Mushroom and berry picking

In Finland the age-old, Scandinavian ‘everyman’s right’ gives everybody the right to pick mushrooms and berries from the nature without landowner’s permission. This right goes hand in hand with the right to move freely through forest, wetlands and lakes without landowner’s permission. However the law also limits the user and there must not be any damage done, thus keep away from agricultural lands and from peoples homes, yards, fenced areas and do not go too close to any inhabited areas for your harvesting. Line of sight or 100-200 meters is a reasonable distance, as the law leaves this term open. Please check the law for detail at the Ministry of the Environment web pages in English.
 
There is a large variety of northern mushrooms suitable for eating and cooking. You should know your mushrooms, before you go picking them on your own. Good guidebooks are available and many varieties are of general European species. Please book a guide for your first mushrooming adventure.

Both mushrooms and berries can be picked near hotels and cabins and along hiking routes, but not in the actual yards. Suomu area is popular berry picking region.

You can find:
Cloudberries in July/August in marches and wetlands
Blueberries in August on both rich and sandy soil in pine forests
Lingonberries in September also on sandy, but drier soil in pine forests
Cranberries in September/October and in May after snowmelt in marches and wetlands

Berries are easier to tell apart than mushrooms, so once you get your hotel reception or Suomu Mökkivälitys to point you to the right direction, you can go berry picking at your leisure. Take along a plastic bag, a plastic container with lid and you are set. Of course sometimes your hiking or biking trip becomes a berry picking adventure and your mouth the only container you need.

All these berries are totally safe, ecological, healthy and sweet to eat.

If you are staying in a cabin, you can pick part of your menu to add local flavour to your cooking.

Ask Mökkivälitys for recipes. In July after good cloudberry harvest, you could go to the Isokylä Cheese factory and have a local berry and cheese desert. In August, the local shop will sell frozen dough for you to bake a lovely Finnish style blueberry pie. In September, the lingonberries taste great as they are with a reindeer dish or a whipped semolina pudding made into lingonberry juice is a favourite among children. Remember to add plenty of sugar to this one.

If you wish to have a cooking lesson at the end of your berry picking, please contact your guide, hotel or mökkivälitys for arranging it.