Here is a little more about how I found Finland to be -- especially compared to what I was told or expected.  Then I will start posting my photos of the farms I visited.

Not everyone in Finland is blonde.  (The only place I saw lots of blondes was at the airport in Stockholm, Sweden.)  Everyone I saw there was white and typically fair but most had brownish hair and there were no more blondes than you would see in the U.S.  (Keep in mind, I didn't spend any time in Helsinki except for being at the airport.)  The nice thing is, that being fair and brown haired, I could blend in while in public as long as I didn't speak.  It is nice to be a "fly on the wall" while traveling and see people as they normally are.

I was warned that I would be eating 12 different kinds of fish.  In fact, I had fish only once.  It may have been because I was visiting sheep farms, but I had mostly lamb and once had mutton.  Everyone wanted to show off their home-grown lamb just as we do when people visit.  It was mostly different versions of lamb stew but once we also had lamb sausages -- sort of like a skinny bratwurst.  It was all very good and all Finnsheep lamb, which is IMO (and the result of one USDA study) the yummiest of lamb meats due to its mild flavor.

I also had some very tasty Karelian pies a couple of times.  These look like a pastry except that they aren't sweet.  They are either made with rice or potato and people have them at their mid-afternoon coffee break.  They taste a bit like bread or a soft cracker except that they aren't.  I liked both the rice and potato varieties but thought the rice ones were slightly better. 

The most popular type of candy in Finland is licorice.  (What we would call "black licorice" in the U.S. except that theirs actually tastes good.)  They have many types of licorice and fall into two major categories: sweet and salty.  Once that I tried were some licorice chews that were the Panda brand and looked like little tubes.  Panda Filled Licorice  You can get the plain Finnish Panda licorice in the U.S., but in Finland they also have a type that has some kind of colorful candy stuffing in the tubes that make them even better.  They also have something they call "salty licorice" which are little disks that are like a flat gumdrop consistency with finely ground sugar on the outside.  They are sort of sweet and sort of salty.  The one I tried had a leopard on the label.  These things are highly addictive!  salty licorice  (My husband didn't care for these though.)  If you ever have the chance to go to Finland, the licorice is definitely worth trying.  (The links I provided are from a website where you can order these candies from Finland, but because of postage it ends up being ridiculously expensive.)  I did find a website in the U.S. that has a different brand of Finnish licorice with a mild Salmiakki (salty licorice) flavor.  If it turns out to be good, I'll post it here...

The one familiar thing that was very different was the Coke (CocaCola).  It has rather an unusual taste in Finland which was drinkable but less yummy IMO.  For some reason I am always amazed when I experience things in other places which seem like they would be the same but aren't.  Coke is one of my guilty pleasures (full caffiene; full sugar) that I buy as a treat once in a while.  I talked to a guy on the plane coming back home who has a friend that works for CocaCola in Finland.  According to his friend, the recipe is the same but the different taste is due to the different taste of the local water.  (Unlike Mexican CocaCola which has way more sugar than our U.S. variety.)  So while it would be far easier for me to give up Cola in Finland, I would probably just make up for the lack of dietary sugar with additional licorice!