MIDSUMMER @ GÅSÖ

Midsummers eve @ Gåsö. I made this "Midsummer Pole" bread in the morning and decorated it with birch leaves, Marguerites and Swedish flags! Recepie will follow late on my food blog www.beyourownmasterchefwithankan.blogspot.com

Hard cheeses and crisp bread are musts to go with the herring lunch! We had three types this year, Svecia, Präst and Grevé.

A lot of different kinds of herring, a mix of home marinated and bought ones. From the left, homemade Archipelago Herring with Roe and to the left Apple and Horseradish. In front one of the classics, Mustard Herring from ABBA! Not the group but the famous herring food company in Karlshamn on the Swedish Westcoast.

Nearly time to sing and have a schnaps(Aquavit) with the herring. The table i decorated with Marguerites etc.

Matjésill, a special type of herring that we serve with sour cream and chives. A relatively new tradition is to make a cake from it, like a savoury cheesecake with the base made with pumpernickel and butter. Recipie to follow later on my food blog(see above).

New potatoes boiled and served with dill is another must to go with the herring!

I promised you my patriotic nails! Here they are. I was dressed i the Swedish Flag Colours too!

After lunch we headed to Gåsö Village Green to dance around the Midsummer Pole, have games and drink coffee. The boat was accordingly decorated with birch leaves.

The Midsummer Pole had been decorated the same day with birch leaves, Marguerites and Cornflower and everybody helped to raise it!

No, it is not a joke that we all dance around it and do the "little frog song". Everybody and all ages join in!

Back at Gåsö South we moved to my sister and neighbour for BBQ and games. My brother in law doing a wonderful job of the boar (which he has shot) on the BBQ.

Time to eat again. Potatoe salad, coleslaw and green salad and some spicy homemade butter to go with the meat. Yummy.

Strawberry cake for desert. Another must for midsummer. Here cut by our prominent guest Victor.

Time for games. In teams. One of them was this very difficult task of putting the pencil into the bottle. Mariana is doing a good job here!

Another game was to throw the ball onto the ladder. Seems pretty easy but is damn hard!

Another task that looks easy but is hard. To pick pegs with one hand and keep them there and not dropping them. Tania did well assisted by Clabbe. After the games we did some dancing around the table and then set off back to the village green for disco. For those who had the stamina, they stayed up in the light night and saw the sun rise...girls who are not married should pick seven wild flowers and put them under their pillow and dream of their future partner! A lot of drinking was done and there will be some heavy heads in the morning. See you tomorrow!