The soup's on

Two national traditions will combine Saturday at the annual NorthEastern Mojakka Cook-Off, as area cooks show off their best Finnish soups, all washed down with the buyer’s choice of green or purple beer.

The purple beer pays homage to St. Urho’s Day, March 16, the day that St. Urho dined on a hearty bowl of mojakka before heading out to rid the Finnish vineyards of a plague of grasshoppers. The green beer, of course, is in honor of St. Patrick, who chased all the snakes out of Ireland long ago.

American Legion chaplain Linda Erickson remembers the beginning of the mojakka festival at Cloquet’...