Saturday, December 11

In the relatively short time that I have lived in Finland many changes have taken place. The metro grew to encompass Espoo for example. Many of the changes have concerned less impressive (and indeed less obvious) feats than that, like the appearance by stealth of bataatti in the Finnish diet.

They simply never appeared in grocery stores when I arrived, and neither did parsnips. Now they both seem almost normal.

We look through the Christmas boxes, laatikkoa, in Prisma. They have potato, carrot and turnip – the traditional trio. They also have beetroot and sweet potato: the new kids on the block. Or punajuurilaatikko ja bataattilaatkko, for fans of the Finnish language.

I then wander into the vegetable section and see a huge tub of sweet potatoes. I photograph them in their almost colour-free slight redness.