After visiting some of the nearby forests around Mooste it is clear that this will be a big year for blueberries. A small group of 4 people from the residency was able to collect more than 2 liters of berries in just over an hour. What does one do with all these berries? They’re just fine eaten fresh, but you can easily make pies, jams, smoothies and have extras to share with friends and family.

A small experiment is being done to see if we can sustain a garden at MoKS. We hope the garden can be functional for producing food for visiting artists especially during the time of AVAMAA the summer art symposium in late August. But besides being practical, a garden can be a place to continue to develop the discussion of local food production by setting the idea into practice. So far we have, potatoes, beans, rucola, strawberries, rhubarb and a number of herbs taking root. A garden is also a way to share the work around MoKS. With visitors coming and going each month, some forms of continuous collaboration can happen even between people who will never meet. This was part of the idea of Ana Carvalho when she started the garden in May. So this is partly a report for her to show how her project has developed. In this case visiting artists Tero Nauha and Karolina Kucia made some contributions including the start of a rock garden.

One of the main themes that was explored during the residency of Emma Lipp and Matt Marble was local food production. While searching for ingredients for their meals a number of sources for local food came out with a little research (besides what we try to share from our garden in the summer). The son of an entrepreneur in Mooste manages a factory and farm for pickling which includes cucumbers, potatoes and cabbages all grown on site. We went to visit the facility to see how the production was done. Much to our surprise, we found out it is possible to cure pickles in 24 hours! These are not the usual kind of sour pickles made with vinegar, but only from salt and spices. The result, fresh and delicious!