The improper way to gather food
A proper mother freezes food and uses the frozen food regularly and properly. But, an improper mother does not.
One more thing you need to know about Finns, is that berries are important to us. When the summer is almost over, and it’s in Finland it’s very short summer to begin with, we head out to scavenge in the forests. We do have a lot of forests in Finland. Come fall, the forests are full of many edible things, such as berries and mushrooms. And it is a very traditional way of the Finns to go out and gather them. Cause free food is free food. And you have to. We are not sure why, but every generation of Finns know this is true. When it’s the season for blueberries or lingonberries or cloudberries or other berries, you have to go out and pick them.
So you force the whole family out into the bushes and you pick the berries, and then you clean the berries, and then you crush the berries, and smush the berries, and freeze the berries, or juice the berries, or what ever should make you happy with the berries. But you still end up unhappy and exhausted. And in the case of one Improper mother, you end up like this:
The improper mother calls a good friend for advice on how to use these berries, that had been frozen, thawed, and then forgotten in the fridge. Maybe one could boil them into a nice juice. Under no circumstance should anyone touch those berries, was the advice. Well fine, one won’t use them, if you’re gonna get all fussy about it…
This seems to always happen to this improper mother. After making the gathering the food of the forests a huge thing, the berries are left to spoil unused in a corner of the fridge. This year this improper mother will not freeze any berries, but instead will eat them and make pies for the children as soon as they are gathered. Freezing is for organized people only.
Cover photo by Gilberto Olimpio.
— Editors
The writer of this story is a member of the Mom of Finland community.
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