Mare's Garden and Estonian potato salad recipe

We visited Mare and Lembit's house and garden in Tartu, Estonia recently. Arriving as she finished wheelbarrowing for the third time all the chopped wood into a neat pile. The whole garden is an inspirational cornucopia of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables that she has developed over 15 years. We wandered around the garden stuffing our faces with currants, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes while Lumi the cat stalked through the bushes. It really is dramatic the difference in the seasons in Sweden and Estonia from down under. Summer is just lush and green and full of flowers and fruit and winter's a barren desert of snow. (In Australia winter's green and summer's parched and yellow often -in the south of Oz that is. ) Every time we go to Estonia it's warmer and sunnier than Sweden which seems to be afflicted with low, grey clouds in summer that never seem to end and drive you crazy.

Mare out in the garden.

One of her favourites.

The rich magenta red of one of the red currant bushes.

The homemade hothouse. Being able to pick your own tomatoes is what having a garden's all about to me.
Estonian food is pretty simple food and is easy to make. Though whether it really tastes like Estonian food is another thing. To me it's very plain, hearty food, often with a sweet taste. Potatoes and cabbage seem to be in everything. (And lots of meat. I've never seen so much packaged and cured meats in my life in the supermarkets in Estonia.

Estonian Potato Salad (Serves 15)

1 kg potatoes

300 g carrots

300 g pickled cucumber

200 g canned peas

200 g fresh cucumber

2 eggs

1 large onion

400 g sour cream or plain yoghurt

400 g mayonnaise

salt

sugar

Boil the unpeeled washed potatoes and carrots until they are soft. Let them cool and peel. Boil the eggs for about 8 - 10 minutes until they are hard and then peel them. Peel the onion. Dice all the components into small cubes and put them in a bowl. Add peas. Pour in the sour cream, mayonnaise, season with salt and sugar and mix thoroughly. Let it stand for a few hours in a cool place so that the flavours blend together. Decorate with parsley and tomato slices.

Tip: You can also add ham and apples to the potato salad. Enjoy!

(Recipe taken from a book titled 'Traditional Estonian Cooking'  Publisher Tulip OU www.tulip.ee One of the very few books on Estonian cooking in english.)

Summer sauntering in Sverige

 Summer in Sweden is a picture postcard full of green grass, lush foliage and ravishing roses (except when it's raining or hungover with low clouds.) It's absolutely superb while it lasts so you better get outdoors and experience it. Because before you know it, it's gone. I was horrified to realise yesterday that the leaves on our ash tree have already started to turn gold. Well I feel like summers barely begun.

This is our local allotment garden. Supposedly in 1895 the first allotment garden in Sweden was established in Malmö, followed by Stockholm in 1904. The local authorities were inspired by Anna Lindhagen, a social-democratic leader who visited allotment gardens in Copenhagen and was delighted by them. She is said to have met Lenin when he passed through Stockholm from exile in Switzerland on his return trip to Russia after the February Revolution in 1917. She invited him to the allotment gardens of "Barnangen" to show all its benefits. He wasn't impressed. The workers should not be occupied with gardening, they should rather devote themselves to the proletarian revolution according to him. (Wikipedia)

'Be like the flower, turn your faces to the sun'. Kahlil Gibran

Our beautiful rose bush.

Rain and Ruins

We took a quick trip up to Uppsala on Sunday since it was going to be sunny and it's nice to get out and see the countryside. I also wanted to take some photos of Uppsala Cathedral though by the time we got there of course the weather had changed and it was grey and spitting. But I got a few good photos of the interior of the cathedral.

The architecture of Uppsala Cathedral (1435) is classified in art history as Baltic International Gothic style (started around late 1300's). You can see some of the features of gothic architecture clearly in the photo- the ribbed vaults of the ceiling and the pointed arches.  

Here's the ruin of St Karin's Church in Visby, Gotland. St Karins belonged to one of Swedens first Franciscan monasteries, founded in 1233. By the early 14th century the popularity of the Franciscan order was calling for a new church so St Karins was widened and tall, fine (gothic) windows were installed. You can see the same features- the pointed arches and buttresses of the vault- in both the above photos. These features allowed churches to have more windows. But how and why were the most amazing windows in history- the rose windows-  suddenly created (the top photo of the rose window at Uppsala is a simple one. Here's one at Chartres Cathedral) . The incredible dazzling beauty of these windows seem to come out of nowhere. And then disappear.

Read more:

Up to Uppsala.
Medieval Magic: Gotland Sweden

 The medieval growth of Visby.

PDF about Gotlands churches