Bilberries of Finland

Bilberries of Finland

Bilberries of Finland are plentiful in all of the Nordic region, they grow wild on the fields and also thin forest areas.



The antioxidant properties of bilberries are tremendous, it is said to be more than those of cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, . They contain remarkable compounds such as anthocyanins, vitamin C, resveratrol (health benefits of red wine),
vitamin E, and ellagic acid.


Bilberries of Finland are great for the skin, they help your skin and prevent the skin cellutite from wrinkling.

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Ylläs Tundra Mountain

Ylläs Tundra Mountain

Ylläs Tundra mountain is a great holiday destination with lots of recreational activities and convenient facilities for tourists. It was recognized early in the 1940s a unique skiing holiday destination with the many other Tundra fells near the Ylläs Tundra Mountain.

Ylläs Tundra Mountain has been developed for tourism over many years especially for alpine skiing and snowboarding, and telemark skiing with trail lighting. A large area of the surrounding land also has network of connecting trails for telemark and cross country skiing. There are many on trail cafe log cabins for short rest meal/snack breaks refreshments and to rest.  There are also many snowmobile operators in the region with trained guides for day trips or further overnight stays on the field.

Ylläs Tundra Mountain has been extensively developed for downhill skiing and snowboarding, there are many downhill runs and courses, t-bars, chair lift and a 55 cabin gondola lift for convenient transportation up to the hill.  There are two food outlets on the top of the  Ylläs Tundra Mountain summit, both cafe style serving mainly coffee & tea, buns/rolls, beverages, snacks, and other food items.  There are also food services and accommodation at the base of the east side of the Ylläs Tundra Mountain, it is from the east side that the gondola lift runs from to the summit.

The north side slope has Y1 ski center with many services, the west side of the Ylläs Tundra Mountain is called the aurinko Rinne (meaning the sunny slope) it has the chair lifts and a cafe at the base.  Also on the northeast side, there is the Joker ski slope with cafe food and beverage service at the bottom of the ski run.

skiing at ylläs
Aurinko rinne.Copy@All Rights Reserved 2012.Natural Nordic Nutrition.com

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Skiing and snowboarding

Skiing and snowboarding in Finland are super fun, especially in the spring season. There are many great locations for Alpine skiing and snowboarding.  One place to visit for a holiday is the Ylläs Tundra, it is a tremendous big Tundra mountain with lots of facilities and services for Alpine skiers, x-country skiers, and snowboarders.  Groomed trails and slopes, t-bar lifts, chair lifts and a 55 cabin Gondola to the summit of Ylläs Tundra.

Skiing and snowboarding in the far north of Finland are great because of the consistent snow conditions. Skiing and snowboarding continue on well into April and May, some variations do occur from year to year.

skiing and snowboarding
Big Ylläs. All Copy Rights Reserved 2012. Maukasmaku.com

Skiing and snowboarding is a great sport to be actively involved.

Skiing and snowboarding are physically very dynamic and demanding; there are many benefits to the overall fitness and general good health.  Whether x-country skiing, alpine skiing or snowboarding over several days, it will leave a memorial impression on one’s muscles and the body, that may be of muscle pain and feeling of satisfaction, in physical fitness it may be true, “no pain no gain.”

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East Finland

East Finland.

There are numerous activities and services that are available along the border of East Finland. Alpine skiing at Ruka fells near Kuusamo, and also further north at Salla tundra. Snowmobile safari’s are available also at both of the above locations.

Husky dogs safari’s also available at the Hossan lomakeskus (Hossan Holiday Centre), approx 70km south of Kuusamo. Great location that attracts a lot of French speaking tourists to a variety of winter activities like; Snowmobile camp trips, husky dog safaris, XC-skiing, snow shoe treks, and reindeer park day trips.

For more info click on this link Husky dogs.

The winter of 2012 at the East Finland and elsewhere had a very slow start, the unusually warm conditions did not freeze and seal the surface of the lakes with ice like usual average winters, and the lack of snow fall.  It was not until Feruary 2012 that the temperatures have dropped down to -20’C and recently to -40’C at the Salla region.  The freezing over of lakes is really important for the local fishermen and the tourist operators.  The ice needs to be strong enought to carry the fishermen, husky dog safaris and the numerous  snowmobile’s that travel and cross over lakes, soft ice is very precarious and dangerous all round.

