FinnMETKO and Kouhajoki Food Fair

On Thursday the Cal Poly students were taken to the Woodstock of outdoor machinery; FinnMETKO 2012! It’s the biggest and most important sales fair of heavy machines in Finland and probably greater Scandinavia. It’s where various producers of utility vehicles, transport equipment, bioenergy products, tractors, feller-bunchers, tires and more come to exhibit, demonstrate and sell their products to the public. Juha Tiainen drove us 200km to Jämsa in central Finland so we could experience this impressive fair. He said the fair is expected to get 40,000-50,000 visitors (roughly 1% of the Finnish population) over the three days it runs.  It was quite the experience to see all the equipment on display and in action.  By far my favorite part was watching the feller-bunchers felling, limbing, bucking and loading timber.   The fair was pretty extensive featuring three different large areas of equipment requiring bus transportation between sites. The magnitude of this expo and attendance of people from all walks of life is a testament to how important agriculture and forestry is to Finland.

The next day Anna Tall took us to a food fair; another three-day event held once a year.  This exhibition devoted to Finnish regional foods was held in Kouhajoki and reminded the Cal Poly students of the weekly farmer’s markets held in San Luis Obispo.  Vendors set up booths in courtyards and quaint farmhouses to display their products and crafts for sale.  We got to sample many different kinds of meats, cheeses, breads, spreads, fish, cereal, juice, candy and more.  The food was fresh and incredibly flavorful but that was only part of the experience.  Decorative trinkets, unique clothing, jewelry, homemade knit pieces for the upcoming winter, wood and metalwork were sprinkled among the food booths.  A very interesting array of authentic products sold by friendly people at reasonable prices.  It was a really exceptional display of Finnish culture that I’m so happy I could take part in.  I don’t think I’ve ever started Christmas shopping so early in the year.  While we were milling around we ran into a friend, Kristian, another first year student we met at school this week.  It felt pretty cool that we could already chance upon someone we know outside of the campus… and he actually wanted to hang out with us! 

Being visitors from California, we really lucked out being in the country for these two popular occasions and for Seinajoki University making our attendance possible.   After the food festival Anna took us to Seinajoki to get our student transportation passes then brought us back to her house afterwards for dinner with her family.  Our awesome first week here has been made even better by the university staff who are going above and beyond to help us experience Finland as much as possible while making us feel welcome and at home in Ilmajoki. I can’t thank them enough for all they are doing for us.