My dining note in Helsinki: Midsummer in Archipelago

ずっと更新してないねっていろいろな人に言われながらも、ミッドサマーそして夏休みスタート前後はやはり忙しく、3週間ぶりの更新です。
Many friends pointed my absence for a while. Since the mid-summer weekend till now (middle of summer vacation), I was as busy as other people, so here is finally my mid-summer weekend report.

６月２５日から２７日にかけての週末は、フィンランド人が最も楽しみにしている連休のひとつです。夏至のお祭りなんだけど、１年で一番日が長い日。今は夜通し明るいんだけど、少し暗くなるのは、夜中の１２時を過ぎてから明け方の４時くらいまで。同僚がサマーコテージに招待してくれたので、本当のサマーライフを満喫しました。運良くお天気も回復して、とても美しい景色に囲まれて、３日間過ごしました。日中は畑仕事とガーデニングに精を出し、夜はサウナと海を行ったり来たり。フィンランド人の楽しみを体験することができました。

People in Finland really look forward to the long weekend that starts from the 25th June. It is Midsummer weekend and it is celebration of longest day of the year. You experience the truly long night. It only starts getting dark after mid night and the 'bright' night lasts till only around 4 am. My colleague invited me to the summer cottage - an archipelago on the island near Inkoo. It was great opportunity to see and feel the real summer life here. The weather was not so nice in the beginning, but on Saturday, it recovered. For 3 days, I did gardening, eating fresh foods and going back and force between Sauna cottage and sea. It was a great experience to understand Finnish summer delights.

フィンランドは守と湖の国。これは海ですが。 Finland is a full of forests and lakes. This is the sea though.

コッテージのある島から。 This is the view from the island of cottage.

伝統的なお料理。野菜は自家製。Traditional Finnish Mid-summer foods. Vegetables were made at garden.

お皿にとりわけるとこんな感じ。They look like this on the plate.

着いた日は実は寒かった。久しぶりにカントリールック！ It was actually cold on the day I arrived. Shot in country style!

これって、ブルーべりなのです。ありとあらゆる所一面にこれが「生えて」います。もちろん天然。実際の収穫シーズンは7月終わりから8月にかけてとのこと。まだ実ってないけど、島の奥まった所に、少しだけ実をつけたものを発見。収穫時期にはまた是非… This is BLUEBERRY. It is organically grown on the ground, almost everywhere on the island. The season (for picking) starts in the end of July and lasts during August, so it was too early, but found one area that had a small blueberry with it. I hope to come back to pick a lot of them soon!