Sweden is long, it is a worn-out phrase that never fits as well as in spring. When daffodils and tulips bloom in the southern parts of the country, the snowdrifts are still high here in inland Västerbotten. Vilhelmina is a mountain municipality bordering Norway and for many years we had, strange as it may sound, a tradition of organizing a ski competition on Stekkenjokk on the bare mountain on Midsummer's Eve.
Stekenjokk in spring/early summer
So when the longing for spring becomes too great, I have my little tricks to resort to. This thing with painting tulips on the edges of the snow is perhaps a bit desperate, but it raises the mood somewhat when the social media feed shows rhubarb buds and we still have deep snow here.
Fortunately, you can get quite a lot to grow on the windowsill too. I usually do this: I clean empty milk cartons with the kitchen soap which is unscented. Always use unscented for things that have to do with food.
Then I fill them with potting soil and sow simple things like peas. I use regular yellow peas (pea soup peas) from ICA I Love Eco. They give nice shoots and since it's just the shoots we want, you can sow them really close together.
Today we can go to a store and buy whatever vegetables and fruit we want. We can get hold of almost anything that is grown on the globe at any time (perhaps not entirely reasonable when you think about it) but it was not like that before and especially not here. The inland and mountain regions were difficult to reach and it was difficult to transport goods and especially perishables here. It was not uncommon for people to have to carry their goods long distances as there were no roads suitable for vehicles. Hiking trails and boots were what was offered. Yet people managed to survive here, thanks to good knowledge and experience. Precisely this absence of vegetables for large parts of the year was a “tough nut to crack” but Gompa saved many from getting sick.
Gompa was made from Kvanne and Jaärja, (Angelica and Tolta in Swedish). These plants were picked tender, blanched and ground into a green paste. You could liken it to pesto actually. In the past, Gompa was stored in wooden barrels with buttermilk, the barrel was kept cool and allowed to ferment. I have heard of it being eaten with milk or thick milk, but there were certainly other ways to eat the green health. Nowadays, Gompa is frozen and thawed as needed, but I would not say that it is a common dish or even supplement, but the tradition lives on.
Preparation of Gompa.
Other things that grow well in reused milk cartons are spinach, garden cress and mustard seeds.
The shoots are good to cut down into salads, on sandwiches or just as greens on the plate. Peas and garden cress grow quickly and in just a few days you have fresh green shoots to eat.
Peas, these are regular yellow peas from ICA I love Eco, it works excellent to grow as “microgreens”.
Garden cress is also quick and easy to grow on the windowsill.
Spinach is a little thinner but also comes up quickly and gives lovely crispy green leaves.
Mustard seeds are the hardest to get to germinate but also come up reasonably quickly.
The idea is not that these should become large plants so you can sow them close together and cut them down.
It's called microgreens these days and is a bit "hip". I have no other name for it, but it is a nice way to get some green and fresh when spring feels far away.
If it should be so that any of you get the idea that Gompa is even hipper, then I recommend a vacation in Vilhelmina, perhaps even just in time for the Settlers Week, then everyone who wants to can learn really hip things like making Gompa, forging, haying, cow calling or blowing a birch bark trumpet.