Yes, we eat Rudolf! It is delicious but it isn't cheap. Reindeer meat is a delicacy and it has been enjoyed for centuries, especially by the Sami people and others in Lapland/northern Finland. I actually think it is nicer and more humane to eat reindeer than, for example, beef because of the way reindeer is ¨farmed¨. The reindeers roam free in Lapland nature most of the year. The reindeer are only handled by the farmers/owners twice per year. In the summer, the reindeer are collected and calfs are marked according to their owners (per the mother's ownership). They then fend for themselves and mate freely. The reindeer owners/farmers may provide supplemental food in winter feeding stations when the reindeer have a hard time finding the lichen or other vegetation they like to eat. The reindeer are also collected in the winter and sorted by the owner markings. The owners cull the herds for the reindeer to be slaughtered and release the rest back into the wild again. (Here's a video of reindeer sorting.) Talk about the ultimate organic farming! Joel is downright obsessed with the smoked reindeer soup he can buy for a few euros from any grocery store. Meanwhile one of my all time favorite dishes is poronkäristys (fried reindeer stew served with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce) and the kids love the smoked reindeer cold cuts available at any grocery store (although it is about 2x as expensive as other cold cuts).
Joel's love for reindeer probably goes back to our Finland visit of winter 2004. We spent a few days in Kuusamo with my mom. Kuusamo, my mom's original home-town, is just south of the arctic circle in north-west Finland. It is a ski resort town in the winter/spring and popular for beautiful nature and multi-day hikes in the summer/fall. On that particular trip, we drove around the countryside for about two hours in an attempt to find reindeers to show to Joel. This is how he picked up his favorite Finnish phrase "Missä on Poro?" (Where is the reindeer?) Usually, I guess maybe more in the summertime, reindeer are almost a nuisance and you are all but guaranteed to see them. They like to lick the road salt from the previous winter and it is not uncommon to get stuck waiting for a herd to get out of your way when driving up north. I've seen them often and their leisurely roadside grazing left me with a sluggish, cow-like impression.
We finally gave up our reindeer hunt and went to visit a touristy reindeer farm. My mom was aghast that we'd have to spend money to visit animals she'd seen all her life and considered annoying. But it was money (pretty cheap) well spent: Joel was delighted that he got to go on a reindeer toboggan ride and get his "reindeer driver's license". He sat down in the sleigh and was expecting a very slow ride since I'd shared my impression of reindeers. Well, I guess that animal was hungry because it took off like a bolt into the forest - alone with Joel who had no way to control it! I thought Joel might end up in Russia (the border is only about 50km from where we were) but the reindeer knew to follow a round loop path through the forest and emerged with Joel few minutes later. It seems the incentive for the reindeer's mad sprint was the lichen waiting for him at the end of the trip.
Despite the fun Joel had with reindeers, he's fine eating them. He's even learnt to make his beloved smoked reindeer soup himself. Sadly we won't be able to buy the key ingredients - frozen ground up smoked reindeer and smoked reindeer cream cheese - in the US. Otherwise it would be a great, easy soup to treat our friends to. You just saute up some leeks and then boil them with water plus vegetable bouillon cube. You run this soup base through the blender, put it back on the stove, add the ground reindeer and the reindeer cream cheese. You can thicken it by pouring in some flour mixed in water and then add some cream and ground pepper at the end. Yum! Of course you should know to leave the top of the blender lid (the steam escape hole) open covered with paper towel or you end up with a literally "hot mess" all over the kitchen like Joel did on attempt #1! BTW, my last observation on reindeer is that as nice as the school lunches in Finland are, reindeer isn't served at school. Except that I have a vague recollection of getting reindeer stew at school once, in 1986, after the Tsernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in Russia! I could be wrong and maybe this is just an urban legend my mind created but I kind of remember joking about radioactive lichen and discount reindeer meat at the time...
Can you bring some home when you come back? Pack it in ice?