Schoonover Farm Blog

So shearing was scheduled for my birthday this year.  That is when the shearer was available.  So I got up early Sunday and got the chores done including penning the sheep for shearing.

Our great shearer arrived and started removing the wool fleeces from the sheep.  She also trimmed the hooves for me this year as I have been unable to do this due to my back issues. Tom and I also gave the copper boluses just before each one was sheared too.

Here is part of the shearing crew.  Eliz is just off of the photo but is in others.  My mom was the photographer this year and did a great job.

I had planned a traditional Swedish Smörgåsbord for the meal this year.  My grandmother used to do one when the Swedish relatives visited.  Apparently it was exhausting.  So I tried to do one like she would have done.  I was coordinating with my mom and aunt about what this might entail.  My aunt Amy found this in a recipe book that my grandmother had.

My mother also found a Herring Salad recipe of my grandmother’s so Amy took the recipe and made and brought it.  She also made Jansson’s Temptation which is mentioned often as a dish in a Swedish Smörgåsbord.

So I used the top list of suggestions for my meal.   I also googled around and found it advised that it should be served in courses with the first course being pickled and salted herring with aquavit, sauces, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, cheeses, hard tack, sour cream and butter.  Before shearing I got prepared for this first course.  I left everything covered because I didn’t want the cats sampling the food while we were in the barn.

Here is the first course all laid out after shearing was done.  I did have Norwegian beer, Swedish coffee and Swedish ciders available to drink too.

The second course is supposed to be cold fish and seafood.  So I had cured and smoked salmon (that my mom bought for me at Ikea), anchovies, and sardines with sauces, the herring salad, pickled eggs, pickled beets, roe (which my mother also bought for me as it is my favorite) and rye bread.  Here is this course on the table.  By the way, I am using the dishes and silverware that belonged to my great grandparents who immigrated from Sweden.

This was part of the crowd talking and enjoying each other’s company.  It sounds like part of the Smörgåsbord experience is to take your time, eat small bites slowly and spend time talking with others.  We certainly did that, and it was very nice.  There were 14 friends and family enjoying this meal.

The third course was the cold meats.   So we had Swedish ham, liver pate, pickled cucumbers, and pickled cabbages.  The Smörgåsbord is supposed to be a sandwich board.  So you take these ingredients and make open faced sandwiches with the rye bread or hard tack.

The fourth course is the warm dishes.  I made Gramma’s Swedish meatballs which was accompanied by mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.  I also had some Swedish sausages that were fried.  I tried to use Swedish ingredients as much as possible when I shopped for all of this at the Scandinavian Specialties store.  There ended up being a smattering of German, Norwegian and Danish foods, but I did my best to keep it Swedish.  I did not get a photo of the fourth course.  I was pretty spent at this point.  Here’s is Gramma’s recipe in her handwriting.

The fifth course is supposed to be Swedish desserts, but I had decided not to do this one.  But my aunt Amy surprised me by making a Swedish dessert as my birthday cake.  And it was amazing, even though I could only eat a small portion.

Then there were birthday presents which I wasn’t really expecting.  I got some cash and smoked salmon.  Sue, my brother’s partner, got me this Crazy-Daisy Winder.  You apparently use it to make yarn flowers.  I look forward to trying it out.  It is clearly vintage which I love.

 

My husband secretly got my brother to make this Danish quilt sign for the barn.  It is so amazing and make the barn look classy.  This was a complete surprise, partly because my birthday present was supposed to be this new laptop that I am typing on now.

After the meal and presents were over we went to check on the sheep.  A couple of them were shivering. I fed them some extra and closed them into the barn to try to keep them warmer.  We moved the fleeces into the trailer, and Sue and I laid them out on racks to dry.  Tom made a fire in the wood stove to help the process.

My friends, shearer, parents and aunt/uncle left, but my brother, Sue, my niece, her husband and baby stayed the night.  It was really nice just hanging out in the living room, watching weird TV and talking.  I was exhausted at this point so when some of them got hungry later, they were on their own with the fridge and microwave to use.  My niece and her husband brought their baby to the barn to see the animals for the first time.  I had no energy to go with them but asked for photos  This is Zephyr meeting Diddley.

And Wally.

And then my birthday was done.  This morning I got up early to get the chores done.  It was a gorgeous morning.

The sun came above the hill.

And the sheared sheep took advantage of the very first sunbeams.  Nobody was shivering in the morning except the goat.  But I fed him, and he had sunshine through the window in his pen so I think he will be fine.  We ended up not shearing three of the sheep because they are too skinny.  So I will need to clip some wool off of them later when it is warmer.

I had ordered some Swedish and Danish foods that I wasn’t able to get from the Ballard store.  Unfortunately the shipping company wouldn’t deliver to our post office but wouldn’t inform me, just telling me each day they were running late and not deliver it.  I finally called them and changed the delivery address, but they wouldn’t deliver on the weekend so it showed up this Monday morning.  It would have been nice to have these Danish pickled beets, Swedish non-alcoholic ciders, Swedish sardines, and Swedish anchovies.  The roe came back in stock in Ballard so my mother kindly drove there and picked it up for me.  This smoked roe is great on a rye cracker with a sliced hard boiled egg and pickle.  Nothing better in my mind.

So that was my shearing, smörgåsbord birthday.  It was truly amazing.  I felt very loved, and it was fun exploring my Swedish side.  Apparently my grandmother would just put the food on a side board they had in the dining room and say varsågod, and the guest would serve themselves.  Much easier than 5 separate courses but still plenty of work. This will probably be my one and only smörgåsbord, but I think I did it up well.

So today, Monday, is Wally’s Gotcha Day.  We adopted him from the Skagit Humane Society 3 years ago today as a birthday present for myself as we had been catless for too long. She leapt into Tom’s arms in the shelter and asked to go home with us.  She had been picked up as a stray, and they named her “Danish”.  She was pregnant and gave birth to kittens. After she recovered from that and was spayed, she went up for adoption.  I initially called her Cassidy, but it became very apparent that this was not a good name for her.  She is very dog-like, wandering around the property as we work, greeting us in the driveway when we arrive and even fetching sometimes.  So we thought of Walter from the Chevy truck ads and named her Wally.  It makes it difficult to remember that she’s female, but the name is otherwise perfect for her.  Per her records she will be 6 in July (not sure how they ascertained that).  She has been a great addition to our home.  We will try to spoil her this evening, but usually she only likes dry cat kibble.