Helvi in her grandparents’ cabin kitchen in Wascott, WI during a recording session for virtual collaboration with Norway House.
Why did I start Luumu? It all boils down to not wanting to be treated like a magic wizard when showing up places with pulla (Finnish cardamom bread). I am a dash Finnish and very Minnesotan. Attention and accepting praise is not my forte. I kept thinking that there is no reason that more people couldn’t know how to make this and other Finnish foods and crafts. My grandma didn’t teach me how to make pulla. In fact, although she has many Finnish cookbooks including the Finnish-American Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas, to my knowledge, she has never made pulla. I don’t think her first-generation mother made it either. What Grandma did do though, was give me all the encouragement and support to take interest in Finland, eventually go there with her to visit our distant relatives, live there on my own twice for study at university and ultimately become fluent in the language and an expert in the culture. My grandmother and other family members supported me in attending summer camp and I continued my learning about traditions through various Finnish-American friends and later, Finnish friends. No, I am not a wizard, I am a well-supported learner.
In 2017, it was time to start Luumu. I was at a major point of transition in life and wanted to try something on my own. I decided to check off shedding my wizard title by showing others how I make Finnish things, encourage them to do so too through sharing recipes for free, and offering to teach them how to make if they need some scaffolding beyond the written recipe.
Repeatedly I have been told that I need to open a bakery. No. I will not. I have researched this route and have determined that because I am not independently wealthy nor am interested in taking on investors and loans, I will stay as far away from being tied to a physical location as possible. To me, it seems like a good recipe to end up in debt and even if not debt, become extremely miserable as I would struggle to have set hours. I already have a full-time job where I need to be present for 8 hours a day, I don’t need to have set hours in my off-time side hustles.
Teaching one on one and for small groups allows us to customize the time that we can come to you to teach. That means that we can be flexible to meet you during your preferred schedule, instead of you finding us during our hours at our fictional money pit store. That means that if you’d like me to come to your home to teach your family how to make karjalanpiirakka (Karelian rye rice pies), I can make that happen! If you’d rather come to us, we have teaching space available in my apartment building in Minneapolis that is both functional and aesthetically enticing. If you live in another state, know that we love to travel and are craving adventure, following a long year and a half of being cooped up due to the global pandemic. Let us meet you where you are in Washington state or Washington DC! Wherever works for you!
To set up classes, please email us at luumuabc@gmail.com. Prices are based on what we will be making together and location.
