Middagsmat (Dinner)

I stayed several days with relatives in Leksdal, but unfortunately my camera was on the fritz, and I lost most of the pictures. Now I'm down here on Opheim Farm for a few days. This is where my grandfather grew up, so he took the name of the farm as his last name. The people here are very serious about maintaining traditional customs as much as possible, and this is evident whenever you sit down for a meal. Pictured below are homemade currant juice, homemade flatbread, moose stew on rice, and salad.

Moose stew (elggryte) is a common dish at Opheim Farm. In fact, they have to serve it at least once a week. Their freezers are bursting with moose meat. When I arrived, the son and two sons-in-law were on a moose-hunting expedition. They have to hunt moose often, otherwise the moose would proliferate and cause automobile accidents on Riksveien 72, probably with many fatalities. It's kill or be killed. As a side effect of this, they will not ever be able to have any meat on their table except for moose, at least for the foreseeable future. They hardly even know what beef tastes like any more, and although they raise pigs, they are seldom able to have pork for dinner.

 There is no dog on Opheim Farm at present. It seems that recently while walking with the dog in the woods, the dog sighted a moose, slipped its leash, and gave chase. The dog was never heard from again.