Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The REAL meaning of "Harvest Season"


Remember... I am a city girl! I'm not accustom to having the forest so close by.  It was hilarious the first time that I asked for some carrots for dinner and they just pointed to where they were.  At that point I just nodded and walked straight to the location they pointed. I looked around trying to locate the carrots not knowing that I actually had to pull them out of the ground.  Are you kidding me?!?!?!  Pull them from the ground?!?!?!  Why would anybody do that, when you can just go to the market and buy them??  I felt really stupid, there I was standing in front of the most natural way you can get a carrot and I was arguing because I had to get my hand dirty picking them from the ground.


Hilarious?!?!?! Nope... more in the lines of Frustration!!!  How on earth was I going to survive in this place? 

As I mentioned in my previous post... We had arrived to Kuusamo just in time for the Harvest Season.  All I have to say it's been a difficult but rewarding journey!  During these past months I've learned how families get together for the collecting of potatoes... (that was an exhausting day!), how you can actually receive a call from a nearby house to let you know that their red currant bushes have produce more berries that what they need and you can come by and help yourself, how a family on a perfect Sunday afternoon goes to the forest to pick lingonberries and this is consider as "time with the family".  As I said before, it's been very interesting! I have to admit that between my moments of frustration, I actually had fun.  But coins always have two sides!  I can say that I have been the entertainment of the season for my boyfriend's family and closest friends.  Why do I say this?!? Well, here you have a city girl asking all these "Dah!" questions about things that are so obvious to them.  "No question is a stupid question?!?!?!", think again....


What for them was usually cause of a laugh, for me was usually cause of a frustration.  Handing me a "thing-a-magigar" to pick berries from the forest and expecting me to know what on earth to do with it was priceless.  Handing me a bucket in a potato field and telling me to go pick potatoes without explaining the process was once in a life time experience. Bringing like 6 cabbages to the house and telling me that I had to mash all of them without a thrall explanation, just letting me know that they were meant for preserves (sauerkraut).  Taking me to a swamp to pick mushrooms and first expecting me to pick the mushrooms from that type of soil and then expecting me not to have an anxiety attack between so many branches together and knowing that at any minute a toad could just jump out and scare the SH#*% out of you.  These are things I will never forget!  Too many "First Times" in one Harvest Season if you ask me!