Labour day is here or Vappu as we like to call it in Finland. It's a day when most Finnish people get out of their shell and basically dress up and get wasted. The streets are so full of people that I often wonder where they all came from. No matter what the weather is or how cold it is the Finns gather into parks and have picnics.
It's a two day celebration. On Vappu eve (30th April) after 6 p.m. the streets start to fill up with people wearing their graduation hats. A white hat which you wear on this day from the year you graduated. You can imagine they will not be too white after 50 yrs :) especially if they drink champagne or Mead out of them.
May day is the day for picnics, brunches and Sillis (the swedes version of a herring brunch) to soothe the feeling of the day after heavy celebrations.
The celebration goes on on streets, in restaurants or at home with friends. It's a happy festivity for both young and old. A celebration filled with balloons, Serpentine paper twirls, colourful wigs, funny sunglasses and loads of good food including the most traditional being the Donuts or MUNKKI.
Also there is no Vappu without Mead, a fizzy sugar drink called SIMA.
Mead needs to be prepped a few days before to get the yeast going.
Nowadays you can find a lot of different varieties of mead but I prefer to stick to the traditional recipe like I used to have as a kid. I always thought my mum made the best mead...however I found out that it's probably one of the most popular recipes that most mums have made, since its the one on the sugar package :D
How to make your own Mead (from the dansukker sugar package)
4l Water
500g Brown sugar ( refined sugar to which molasses has been added, a sugar with a sticky soft texture)
2 Lemons
1/5 tsp Yeast (the size of a pea)
Raisins
(You can also use only white sugar or make half and have...but I prefer the color and taste with only brown sugar)
Bring half of the water to boil and pour over the sugar. Add the rest of the water and lemonjuice and let it cool until about 37°C (or body temperature). Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of liquid and add to the mead. Let the Mead rest in room temperature for atleast 24hrs. Pour the mead into bottles and add a tsp of sugar into each bottle and a few raisins. The raisins will start to float when the yeast has activated and made it into a fizzy lemonade. The mead will be ready in room temperature after 3 days and in the fridge after a week.
Keep the ready Mead in the fridge and consume within a week.
Make sure not to close the lids too hard in the beginning when the yeast is activating. The pressure can get too intense and cause the bottles to explode.
Try and be experimental with flavouring the Mead. One which is really nice is to add Ginger to it. or why not try seabuckthorne berries with rosemary. Go wild!
HAUSKAA VAPPUA - HAPPY LABOUR DAY!
Check out my Donuts in a separate post!
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