive in the summer - autumn
In Lapland, plants are mainly birch, willow, jelly and some needles.Because survival in different climates, they form a system that is not the same as anywhere.To live with nature, residents also form a strange practice: positive gathering during the summer-thu-thu, and leisurely resting during the 7 months of cold winter.
Lapland residents spend both the summer-search for mushrooms and berries in the forest
Since ancient times, when the sun was still not going to bed, residents in Lapland took advantage of the daytime light at midnight to work.Instead of sleeping in the bed, they went to the forest to pick up berries and picked up wild mushrooms.
Like everyone, chefs specializing in the Arctic Matti Eemeli Seitamo also followed adults to the forest to pick wild fruits from the time of poetry.Now, he still remembers where to print, there are mushrooms where there are wild fruits.Every summer, Seitamo eagerly spent many days to snuggle and explore in the forest near the house.
With harvested wild mushrooms, he washed and marinated with a mixture of water, vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, rosemary leaves and cinnamon leaves.Done, then divide into the vacuum bags.
With berries, Seitamo kneaded with sugar.Except for the parts that will cook as food right away, all are stored in the refrigerator.
By the end of autumn, just open the freezer of any people in Lapland, you will find it full of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries ...
Do not eat green vegetables, just eat berries and mushrooms
Natural foods are always more nutritious and quality, people in Lapland are sure.Therefore, they do not like to buy but prefer to sword.Despite the supermarket and shops all over the 24/7 service, most residents like to go to the forest and collect food themselves.
Through preliminary processing, they can cook them into food or store in the refrigerator
Throughout the summer, taking advantage of the long day to night, Irene Kangasniemi, a resident of Lapland did not sleep but went to the forest to pick wild fruit.Sang autumn, in her fridge there were about 45kg of berries, enough for the family to eat gradually in the winter.
Strangely in Lapland, people often only eat berries, not green vegetables.But the reason is a bit funny:"There is no green vegetable that grows in this place to eat,"- Kangasniemi explained.
Indeed, Lapland is rich in berries but rarely vegetables.The climate in this place is not suitable for these short -term and poorly resistant plants.
Technology hunters: leisurely thanks to GPS
Of course, people not only need each mushroom and berries.To have a nutritious meal, they also need fresh meat.Autumn has just come, when the trees start to pour the leaves is also the time to hunt.
In Lapland to be allowed to hunt, you have to pass the strict test to get a weapon use license.Before hunting, the hunters also had to ask for permission from the Finnish wildlife office.Depending on the year and the number of wildlife, they may be allowed to hunt 1-2 mature horns, 1-2 deer and 1-2 bears.
Thanks to the support of technology, today's hunting is quite easy
Only about 4am, Kimmo Kähkönen, a Lapland chef and hunter, was neatly, fully prepared from weapons to hunting dogs with GPS equipment.Burning a pile of fire outside the edge of the forest, he sat on heating and glued to the iPad screen to watch the dog's path in the forest.
After about 2 hours of waiting, Kähkönen discovered the dog had stopped moving.Through the recorder, he heard it barking crazy.That is a sign that it has found a wild animal.
Immediately, Kähkönen stood up and entered the forest.About 3 more hours, he came back with a horned deer.Bring "booty" to the veterinary station to check and stamp the censorship, Kähkönen has just conducted dissection.
In Lapland, there is a chef festival that consists of about 50 members who often gather together in the hunting season, share skills, tips for hunting, food storage and hunting dog training.Kähkönen is also in this association.He often meets them to flirt, snack, and drink coffee while waiting for his hunting dog to scour the prey.
In addition to hunting, Lapland also fishing, cleaning and storing in the refrigerator.Their biggest anxiety is that climate change is happening too quickly.It can cause the local ecosystem to be changed, thereby forced all depends on food stores.
Refer to Atlas Obscura