A Currant State of Mind

Seeking solace amidst the berries

Red currants = summertime in Estonia

A couple fun, colorful shots of red currant abundance along with my new favorite crumble recipe. 

That was my original idea for a post topic this week, as my fingers pulled and picked these juicy, ripe and bright ruby berries off the bush here behind the house. Our place in Estonia, Tamme, came with five established berry bushes: one gooseberry, two red and two black currants.

Summer berries, in particular these varietals, are about as Estonian as you can get. Currently (sorry I couldn’t resist) amidst summer abundance, you will see these pushes and bright pops of color in front and back yards of the summer cottages surrounding us here in southern Estonia.

There has always been something about berry picking that I just love and now am realizing as I have been picking this past week, that it truly is my form of meditation. Solace. Escape. My mind can sit in the moment and just focus on the process to simply “pull and plop” the strings of currants into my bucket. I’ve never been a good meditator in the expected sense of sitting and breathing and turning off my brain. I wish I could, but if I purposefully tell my brain to shut off, she rebels and goes into anxiety-prone overdrive.

But berries serve as my meditation conduit, something my hands can productively do that then enables my brain to turn off. And all of this took on new meaning over the past week navigating yet another round of news from the States between assassination attempts and conventions and dark days of democracy.

Think my hands are permanently summer berry stained this season!

It is still so very new for me to be in this position of absorbing US-based news from across the pond. It is a bizarre mish-mash of feeling on one hand like I’m watching a movie on a screen unfold followed by a quick reality check that no, it’s not a movie. This is real. Yet watching from thousands of miles away gives me an amplified feeling of helplessness, like I’m again watching that movie with nothing I can directly do to change the tide.

None of what is currently happening is surprising me. This growing house of cards existed for years and played a key role in our decision to move abroad, causing me to really think about where and how I want to spend my energies as 58-year old me heads into her senior life chapter.

But I’m also realizing that the American side of my America-Estonian identity will always be there. It’s my home, where I was raised and lived the majority of my life and have deep friendship ties. My heart gives you all stateside a big hug across the miles as I pick currants and soon blueberries and gooseberries.

When the world increasingly serves me such heavy situations that I cannot solve much less directly influence, I’m learning to turn to and seek solace in what I can directly control and to find the joy in the everyday. Today it is savoring and celebrating the mighty red currant, paired with a shortbread crust and streusel crumble topping.

Sharing our new favorite summer recipe below, which could readily be adapted with other fresh berries. On the baking front, I am needing to adapt and relearn much of my (years!) of baking experience by now needing to understand everything from metric measurements to different ways various flours are identified.

But as John and Liam keep reminding me: Slow and steady. 🐢 One step, one topic at a time. Today, it’s metric. Will be starting to encorporate metric measurements in these recipes I post.

Red Currant Summer Crumb Bars

Thanks to Happy Foods Tube for recipe inspiration!

Ingredients

Crumb Topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour (140 grams)

1/2 c. whole oats

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 stick Butter, soften & cubed (115 grams)

Crust:

1½ cup all-purpose flour (210 grams)

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg

1 cup sour cream (250 ml)

10 T/5 ounces butter (140 grams)

Filling:

4 cups red currants (rinsed & stems removed)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C)

For Crumb Topping:

Place flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix.

Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or fork (or fingers!) until you get crumb like texture. Set aside.

For Crust:

In another large bowl, place butter and beat until creamy. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.

Add egg and beat again.

Add sour cream and again beat until well blended.

Stir in flour, baking soda and mixed spices until combined.

Line a baking pan (13×9 inch/33×23 cm) with baking parchment paper.

Spoon batter in evenly into pan to form the crumble base.

Cover the whole batter surface evenly with red currants.

Scatter the crumb topping evenly over berries.

Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 60 minutes or until baked through and golden brown on top.

Let cool and slice into bars (which freeze well). 

Or better yet, eat warm with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Currant crumble topped with ice cream enjoyed on the deck at Tamme

Check out more photos (and ordering options) from John D. Ivanko on Alamy