Why not lump them all together in one thread? Last things first. On Thursday morning we had -1°C / 30°F and frost. Yesterday we had 20°C / 68°F. Today we're at 11°C / 52°F. This summer was wet and cold. Most of the time the temps were below 20°C / 68°F bar a couple of days with temps around 30°C / 86°F, which is very hot for here. Our plants are weather confused. Some spring bloomers are blooming now. Idiots! Then the pumpkin. I thought I'd try to make a fancy one this year, so I printed a pattern, found my tools and started off in high spirits. Then I was disturbed in my work and forgot which pieces were going to go out and which were not. In the end I put all the pieces back together again and used clear tape to hold them in place. This is the end result. It's supposed to be a bat. I'll do better next year: Then we get to the lutefisk. My brain works in mysterious ways. A couple of years back I watched a documentary on the 10th Mountain Division and the 99th Infantry Batallion. They sang a song about lutefisk and lefse, and it suddenly popped into my mind a couple of days ago. So I did some research and came up with this little video: A little bit more research and I found out that the song's name is The Ski Song. I also found the text. What lutefisk and lefse has to do with skiing or after-skiing I don't know, but I'm hoping the stewbies might be able to enlighten me. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=139057219479529&story_fbid=689562537762325 In my search for the right song I stumbled upon another, obviously frequently used, song about lutefisk. This is one version: So, where and why are people in the US so keen on lye-soaked fish and lefse I wonder? I don't much care for lutefisk myself, which probably is why I can't understand the fascination. And that's what I've been thinking about today.
I saw a documentary on the 10th Mountain Division earlier this year. The formation of the military unit was inspired by the Finnish mountain men unit who in 1939 annihilated two tank divisions of the Russian Army. In 1941 the U.S. started recruiting (through the civilian group the National Ski Patrol) skiiers, forest rangers, loggers, wilderness guides, etc...any man who could survive the weather conditions in the mountains year round. If I remember correctly, many if not most of those men were from families who lived in the Scandinavian countries before coming to the States. And possible they knew lutefish was necessary food for survival. You are braver than I am, I have never tried to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. I have cut them up and prepared the small ones for baking to get the pumpkin pulp for pies, cookies and bread and I know those things are hard enough to handle, I just never wanted to try a big one. I think yours looks really good, it's supposed to be a scary jack-o-lantern afterall. Some of my plants were confused this year too so they just gave up the ghost and saved themselves the hassle of trying to survive the drought again.
I remembered from the documentary that the soldiers of the 99th were Scandinavian. From Wikipedia: I guess the 10th recruited from the 99th as well as from other battalions. I thought it was a good documentary. Lutefisk takes some time to prepare, so I don't think it's suited for camp food. Maybe they were thinking of eating it when they got back home? Hah, I found this just now: So I guess it's all to do with heritage, pride and tradition.
That is a great-looking pumpkin. I can easily see the bat outline. What a story about lutefisk...and the songs. All entertaining. It was also interesting to read about the military subject that you wrote about.
Hi Sjoerd. It's amazing what a song stuck in your brain can make you find out, isn't it? *lol* But then I'm a curious type of person and can't let things go until I have tried to get to the bottom of it. I sort of liked my pumpkin too, even though it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted. I guess practice makes perfect.
