The Harvest in the Northern Countryside + VIDEO
September is a busy time in the north. I read this sentence in yesterday’s local newspaper. Not only does the autumn foliage bring more travelers to the north than the summer months, but those living here are also kept busy. September is the harvest month, and that’s true for us as well.
The first frost nights have arrived. A day before, the neighbors dug up their potatoes. I saw others doing the same. Apparently, this is closely watched, and the harvest is always timed right before the first frosts.
Well, we didn’t have such precise local knowledge yet, but we will next year. The frost managed to nip the ground and give the autumn colors a real boost before we started gathering the harvest, but fortunately, we didn’t lose anything major. That’s how you learn.
The harvest wasn’t particularly large this year. This was more of an experimental year. That’s what I thought back in the spring, when in the midst of the chaos of moving and renovating, we tried to plant something that would yield a harvest by fall. Given that, the season was a success. Even though I somewhat missed having our own tomatoes, cabbages, and a large herb garden, I’m satisfied with what we managed. Next year, we’ll have a much better understanding of where the sun rises in the mornings and at least where the reindeer are sure to nibble on the potato leaves.
In this first trial year, our land gave us a harvest of potatoes, carrots, kale, various salads (which we happily ate during the summer), and different kinds of onions. We were able to store some of these as well. A few herb pots on the porch also brought us great joy throughout the entire summer.
Storing the harvest has been a bit of a challenge this year. We have a traditional root cellar, the kind with an adorable earthen roof and all, but it’s so crooked and on the verge of collapsing that I haven’t dared to step foot inside. The rusty metal door sticking out of the stone pile looks like the perfect setting for a horror movie climax. Not exactly inviting to fetch food from there in the middle of winter. It’s on the repair list (in the "someday" category), so for now, the stairs to our cold attic are standing in as its replacement.
The attic stairs are actually a pretty great storage spot, as the temperature stays just above freezing even in winter, without dipping too low. The only issue is that space is quite limited, so we can’t store too many crates of potatoes there. That’s why it would be good to get the cellar fixed, maybe as soon as next year. We’ll see...
One beautiful autumn day, we harvested everything from the garden that could still be salvaged. The reindeer occasionally claim their share. Neighbors and almost everyone living in the north have built reindeer fences around their properties to keep the ever-hungry antlered creatures from getting to their crops. It's quite the opposite from elsewhere—people live inside fences while animals roam freely in the forests. It’s a lovely idea, but I’m not too keen on living fenced in. So, for now, I pay a little "tax" to the reindeer from the harvest, and both of us get to live freely without fences.
Papu watched our efforts for a while, but then decided to curl up in the warm sunlight between the rows of the strawberry patch for a nap. If we were growing cheese, his energy level would be entirely different. Carrots and onions aren’t really his thing—naps win over them any day.
I braided the onions into traditional plaits and hung them on the kitchen wall. Not only are they conveniently out of the way, no longer cluttering the countertops, but I also love their visual appeal. As someone who enjoys handcrafts, I always relish the opportunity to work with my hands. The different colored onions braided together are like nature's own palette—earthy and wonderfully homely.
The biggest harvest this year, however, came from various berries. There are dozens of bottles and jars of juice and jam on the stairs leading to the attic. I’ve been working in the kitchen like an 80-year-old homemaker from a hundred years ago, wearing an apron, stirring boiling pots and pans, and bottling and jarring all sorts of concoctions. September has certainly been a busy time.
The last to produce a harvest were the apples, which we picked at E's parents' farm further south. There were so many that, in addition to juice, jam, sauce, and slices, I even tried drying them in the sauna. We'll see if they ever actually dry in there.
Here’s a video of our harvest season. I even try my luck with the realm of Ahti, but I’ll reveal that the results were quite poor. Perhaps the water spirits aren’t quite sure about this new villager yet, since they didn’t grant any rewards. No matter, we mostly live on plant-based food, and now we have even more of it stored up.
Enjoy the rest of the autumn! We’re already eagerly awaiting the first snow.💙
♥ Sanna