Sense and and taste the time of scarcity

The summer 2025 theme exhibition Everyday Life with a Card – Feel and Taste the Shortage at the Käkisalmi Museum takes visitors on a journey through time to Finnish kitchens during the famine and war. The exhibition opened to the public on June 1 and will be on display until August 31, 2025.
In the midst of rationing and scarcity, Finnish families showed incredible ingenuity in food supply. The exhibition presents how substitute raw materials were used in everyday life: coffee was made from roasted chicory, grain or potato peelings, instead of butter, potato starch seasoned with salt and milk was used, and when meat was lacking, dishes were prepared from root vegetables, peas or soy. Recipes from the famine era still guide us to frugal and creative cooking.
The exhibition is based on the museum's evacuee kitchen in the summer, which brings history to life through tasting. Authentic delicacies are prepared for exhibition visitors based on the instructions of the era. At the Käkisalmi Museum, you can taste, among other things, nettle potato stew, lingonberry and carrot kiisselle, barley bread and oat cake from the famine period.
The exhibition also presents kitchen utensils from the era, a card system, and cooking instructions and advisory material that the authorities used to support the food supply of citizens.
The exhibition not only offers history, but also reminds us of the survival skills that are still needed today when talking about sustainable lifestyles and food security.
The museum café Käe also serves delicacies from the era that fit the theme of the summer exhibition.
Welcome to experience how the famine period was overcome.