Fika time!
There is a very important and well used word in swedish – FIKA. It means coffee break. You stop every thing and have a cup of coffee or two along with the accessories. Swedish coffee is strong – about twice as strong as american coffee but half as strong as turkish.
Along with it you have pastries, or with sandwiches it makes a nice refreshing lunch. It may even be followed by a bit of reading and a nap. It keeps me from working too hard in the garden.
This is one of the main reasons why I moved to Sweden.
Here in my ‘bus stop’ I take my fika and view the maize and contemplate the pumpkin and sunflower growth.
I have about 5 sorts of sweet corn. The maize in the picture above is a tall sort that needs a longer growing season and may not ripen before the killer frost comes at any time now. We have had a tinge of frost a couple of mornings ago, but it seems not to have done any damage. The smaller sorts (below) ripen earlier, and we have been enjoying corn on the cob for nearly a month now.
I think I could like Sweden too!
I’m a coffee freak and have a question about the Swedish brewing process. Do you have automatic brewers or some other type of percolator?
Also, I’ve never tried Swedish coffee, but love Vietnamese which I get at a tiny Asian market. Any idea how Swedish and VN brews compare? (IMO, VN.is much stronger than American varieties, and more oily)
Your corns look good, but I shuddered at the thought of such early frosts!
We have many ways of making coffee here. The percolator is seldom used here. The old way is to bring course grounds to a boil and let steap for a short while. Another is to pour boiling water through grounds in a filter. One more is to use a danish plunger to push grounds to the bottom of a glass tube full of hot water. We use the latter mostly along with my favorite – instant coffee. It has to be ecologicaly grown and strongly dosed of course.
thank you!! I’m always curious about other’s ways of doing things!!! will have to try the steeping method!!
OK, steeping method:
Put water to boil measuring how many cups. When water comes to boil put 2 tablespoons course ground coffee in. Let boil a couple of seconds until grounds swurl into bubbling water. Take off burner and let steep a few minutes until grounds sink to bottom. Serve or put in thermos carefully, leaving grounds in pot.