When people think of Monson and the Finns, four things come to mind, says Annalee Korsman Libby.

“They think of bullas, of the Finn Hall, of saunas and working in the quarry,” explained Libby, a Hermon schoolteacher who lives in Blanchard and Old Town.

All things Finnish are of high interest to Libby, who grew up in Monson, the oldest of nine children. She’s the secretary of the Finnish Farmers Club, which owns a hall on Route 15 outside Monson – next door to Blanchard – and which will mark its 65th anniversary this year.

Many immigrants from Finland were farmers or woodsmen, but like the Swedes, they came to Monson primarily to work in the slate quarries.

“My great-grandfather was the first person to get a pension from the quarry – two dollars a month,” Libby said.

In the Strom family, it was Signe Ranta’s grandmother, Mandy Roswal, who came to this country first. “My grandfather, John Strom, came in 1915 to Greenville to work in the woods, then he came to the quarry.”

Strom was Americanized from a name officials couldn’t pronounce, Ranta explained, a story Sylvia Woerna knows all about.

Woerner’s maiden name, Anderson, was the simpler version of a Finnish name meaning “Andrew’s knee.”

The women, gathered in Libby’s Blanchard home on a snowy morning, know and cherish their Scandinavian background. It’s a heritage they nourish with filling foods such as those lining Libby’s kitchen table – a Finnish baked dish based on eggs, Finnish pancakes with syrup or jams and jellies, spiced cookies, and, of course, bullas.

A commercial gas stove and a wood stove are available for Libby’s cooking, and a humongous bowl of rising dough sits on an oversized bread board.

Technically, Libby explained, the name is pulla, but it’s pronounced “bulla” and most people spell it that way.

Finns in the South Paris area usually shape the dough into the traditional braided loaves, she said, but in Monson, the bulla rolls are most popular.

Libby and her mother, Rena Korsman Stone, make 20 dozen bullas each fall for the Kris Kringle Market, a holiday event started originally to raise money to save Monson Academy. But the old school was torn down, and now proceeds from the market benefit children.

In Libby’s kitchen, Stone pinches some dough from a sizable portion sitting on the floured bread board. Smoothly she rolls the bit of dough between her hands, takes the ends and folds them inside one another.

“You do a single knot,” said Ranta. “I do a double knot, like a pinwheel. They go quicker.”

A batch will make approximately 48 bullas, Libby said, “How many depends on how you’re feeling when you roll them out.”

An essential ingredient in the dough is white cardamom seed – freshly ground, Libby emphasized.

She likes a good amount of cardamom in each batch – 26 seeds give or take. She breaks open the shells, extracts the black seeds, folds them into a corner of a thin towel, then crushes them with a hammer. Specks of black can be seen in the finished product.

The smell of bullas baking fill Libby’s kitchen. The women tuck into the egg dish, bullas, coffee and pancakes.

“I like the pancakes cold,” she said. “Roll them up and sprinkle with sugar, and eat them that way.”

“This tastes best when you dunk it in your coffee,” Woerner said of the rolls. “Food has a tendency to make you feel like everything is OK.”

The women reminisced about who made what for suppers such as those that open the dance season at the Finnish Farmers Club each spring, and close it in the fall.

Ranta is known for her chicken bake. Libby’s grandmother, the late Maila Ulman Korsman, made a rice pudding with raisin sauce.

Betty Crocker put out a “Holiday Heritage” cookbook in Finnish and English back in the 1920s, Woerner said.

The recipe for valmistetaan kutan edellinen – roast elk – was rather short. “Same as venison steak,” the recipe read.

“The Finnish I talk is from 1900,” Woerner explained. “It has changed over there.” Ranta also speaks Finnish, and Stone understands it.

Woerner grew up across the road from what is now the Finnish Farmers Club, and, in fact, she attended there when it was a school.

“Our role for the Finnish hall is to promote the Finnish culture,” Libby said.

“There aren’t many left who are all-Finn,” Ranta pointed out. For decades, many of Scandinavian descent didn’t learn English until they started school.

