Group Meatlovers at Fiskars Festival
It was October 5th when we left from Jyväskylä early in the morning, around 7am. The bus ride to Fiskars Slow Food Festival was long but around 11am we finally arrived. The weather was chilly yet sunny, but the atmosphere in the festival was really warm and welcoming. Everyone was eager to see and hear everything that was happening around them. Our group’s topic was meat products and producers. That’s why we named our group the Meatlovers. All though we focused mainly on that topic, we also wanted to learn about everything else too, as much as we could.
There were lots of local meat producers. Almost all of them had their products with them for sale and some of them had also samples. Only one company didn’t have any products, because they were selling Christmas hams. The most common products were roast beef, cattles entrecote, flank steak and minced meat. We were also able to find cattles tri-tip, picanha, heart and sirloin, all of them were for sale. The festivat visitors were anxious to buy the meat products as the counters had less and less selection towards the afternoon. We noted that the meat production is alive and well, at least here in Slow Food Festival.
We tried to chat with as many meat producers as we possible could, but they were all very busy. However, we did get a chance to interview three of them. We asked them the same questions so that we’d have something to compare them to, in this case each other.
The first one was a company named Serendipity. They have a small pub and café in Karjaa. Their best selling product is burgers, but they also serve kebab and salad at their restaurant. At the festival they were cooking burgers. All of their products were local and the meat that they used is gotten within 30km from their production place.
The second one was called Nyby Gård. They get their meat within 5km from their production place. So, it comes from really close and is super local. Their meat is organic and it is produced organically. They sell all the way to Helsinki. The salesperson’s favorite meat from their products were flank steak and petite tender. Unfortunately, they didn’t have samples with them, so we couldn’t rate those. You can also order Nyby’s products to your home. Nyby has home delivery service in Helsinki, Lohja, Kirkkonummi, Inkoo and Raasepori. You can also pick up your order from their farm located in Karjaa.
The last one we interviewed was called Boviks organic farm. They are located at Tammisaari where they have their farm and shop. Their slaughterhouse is located at Inkoo and they sell their products all over Finland but mostly towards Helsinki metropolitan area. Their products can be purchased by restaurants or private people. They come to these kinds of festivals a lot. Boviks organic farm is different from the other companies that we interviewed. In addition to their casttles, they have also sheep on their farm. They produce also products from the sheeps wool and sell those in the farm. We think that it’s admirable that nothing goes to waste.
Two of us ate hamburgers from Serendipity’s booth. It tasted delicious and the patties was made from beef and the cattle was local. The other two of us tried chorizo sausages from company called Etelän tasanko. It was really spicy and different from the ones we are used to. It was the first time in Fiskars for all of us, it was nice and new experience. Even though the weather was cold and the way to get there was long, everything went well and we had a great day!
Text and photos: Sanni Kahilakoski, Senni Lehtonen, Rita Roos and Heta Salminen – Group Meatlovers from course Food Culture