A Finnish Summer Dream: Mökki

I turn my car up the gravel road, there are the familiar sounds of the wheels when accelerating a little – not too much as there are some bumps on the road. I am just leaving my “mökki” and returning back home. Mökki is cottage in Finnish, often us Finns automatically understand lakeside cottage under mökki. I would have loved to stay longer. Days at the mökki are spent sunbathing on the jetty, rowing on the lake, heating the sauna, bathing and swimming in the lake. Morning joga-stretching on the verandah. Enjoying the stunning summer nights from the verandah and the peace and quiet that surrounds you. Here, at my mökki, my soul truly rests and even though it is sad to leave, I leave with reloaded batteries.

Urbanization is a fairly recent feature in Finland. Only fifty years ago, most Finns lived in the countryside. Today, most Finns live in cities and towns, and very many have a cottage in the countryside. There are half a million cottages to where Finns escape city life every weekend and for a longer time in the summer. At the cottage, life is always good. Sauna, freshly caught fish grilled by the camp fire and peace and quiet is pretty much all Finns need at the cottage. We dress in “cottage clothes” that are old and faded, very but comfortable. I have to smile when thinking back of the outfits I have been wearing the past days… Well, soon holidays are over and it is power suits and high heels again. I bet I will be thinking back at the very comfortable combination of woolen socks and Crocs after walking a day in heels. Or my all time favourite, a faded and stretched out giant t-shirt right from the 80’s.

As I get further and further away from my cottage I ask myself can anyone understand the importance of a mökki for a Finn? Can non-Finns relax as well as us in a simple cottage in a stunning location? Do others also appreciate the peace and quiet and most importantly: do they share our strange love for old and faded cottage clothes? The drive home will take a while and I have my phone equipped with headset, so I might just as well find out.

I call my German friend. He is a Finland fan and I know he has been renting a cottage in Finland once. It is to be stated, that he enjoys exactly the same things as I do at the cottage. Except for the clothes-thing, which he cannot understand. And the sauna is not heated daily, but several times in a week, however. In my thoughts I also go back in time to the years I lived in Switzerland and worked in the travel industry. Several Swiss tour operators offered rental cottages and as far as I know, the demand has been increasing through the years. As I have time, I call a friend in London. She is a true city-girl, but says she dream of a retreat to a place where beautiful nature surrounds her and she can “just be”. I do not even ask her about the clothes, as I know she would look chic in the midst of a forest…

The fact that there are no close neighbours, that the cottage is directly by a pure-watered lake and the beauty and tranquility of nature are the desired things on a cottage holiday. You need a car to get to the cottages and Finland is easy to travel in thanks to the lack of traffic and still we enjoy a safe country with low rates in crime. Perfect setting and circumstances for a cottage retreat!

Luckily there are numerous rental cottages in Finland, this makes the Finnish Summer Dream into reality for many and many Finns and non-Finns every year.

Have a look at some rental cottages:

Ollilan Lomamajat

LomaLopotti

Rukan Salonki

Isokenkäisten Klubi

Oivangin Lomakartano

One of the largest selection of cottages in the whole country is found on the website of Wild North.

Santa has been spotted in Kuusamo!

You can believe I was amazed when I saw Santa sitting by the shores of Lake Vuotunki as I was out rowing on a sunny summer afternoon. There he was, the great man himself. Just enjoying the beautiful summer’s day, bathing his feet in the lake. I just had to row a shore to have a chat with him. How do you address such an important person, is he for real?

Well, as soon as Santa sighted me, he started chatting. Saying he came out here to relax a while. His cottage is here and we all know cottages are perfect places to relax at. Santa was holding a fishing pole

- Any catch today, Santa? I asked

- It is not the catch that is important, it is the excuse to sit here and enjoy the afternoon. Santa replied, lifting the line out of the water… there was no bait on the hook, so fishing was not really on his mind.

I sat down close to Santa and asked him how he is enjoying the summer, must be lovely to have some holidays after the busy Christmas season?

- We are quite busy in the summer time, the toy workshops run on full speed. Some elves have been sent out to the world to research on what kind of toys and gifts the children will want this year. We also do a lot of planning, how to make it to all the homes in time. So a moment here by the lake is just perfect to relax…

We sat there chatting for a while, the great man and me. One thing that Santa does not miss in the summer is making the sauna “vastas”, the small bunches of birch twigs that are used in the sauna throughout the year. In the summer when the leaves are new and soft, we make the “vastas” for the coming winter. They are dried; some people prefer to freeze them. In the coldest time of winter we can have a breeze of summer when a dried or frozen vasta is softened in hot water in the sauna.

Then I continued my rowing over the lake and left Santa to enjoy the beauty of the northern summer.

Arctic Flavours

When travelling, one way to experience a destination and a culture is through food and culinary experiences. Often we do it kind of without noticing, one must eat everyday and when travelling most people prefer to try the local cuisine. What more accessible way is there to learn about a culture than how its people satisfy and glorify a basic human need?

Food culture tells a lot about the people, the rhythm of everyday life and traditions. Not only the food itself is interesting, also how it is eaten: is having dinner a social event, do people have one main meal of the day or several small meals, a warm meal or a cold one – all these things shape the daily life of people in the destination you are travelling in.

One of the main features of Finnish food is pure flavours. Our food traditions root in the nature and still today our fresh forests and clean waterways are an inspiration for chefs – professional as well as passionate hobby chefs.

I meet Jarmo Pikänen at his restaurant, Studio Restaurant Tundra. I am here to plan the launch of our new product, a five day culinary break in Lapland. The programme is an excursion into northern cuisine and starts by acquiring the needed ingredients. During the stay the guests have seven gourmet meals prepared from the best local ingredients in season. There is also a hands-on cooking experience together with Jarmo.

The demanding arctic climate of the north makes the produce of waters and forests tasty and intense in flavor. Our culinary break will run all year around and the programme varies according to the season. In the summer and fall one of the highlights will for sure be to find and pick ingredients from the nature. As these goodies are under a thick cover of snow in the winter time, we then focus on getting familiar with the traditions of reindeer herding and the production of reindeer meat. Fish is available throughout the year and fresh fish plays a big role in the northern cuisine. The traditions and delicacies from fresh fish will be presented in Restaurant Juomuskota.

Jarmo tells me about the wild herbs that are in season now. Jarmo has prepared a salad of wild herbs, a symphony of fresh and intense flavours, taking my mind out to the fields and forests... Nettle, Lady’s Mantle and Dandelion. With the salad Jarmo serves smoked whitefish, a true Finnish summer classic. Soon the berries will be in season and later my personal favourite: the mushrooms. I just love to go mushroom picking, to stroll in the forest and then be able to enjoy the flavours of nature.

Anyway, the task of today is to plan our product launch! But somehow we get into talking about the actual programme, we look forward to presenting Arctic Flavours to our co-operational partners and customers very soon!