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Kindle eBook review.

My Amazon kindle e-book review

Kindle eBook review of the Nordic-Inkeri-land history in this starts from the Ice age at around 90,000BC, and it travels through time in history highlighting major points along the way.
The Stone Age, Bronze  Age and the Geological changes that take place on the shores of the Baltic Ice
lake, and the surrounding land near the River system that flows from the Lake Ladoga.

The Inkeri-land story is also about the early rural pioneers that lived in the region for over
2000 years before the Vikings started using the Neva River route going on raids  and doing foreign trade at Lake Ladoga and beyond to the far middle east.

Kindle eBook review
Inkeri-Land. Copy @ All Rights Reserved 2011.

The story then in the Inkeri Land Amazon e-book looks at the many outside forces that have impact on the small rural community of the Inkeri land.

There are indigenous tribes and people groups to the north, the native people of the Fennoscandia and  obscure peoples tribes called the Yem, as recorded according by the monks in the First  Chronicals of Novgorod republic. There are many nations that arrive to the  Inkeri-land during the 11-16 century. There is a finnic language that Chuds,  Izhorians, and the Slavs are using in the Inkeri land community.

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Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle e-book reader is a modern communication device.

Amazon kindle is used to retrieve information, inspiration and entertainment from many sources.

Amazon Kindle reader along with a vast resource of books, articles, documents, Wikipedia.com, magazines, news papers and entertainment available from Amazon kindle.

Amazon Kindle is very convenient for many reasons.

Amazon kindle eBook is quick on demand e-book download (less than a minute), b), store and travel with a whole book case of sources, c), have access to the information while traveling, d), books very affordable for purchase.

I have written my first e-book and published it through Amazon Kindle e-books. The e-book is centered around a small rural pioneering community on the Inkeri-land. My Amazon kindle e-book story starts from the Glacial maximum period in the Nordic region to the Baltic Ice Lake phase, and then the first indigenous pioneers arrive onto it’s shores and settle there for a few millennium.

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Glacial maximum

Glacial maximum

Glacial maximum period that occurred approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago. The scientist that study Geology report that around Norway, Sweden, Finland, and north Europe was covered by a thick ice sheet, directly above the current Bothnia Sea the ice layer over land was 2-3 km thick at the max about 90 000 BC.

Glacial maximum depressed the earth, and water eroded it as the glaciers melted.  When the glaciers melted they released a lot of fresh water which turned into high inland lake before it was released out to the oceans. The last sight of the glaciers is estimated to have been around 11000 -10000 BC.  Some of the antiquity finds in Finland are pieces of pottery, flint; quarts chips at old camp sites are estimated to be 6000 – 8000 old, and other cave paintings that are estimated to be from around 10 000 BC.

The Boreal season was a cool season shortly after the end of the last ice age

About 10 500-8 000 years ago, the early Holocene glacial ice sheet melted away from Europe.
The weather was dry and warm. The temperature was pretty close to the present. In this case, the Nordic countries spread of mixed forests, which were made ​​of birch and pine. Pine became common in the Central Lapland. The Boreal period was drier and more in southern Finland was the end of the period up to 1 degree warmer than the present, and in southern Finland arrived in a warmer climate species of flora.

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Nordic Region History

Nordic Region History

Here is a brief overview of this web site and it’s content, and what will be projected and presented in the future.  Facts on: Nordic, ingredients, Nordic nutrition, history, culture, cuisine, tradition and customs, landscape images, stock photos, regional food, regional products and local producers and some links to relative products and information.

Also about everyday nutritional needs, tips and ideas, and the use of common sense in the many healthy food choice options.  History is also very important, it has been said many times, “unless you know where you have come from, and know who you are, you won’t know where you are going”.  Here is some information on the history of Finland in the Nordic region.

The first signs of early beginnings in the Nordic region of Finland is said to have been found in a Wolf Cave in Kristinestad (Kristiinankaupunki).

