Lithuania 2009

Witch's Hill

Witch's Hill

Hill of Crosses

Hill of Crosses

Onions from our garden

Tonight we spent some time recalling our best moments of 2009. By far, the most exciting thing that we did was visit my sister in Warsaw, Poland and take a road trip through the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.  This segment is a tribute to our time in Lithuania. What an amazing country to visit! We remembered our trip as we enjoyed homemade borscht and Svyturys beer that we received as a Christmas gift....

We began our trip in the capital Vilnius. Being a group completely obsessed with food, we started off our journey with a memorable meal of "beer snacks" and borscht. The beer snacks were rye bread strips deep fried in garlic and butter! What more could you ask for? After the delicious meal, we walked around the old town for hours delighting in the architecture and history. 

Next, we were off to the coastal town of Klaipeda. From here we visited the Curonian Spit where we walked through a forest trail filled with giant carved wooden sculptures. The Hill of Witches is an amazing feat of woodworking featuring characters from Lithuanian folklore. This stunning collection of carvings inspired us to try out some carving in our work for the new year. Walking the sand dunes (reminiscent of our nearby Cape Cod) at the far end of the Spit, it is possible to see Kaliningrad, Russia. This journey was a great lesson in geography for us as well!

Driving inland and up toward Latvia, we stopped to see the miraculous tourist destination of the Hill of Crosses. We were stunned to discover that this hill had been plowed down several times by the Soviets during their occupation of Lithuania. None of us are religious at all, but we were all in awe of the determination of people to recreate what they believe in against such powerful forces. This feeling permeated our entire Baltic trip and we left feeling humbled and inspired. 

Tonight, we looked back on these memories while enjoying this borscht recipe that we created using onions that we grew in our garden this summer (seen in last photo drying on our porch). 

Borcht

3-4 TBSP olive oil

1 bunch of large beets julienned

2 large onions finely chopped

4-5 garlic cloves

1 TBSP dried dill

1/4 cup dried mushrooms (we used 1/2 porcini and 1/2 wild trumpet)

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

1 quart boiling water

1/4 dry red wine

2 bay leaves

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Bring 1 quart of water to a boil and pour over dried mushrooms. Set aside and let steep for about 30 minutes. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and add onions, garlic and dill. Cook until onions are translucent. Add beets and cook for another 5 minutes. Add stock, mushroom liquid, mushrooms, red wine and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover until beets are tender. Serve alone or with a dollop of sour cream.  

I sveikata!!

Larger Custom Projects

Here are just a few examples of some of the custom work we have done. These are our favorite projects. Creating work to another person's specifications really challenges us to think in a different way about our work. While it can be difficult at times, the finished product is so gratifying and we learn so much in the process. 

Etsy

In an attempt to expand our business during challenging economic times, we have created a shop on Etsy.  So far this has been fun, inspiring and surprisingly more fruitful than we had expected. It has challenged us to evolve our designs and create new work that is outside of the box we tend to work within.  We have scaled down our projects, focusing on the smaller, individual pieces that contribute to the larger picture rather than working the other way around as we have down in the past. It is becoming clearer to us that this could be the key to having our woodworking and ceramics business weather a recession.  

We love the philosophy behind Etsy as well. The shift in focus to items that are handmade on a small scale as opposed to mass produced under awful working conditions means a lot to us. It is important for us as consumers to know where the products we are buying are coming from and to have some kind of a connection to the people who created them. This shift in our thinking began several years ago when we really began to question where our food came from and wanting to take a more active role in being connected to our food sources. Now, we are trying to apply the same model to our work and the way we operate as consumers ourselves. We are attempting to find healthier ways to buy and sell in America. If we are going to make a living selling, we are determined to find ways of doing it that take less of a toll socially and environmentally. Etsy has been one step in the right direction. Through Etsy we have also connected with several grassroots groups of makers/ artisans who are attempting to do the same thing and sharing ideas along the way.  

Now that we are generating smaller work, we will also be participating in more local craft fairs and farmers markets. This is something we have done for several years, but this year we are planning to do this much more. We will post links to each of the fairs and markets we will be attending in the coming months.  Thanks for checking out our new blog.

Link to our Etsy store:

http://www.firewoodfurniture.etsy.com