Juopmu, juobmo, jåamoe
In the traditional Sámi cuisine, wild herbs and berries are of vital importance, as they provide fiber and vitamins, and often have medicinal qualities too. Cultivated vegetal products used to be rare due to both climatic conditions and Sámi’s nomadic life. Among the wild plants typical in the Sámi cuisine – like garden angelica, alpine sow-thistle, lady’s mantle, butterwort, rosebay willowherb, birch, spruce, and pine – mountain sorrel (Rumex acetosa lapponicus) plays a particularly significant role as a typical side dish.
Sámi people call it juopmu, juobmo or jåamoe. These very names are applied to the most popular dish prepared with mountain sorrel too – a type od porridge, traditionally eaten as a side dish, serve either with fish or with sour milk, for breakfast. In the season, when reindeers and goats are milked, it used to mixed with fresh milk and then left in cold water to get slowly sour. Mountain sorrel might also be cooked with milk or cream and sugar, and served as a dessert.
This perennial species, with stems reaching up to one meter, is typical for tundra, mountain and subalpine zones, where it usually grown on meadows, rock outcrops or along rivers, lakes and streams. It flowers in late spring and summer. The plant can be found both in Eurasia as well as in North America.
