Foraging in Finland

Hello from my family’s cottage by the lake! It’s located in Mäntyharju, Eastern Finland, and I’m here to write my next book! One of the best things about the cottage is the forest all around it and it’s filled with berries! Bilberries, wild strawberries and raspberries now and lingonberries later in autumn. I love foraging!

Foraging means collecting food that grows in the wild, and Finnish people have been doing it for centuries. Families often head into the forest with buckets and baskets, searching for berries, mushrooms and edible plants.

This is possible because of something called Everyman’s Rights, or jokaisenoikeudet in Finnish. These rights allow everyone to walk, cycle, ski and enjoy nature, even when the land belongs to someone else. It also means you’re allowed to pick wild berries and mushrooms for your own use as much as you like.

Bilberries are my favourites! I always call them blueberries, but they are smaller, darker and much juicier than the ones you can buy in a supermarket. When you squash a bilberry, the purple juice stains your fingers, lips and tongue! Many people keep their best bilberry-picking places a secret, by the way!

Later in the summer until autumn, the forests fill with bright red lingonberries. They taste sharp and sour, but they are delicious in jams, juices, cakes and sauces. We often have lingonberry jam with meats and stews.

In Lapland, you can also find cloudberries growing in marshy areas. They are golden-orange berries that look like raspberries and can be difficult to find.

Finns usually pick berries using a berry picker. It’s so much faster than picking by hand. And we eat the berries fresh, bake them into pies and preserve them as jams and juices. Many families also freeze bags of berries so they can enjoy a taste of summer during the long, dark winter. Whenever I have fresh bilberries, I love baking blueberry crumble – it’s called rättänä in Finnish! (You can see me bake in the video below)

Everyman’s Rights give us lots of freedom, but they also come with responsibility. It means we must respect animals, plants and other creatures. We also must stay away from private gardens, avoid damaging trees and always take our rubbish home. Campfires are only allowed if a sign allows it and must never be lit during a forest fire warning. National parks may also have their own rules, so it is important to check the signs and stay on marked paths when asked.

And one more important rule: never eat a mushroom, berry or plant unless you’re completely sure it is safe!

Watch me forage bilberries and bake a crumble in this video!