Around the same time as toilet paper, kitchen rolls, rice and pasta disappeared from the shops, flour disappeared as well. I did manage to buy some before the hoarding began but didn’t know I should have bought more at the time. One day we looked in six stores but the shelves were empty. And the shelves remain empty even today, with a few exceptions and those exceptions are sold out quickly.
It’s not a question of the country having run out of flour. It’s the packaging that can’t keep up with us consumers. The packaging lines for bakeries and restaurants which have been closed for weeks are difficult or impossible to change over to pack in consumer sizes. Now two supermarket chains have begun to pack from big bags into smaller bags. One of them is too far away and the one close by didn’t have any.
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When we arrived in February there were no shortages in supermarkets. Newspapers were saying there is no need for hoarding so of course everyone started hoarding. We didn’t start hoarding, not really, but whenever we went shopping, we bought maybe two instead of one of an item. Each time we did get more coffee, whether there was an immediate need or not. We drink a lot of coffee. Bill has marinated me in coffee.
We arrived here at the end of February. At the time, there were only two Covid cases in Finland and none in the Highlands. However, as we passed through three airports we thought it would be a good idea to self-isolate for two weeks. On arrival we did our shopping. That was a big shop, but we weren’t exactly hoarding. We were back after four months in Finland and all we had was muesli and porridge oats. At this time, there were no shortages on supermarket shelves. I have knitosis. This fact has been established decades ago. It is hereditary. Pretty serious. Even at least two nieces are in a bad way.
I’ve been a lover of rye sourdough bread all my life. My paternal grandmother made amazing rye bread and over the years I have been trying to get there myself. On and off. I’m getting there, gradually. Two years ago I tried to make white sourdough. Beginners luck, the bread was delicious and looked pretty amazing, I thought. Six months later not as pretty but tasty, all the same. Then, a year ago I found a sourdoughbakers’ group on Facebook and now – well, I have sourdoughsis (a great-grandfather had a bakery). A year ago I was reading a book (Keskiajan maut by Satu Hovi, Art House, 2015) on medieval flavours in Finland, that is, ca 1150 – 1500’s. It’s a fascinating book. What did food taste like? What did ordinary people eat? How did different seasons influence what you ate? Food’s position in society, who ate what, how food was used as means of paying your taxes. How food was prepared, what did the utensils look like, how was food preserved. The utensils pictured in the book look just like my grandmother’s old wooden spoons and whisk she used for cooking. Those are my grannie's utensils. By chance I found Charlotte Mendelson’s book Rhapsody in Green; a novelist, an obsession, a laughably small excuse for a vegetable garden. Thank you Country Living UK Nov 2018. The book starts in late winter. I read it in early winter, in the dark, cold, rainy days of November. The perfect book for this time of the year! A real feel-good book.
Throughout the book I was laughing at myself. I found myself on many of those pages. The seed bags I find when looking for something completely different, the nasturtium seeds I planned to pickle as an experiment, the plans on what to do with the huge harvest of a) runner beans (didn’t even grow), b) gherkins (one; tasty and crunchy, but just the one), c) courgettes (three, four per year) d) tomatoes (five to about 50, depending on whether I grew the plant from seed or bought it), e) etc; both at the cottage and on my balcony. Collecting jars, looking for recipes. And going to the supermarket for the goods. I need my espresso with frothed milk in the mornings. After porridge. Over the years I’ve had several different kinds of frothers. There are the battery operated ones and the ones you operate by hand. Finding a manual one small enough for just one cup, or two, is also a challenge. In shops these tend to come in a practical 0,9 litre size. Fine for a family but a big cup for one person.
The battery operated ones make a great froth as long as there’s enough power in the batteries. As the batteries get tired so does the froth. You have to find the right recycling place for batteries. In the end the frothers just die on you even if the batteries are fresh. And the dead gadget is electric waste and, again, you need to find the right recycling place. I tried to use re-chargeable batteries but the ones I had were just teeny weeny bit too fat so that didn’t work. I had been washing windows all day. The pollen season was over and the chap checking and mending the cladding and making a lot of dust had moved to the next building. I had also been making sourdough bread, now resting and proving in the fridge. I got lazy about my evening meal.
I came across this recipe for porridge. With a twist. Cooked in white wine. This, my friends, is what the perfect springwinter day looks like. Not a cloud in sight, temperature somewhere well below freezing, zillions of little diamonds on the snow. They are elusive, very difficult to catch on film. Well, ”film”. The cold period has now been long enough for the sea to have frozen properly, thick enough to carry walkers and skiiers safely. The second hand on my watch had become loose. It was moving around under the glass and every once in a while got stuck with the hour and minute hands and stopped the passage of time completely. I like to support local businesses, so I first went to a watch shop not far from here. That guy sells Expensive Designer Watches and apparently was very busy. He recommended a clocksmiths’ workshop on Hämeentie. He said I could get my watch fixed for 10-20 euros over there, best value for my money, he said. |
AuthorI'm Piisa and I will be sharing with you my thoughts on this and that, maybe even on whatever. Archives
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