Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Wrightsx4]

I don't know what lingonberries are but the recipe sound delicious!

 

[vehve]

I don't know what lingonberries are but the recipe sound delicious!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingonberry

It's a berry that resembles cranberries a bit in taste. You might know it as cowberry?

Anyway, you can get lingonberry jam at Ikea. It's sweetened, but works in a pinch. To be honest, I often add a bit of sugar to the lingonberries myself, since they are horribly sour. They work quite nicely with almost any kind of meat or fowl. You could actually try cranberries too.

In my opinion, if you have a really good raw material to cook with, you should never use more than five or six tastes, otherwise you're just taking away from the experience.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Hmmm. Ikea is a home furnishing store here. Now that I'm aware of the berry, I'll keep an eye out for it. I bet we can find it dehydrated at least.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Yes ikea is a furniture shop here but I think they have cafe's inside them.

 

[vehve]

Ikea sells a few selected Swedish food items, like lingonberry jam (to go with the Swedish meatballs), real gingerbread, and a Christmas time favorite, "Glögg". Sort of like a non-alcoholic mulled wine type of thing, made mostly from apple juice and spices. Also some candies and desserts that are typically Swedish. And since Sweden and Finland are neighbors, our cuisine shares some similarities.

*Edit* I think actually pretty many Scandinavians living in the States take advantage of this offering, sort of like a piece of home away from home. And yes, it's mainly a furniture store.

 

[Wrightsx4]

If I'm ever near an Ikea I'll stop in. I've heard of it but never have been in one. I rarely go more than a 30 minute drive, which is my drive to work. I live in a small rural area, no large cities for hours. No malls or big department stores, just a grocery, a Kmart and some family owned businesses. A single lane highway is the only main road through town. We do have two stop lights on it now though, lol.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Just finished my Vegemite on cold toast. Waiting for the sun to come up so I can feed the horses and chooks. Your town sounds a bit like ours Pam. One road in and out only we don't have any traffic lights. We are an hour from hobart town.

 

[vehve]

Sounds a bit too small to my likings, but idyllic nonetheless.

 

[vehve]

I've lived in Helsinki all my life. It's the capitol city of Finland, and has a population of about half a million. With the surrounding cities it forms the capitol area where about a million people live. Last fall, we moved out to Kirkkonummi, about 30 kilometers west of Helsinki. So still quite far from rural. I do enjoy the countryside, but I don't think I could live completely in the sticks. I feel that this place has a nice balance. We've got a little forest starting five meters from our front door, and larger woods within a few kilometers. The sea is close by as well. But I can still go to big stores quite easily, and the benefits of a big city are only 25 minutes away. And we can keep a nice little garden, and now even chickens. If someone's interested in where I live, you can look up Rajavartijantie, Kirkkonummi, Finland in google maps. I live right at the end of that road.

Now I'm going to go to bed, my girlfriend says that I'm spending way too much time on BYC. After noticing that I'm in the top 10 posters of the past day, I'm starting to agree with her. I blame her, she's the one who got me interested in these little feathery friends.

 

[katbriar]

What is sweet mustard?

(Had reindeer sausage this winter and enjoyed it! But I'm an adventurous eater.)