Piepo in Somero

I have always felt Finnish in my heart, even though I was brought up in the UK. Sometimes, however, I realise that there are still big gaps in my cultural knowledge of Finland.

Last week one of these gaps became obvious when the members of the Somero English Club asked if I had ever tasted "piepo".  Not only had I never tried any, but I didn't know what they were talking about. So this week, Soila, Antti and Kari all turned up with the ingredients for piepo and shared with me this regional cultural experience.

Kari, Jody, Lucie, Riitta, Raili, Anna-Liisa and Soila

I have to be honest.  I have never tasted anything like it. To anyone who has never tasted it, I can only suggest that it tastes a little like I imagine sour cement would be. The trauma was worse because I seemed to be the only person in the entire room who didn't seem to think they were eating a delicacy. Everyone else said how lovely it was....so I realised that maybe I am not quite as Finnish as I like to think I am!

Everyone else in the class enjoying their piepo

if you are wondering what piepo is, it is a mixture of piima (thick sour milk... no, I am not joking) mixed with a floury powder called kalkkuna which looks like a type of building material. I was told that it tastes better if you add sugar. It's also suppsoed to be a lovely "summer snack." I remain unconvinced on both counts.

Still, it was a lovely way to start the class, and I got to take home a box of blueberries which were truely delicious (thank you Soila).  

Riitta, Raili, Kirsti and Soila

Riitta, Raili and Anna-Liisa plan world peace

My daughter Lucie joined me this week for the classes and had prepared a series of questions to ask the students. One of them was to ask about everyone's dream job. I can reveal that we have several secret fighter pilots and formula one drivers in the class, although Soila would like to be a biologist and Kyösti remains quite happy to be retired. Riitta had spent some time working with children but now raises piglets, and says that there are quite a few similarities between the two professions! Both Vuokko and Heikki would like to be translators or interpreters, but it was comforting to know that at least one person, Raili, had already found her dream job in her career as a nurse. I have been lucky to have two dream jobs in my life already (disc jockey and then barrister). As my own dream of being a professional salsa dancer does not seem to be very likely anymore I sometimes wonder whether I could ever make it as a writer... I have not given up on the idea there may still be a book in me somewhere!

I am still naively optimistic at this stage....

When Lucie asked what talent people wished they had, it seemed that we had a whole class full of frustrated singers...although no-one offered to give us a song.  We also discussed what we would buy if we had ten thousand euros to spend.  The first class decided to purchase a large number of red cars.... (could that be because they couldn't think of anything else to say?) but group two had various exotic travel destinations and Kirsti was very firm about wanting to buy two new armchairs, which I thought was lovely. She is such a serene person that I would like to spend my time sitting in the other one with her. By the time we had finished the class we had used various wishes to solve the problems of the entire world, achieving both world peace and an end to natural disasters amongst other things.

Lucie had some questions for the class this week

There obviously is more to piepo than meets the eye. In all honesty it does not taste very nice....but it's amazing how much our class was able to achieve once we'd all eaten some!

Big thanks for such a fun moment  in discovering a piece of Somero culture...and thank you also to Kari and Manu for the photos!