In 1996, these objects were found in the cave that brought about speculations that it could have been inhabited in the Paleolithic, 120,000 to 130,000 years ago. These objects, if authentic, would be the only known Neanderthal artifacts in the Nordic countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Cave

 

The early pioneers to the north Fennoscandia area and the Nordic region

would have been a hunter-gatherer and forage community of individuals.

About 10,000 years ago all modern-day humans were hunter-gatherers and foraging communities.  The last ice age to occur in the Nordic Arctic region was about that time (8000 BC).  The Nordic landscape in 6000 BC with its natural distribution of plants and trees was somewhat different to what we see today in the Nordic environment, e.g. the combination/ration of birch trees versus pine trees in far north has turned tables.

Today the tundra regions are mostly treeless,  but previously there was a tree cover of silver birch trees dominating over the pine trees.  There have been submerged tree trunks discovered in the far north that reveals the type of a tree and their lifetime climate and the growing seasons, just like the core samples of ice cores from Antartica. The longest ice core drilled was dated back: 420,000 years  (Vostok Antartica) it revealed 4 past glacial cycles.

There are other artifacts found previously in the far north Lapland, that date back to 6000 BC, relics, and everyday tools/weapons of that time.

Also another item of Antiquity found was in a watery swamp at Särkiaapa in Särkelä, they were a set of BC-ski’s (backcountry), including bindings and with a carved out dynamic groove on the bottom of the skies, (to prevent sideways slip, and to improve the steering path line) their origins have been radiocarbon dated back to the Stone Age, 3200 BC, they were found in 1938.

The Battleax and the Comb Ceramic cultures merged giving rise to the Kiukainen culture which existed between 2300 BC and 1500 BC featuring fundamentally a comb ceramic tradition with cord ceramic characteristics”. –Wikipedia.

The Nordic natural landscape would have grown and interacted naturally with the changes in the climate: the fauna grazing free and feeding on the flora.  The seasons of growth, resting, sleep, hibernating and the dying: the ebb and the flow of water, the trough and the crest of the seasons, forever interacting with life dynamically.  The deer, reindeer and the beavers, bears wolves and squirrels. The silver birch trees, the pine, Juniper, Oak, and the Rowan berry tree.  Trees overshadowing the natural wild mushrooms and the forest berries.

Much of the Nordic environment has evolved naturally without much interruption from the feeders, fertilizer’s and the pollinators, the early pioneer forage expeditions would have found the environment in its a natural state, with the comforting assurance of food and supplies in the future.  The territory dominating brown bears and the pack hunting wolves was a real danger in the dark backwoods of the unexplored, unpopulated by humans, far-reaching open wilderness space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

The landscape, environment, and bio-diversity in the Nordic and the Fennoscandia regions were only really affected by the seasons and the climate.  The Battle ax and the Comb Ceramic cultures merged giving rise to the Kiukainen culture which existed between 2300 BC and 1500 BC featuring fundamentally a comb ceramic tradition with cord ceramic characteristics.  A brief timeline of the Nordic region:

Paleolithic

If confirmed, the oldest archeological site in Finland would be the Wolf Cave in Kristinestad, Ostrobothnia.

Mesolithic

The earliest traces of modern humans are known from ca. 8500 BC and are post-glacial. The people were first probably seasonal hunter-gatherers. Their items are known as the Suomusjärvi culture and the Kunda culture. Among the finds is the fishnet of Andrea, one of the oldest fishing nets ever excavated (calibrated carbon dating: ca. 8300 BC).

Neolithic

Around 5300 BCE pottery appeared in Finland. The earliest representatives belong to the Comb Ceramic Cultures, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the Neolithic for Finland, although the subsistence was still based on hunting and fishing.

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age began sometime after 1500 BCE. The coastal regions of Finland were a part of the Nordic Bronze Culture, whereas in the inland regions the influences came from the bronze-using cultures of Northern and Eastern Russia.

Definition from the pages of Wikipedia: “A hunter-gatherer or forage[1] society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were hunter-gatherers until around 10,000 years ago. Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers have been displaced by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplements, sometimes extensively, their foraging activity with farming and/or keeping animals”. -Wikipedia.

Picture Gallery.

Nordic gallery