EARTH CODE
Ladies in the midst of nature
There are three of them in our company. Each with its own character, talent, strength. And yet they are all united by contact with the fertility of the earth on a daily basis. In the middle of the bills, our accountant Galina puts a pie on the table in her garden, the main ingredient of which are apples grown here. Our seamstress Gunta emotionally cleanses herself in the forest and makes delicacies from cloudberries and chanterelles at home. But our order and delivery wizard Krista listens to the rhythms of nature and has created a wild bird garden on the family farm.
Equilibrium theory of Krista
“Nature makes me happy, inspires, harmonizes and makes me realize how small a person with his daily problems is in front of nature,” Krista says openly. According to herself, she has the ideal option: living in the countryside, but working in the city. It is Krista who prepares the shipments and controls the quality in our atelier "Inside Linen".
“200% accuracy! If the package was assembled and sent by Krista, then there is no doubt - everything is perfect," is how the owner of the company, designer Dina Irkle, describes her. And really - you can rely on Krista just like you can rely on nature, where everything has its time. Krista admits that she enjoys every season, and perhaps that is why there is a palpable stability in every movement of the young woman, which is also reflected in her story of synergy with the earth.
"In the summer, work alternates with sunbathing, swimming, outings in nature. In autumn, I harvest the fruits of my labor and rejoice in the splendor. In winter, the soul is purified in the whiteness of snow. Spring disciplines, because everything starts anew and you have to start thinking about how to make the existing one better, more interesting," such is the presence of nature in Krista's everyday life, but the biggest miracle in her yard is the bird garden. "We create an infrastructure favorable to the life of birds, while they please us with their presence and sonorous songs," says Krista.
Living in the countryside, she has also made sure that herbal teas, fresh air, physical work almost everyday help to keep the body in shape and provide emotional stability. “These are my daily benefits,” says Krista, who especially appreciates the harmony that comes from living according to the rhythms of nature. "They organize me and help me to navigate in different life situations. I think that there is a law in nature: what you give is what you get. Everything depends on us."
When I ask Krista if you can have too much nature, she looks at me and gives a more apt answer than I ever expected. “Can there be too much air and sun? It's the same with nature," says Krista. Nature, the countryside and the garden are the strongest points of support for the handsome dark-haired woman. By the way, you won't find Krista on social networks, and such an outing suits a natural girl, right?
Forest trajectories of Gunta
Our seamstress Gunta is a professional knitter. In the wet and cool weather, you will meet her in her own knitted jacket or sweater, because she has been good at various handicrafts since childhood. "My grandmother was a weaver," says Gunta about the roots of her talent. Having learned the knitting trade almost half a century ago in the abandoned, now defunct Latvian master school in the midst of a lush green forest, Gunta has not lost her connection with the forest for a moment.
If you meet her in our studio during work, cutting 100% Baltic linen fabric for ordered pillowcases, tops, aprons and other products, then in the evening, Gunta's direction will still be the same - towards the forest, where her home is also located. "I go to the forest to rest. I like being in the forest: I feel like I'm cleansing myself. I don't need to shout there. Just going for a walk is enough," she outlines her relationship with the forest.
Although the previously dense forests have been cut down, Gunta is still able to find the best places for berries and mushrooms in them. A delicacy that delights the taste buds is chanterelle butter, and the recipe, like everything that is pure and genuine, is very simple: "I fry chanterelles on a pan, add onion, fry both ingredients together a little. After that, I blend the mass of mushrooms and onions with butter and add spices - a little salt and black pepper.
Recently, Gunta also brought cloudberries from the forest: “These are my favorite berries. Not much this year, but still there!” Gunta tastes the sun-ripened berries right there in the forest, takes them home and cooks jams that are not excessively heated. "Jam in the store has one taste," she observed, while her own jam always turns out to be a little surprise - a celebration for herself and her family.
Gunta feels joy every day. She gets up at six in the morning. "I like mornings best. How beautiful the world is in the early morning!” she suddenly exclaims, and I have no reason not to believe her. Having grown up with the forest, Gunta radiates incredible peace, because it seems that through her hands the forest is talking to the world.
The universe of Galina's garden
Galina, an accountant at "Inside Linen", considers herself a northerner. She grew up in the Ural Mountains, where rivers flood the land in the spring, the sun makes people brown almost instantly in the summer, it gets soaked in the rains in the fall, and the eyelashes turn white in the winter. Galina has lived in Latvia for almost 50 years. And she has a garden! "It's my source of energy," admits Galina, who when she was young and moved to Latvia, promised her mother: "I won't have a garden!"
We Latvians have a saying: "Man proposes, God disposes." From May to October, Galina is in her garden every day. “I spend two to four hours there,” she informs in the mathematical spirit that suits her so well. “I have flowers, apples, pears, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and more and more. I put the harvest in the cellar, give it to friends." The morning ritual is coffee, home-baked rye bread, butter, then it's time for accounting matters, and then I go to the garden!
Galina is 70 years old. In principle, she could do nothing. According to the documents, she is a pensioner, but her actions show the opposite - she lives, and with a twist! "Well, I'm not a real pensioner, I'm not," she herself admits. "I go to the garden to rest, but I come home pleasantly tired. I take a shower and I have strength again! The garden gives satisfaction, strength, health - everything," Galina reminds me again and again so that I understand how close the connection between man and the earth can be. "If I have a headache, I go to the garden. I dig my hands into the ground and completely forget that I have a head."
And energy really flows from Galina - you can't help but feel it. "I don't spare money for garden tools. I like to hoe, weed, put everything in order," Galina says, because the law of energy exchange applies in the garden just like in life. "What you get in return is up to you." So, for example, until December, January, the family feasts on apples from the garden. Galina also dries them, but her culinary masterpieces are sweet and sour vegetable brews in jars - by the way, they tend to be brought to parties that take place now and then in the "Inside Linen" atelier.
It is easy with Galina, and she herself admits that she is simply interested in everything. "If you like everything, everything works out. If I see a recipe in the morning that appeals to me, then by evening I will have already tried it." The apple pie that Galina treats us to is made just like that, but the air in the garden where we have arrived smells of love.
Apple pie recipe
Beat three eggs in the dough bowl, add a pinch of salt, 200 g of sugar. Beat the mass with a mixer until the sugar melts. Add 150 g of sour cream, 80 ml of vegetable oil, a teaspoon of vanilla sugar or extract. Sift 250 g of flour through a sieve into a bowl and add two teaspoons of baking powder. Mix everything. Peel and core four or five apples (800 g), cut into cubes, add to the dough, mix. Cut one apple into thin slices for decoration.
Grease the baking pan with butter or oil. Pour the dough into the form and arrange the apple slices nicely on top. Put in the oven and bake at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. The readiness of the cake is checked as in ancient times - stick a match in the middle of the cake: if the dough doesn't stick to it, it's ready.