She remembers when the club started up in 1935, shortly after her family returned to Monson after living in Bangor.

“My father said they were going to have a meeting, so we got ready and went,” Ranta said.

Several homes in Piscataquis County – Libby’s included – still house another homeland tradition, the saunas, or Finnish baths.

“It’s pronounced ‘SOW-na,'” Libby said.

Certainly the Finn dances help keep the culture alive, too. Accordion music is a must, and sometimes Veikko Honkala comes up from Ashby, Mass., to play.

Another musician who plays for the dances is Jeff McKeen of Freedom, Libby said. “He learned some tunes from Jorma Ranta, who played for years.”

Finnish culture also is evident at Libby’s Blanchard home, once owned by photographer Berenice Abbott.

On the first Saturday in May and the second Saturday in November, Libby holds an open house with refreshments and crafts she sells through her business, Kauppa – Finnish for store.

It seems, too, that Finnish traditions are in her genes. Yearly, she makes a Christmas morning visit to the cemetery to place a poinsettia on her grandmother’s grave.

Recently she picked up a book about Christmas in Finland, and found that a popular tradition there is going to cemeteries Christmas Eve to put candles on graves.

A New Year’s tradition in the country is putting melted tin in a bucket of water, and telling the future from the way it congeals.

“I heard about that from my grandparents,” Libby said.

Those interested in the Finnish Farmers Club may contact Annalee Libby at 827-4857 or 997-3268. Libby also has available for sale a few copies of the “Mainely Finnish Cookbook,” a collection of recipes she compiled a few years ago.

Finnish Bullas

2 packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups milk, scalded and cooled

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon cardamom seed, freshly crushed

4 eggs, slightly beaten

8 to 9 cups flour

1 stick butter, melted

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)

1/2 cup pearl sugar or coarsely crushed sugar cubes

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand for five minutes, until the yeast bubbles. Stir in the milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, eggs and four cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Add butter.

Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn onto a floured board. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Wash and grease the bowl and set aside.

Knead the dough, adding flour as necessary, until it is smooth, about 10 minutes. Place the dough in the prepared bowl, turning the dough to grease it on all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 11/2 to 2 hours. Punch down. Turn the dough out onto an oiled surface.

Divide the dough in half, and then divide it again to make quarters. Pull each quarter apart until there are 12 pieces.

Roll each piece between hands until it’s a few inches long, then loop ends around to make a small roll.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the loaves with egg-milk mixture or with coffee, and sprinkle with sugar and/or almonds. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on racks.

Finnish Bake

1 pound sliced bacon

1 cup red and green peppers, diced

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups half-and-half

18 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon tarragon

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Butter a shallow 2- to 3-quart glass casserole dish; set aside. Cut bacon slices in half. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp and drain on paper towels. In a large bowl, beat eggs until blended. Saute peppers in butter or an equal amount of bacon drippings. Stir in cornstarch until evenly distributed. Slowly stir in half-and-half until blended. Cook and stir until thickened. Stir in beaten eggs and scramble over medium heat only until eggs begin to set – do not cook completely. Stir in salt and tarragon.

Pour the partially cooked mixture into a prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle cheese on top. Overlap bacon slices on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight or bake immediately. To bake immediately, place in preheated oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted. To bake after refrigeration, bake at 325 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

This baked omelet can be prepared the night before and baked in the morning. Sliced mushrooms may be substituted for peppers.

Maila Korsman’s Rice Pudding with Raisin Sauce

3 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1? cup rice

1 can milk

Heat water and salt to a boil. Add rice to boiling water. Cook until water has evaporated from rice. Add can of milk. Simmer for a few minutes. A whipped egg may be added to the rice.

Raisin Sauce

1 cup raisins

2 cups boiling water

? cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch or potato flour

Add raisins to boiling water. Add the sugar and cornstarch dissolved in water to thicken the sauce. Stir. Sauce is now ready to put on rice.

Sauce may be eaten hot or cold.

From Mainely Finnish Cookbook