The paper with the Tour Dates written on has been quietly crumbled to a little ball and left under the Drivers Manual. We decided that Inari was far too exiting to leave after only one day. Luckily, this was half expected and doesn’t give us any trouble.
The day started at the Skolt Heritage House, where we met with Martleena Fofanoff and Jarno, which last name I forgot to ask. Martleena is a master of Duodji (saami handicraft) and has a great knowledge of Skolt-Saami tradition and culture.
We explained our project and asked if she could tell us about the drying methods and drying structures among the Skolts, whereupon she answered that there was none…. Then we talked about Skolt drying structures for one hour straight:
Fishing net and fish were often dried directly on the house wall, the fish sometimes with a discarded net around it to protect it from birds and other scavengers. When our conversation continued into other methods of preservation, the discussion led us to ice cellars. Jarno told us a story about how he had helped his grandfather last weekend, digging an old freezer into the ground behind his grandfather’s cabin, which later would be filled with ice and used as an ice cellar. When the ice melted you could just pull a plug in the bottom of the freezer and the water would soak into the earth and you could fill it back up again. Pretty easy and convenient re-use of a broken item.
The inner layer of the pine-bark (“Pietse” in Skolt-saami) were traditionally dried and often minced to flour. Martleena pointed out that even though this was used as a substitute to real flour in other parts of the world; it was regarded as a delicasy amongst the Skolts. It was most often used for bread but at occasions also mixed with goose-fat for some sort of supernutricious pine-fat porridge. The bark was stringed above the wooden stove, and when the fire was out but with the wood still glowing, the bark was put directly on the
