Wild Food of Finland

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wild food of finland

Wild food from Finland is pure, simple, seasonal, slowly and naturally grown in about everywhere you look – in the sea and in the archipelago, in tens of thousands of lakes and islands as well as in the deep forests stretching all the way from the South to the most Northern point of Lapland – adding lots of wonderful things to the table according to seasons.

Finland was a nomadic place for a long time where fishing, hunting and foraging was a natural part of the lifestyle that still exists and forms the very basics of the modern Finnish food culture. Food has always been a very essential part of life in Finland where one extreme continues with another. The Nordic soil and climate have created a range of local plants and wildlife that have also found their way to restaurants and have become maybe cooler than ever before.

Summer

The summer isn’t endless in Finland, but there are almost endless summer days. On a fine summer day, Finns have an overwhelming urge to go outside and get out of town.

Summer

The locals and visitors line up for the wild food restaurants and want to try new tastes they did not even know were there. Think game, such as elk, moose, willow-groak or even bear or reindeer and wild berries from sea-bucktorns and lingonberries to cloudberries or yummy mushrooms such as cep and chantarelle. Or fresh fish from pike to Baltic herring topped with wild herbs such as chives.

Not to mention the Arctic drinking culture and the genuine tastes of the North of micro-brewed beers, ciders, gin and akvavit or non-alcoholic birch sap, chaga mushroom and sparkling made of spruce sprout!

Taste of Helsinki brings the best restaurants and chefs of Finland outdoors in the middle of Helsinki for four days in June. This year’s special edition is a pop-up restaurant called TuOHi, serving only wild and seasonal foods such as pike terrine, wild violets, resin cream and first milk blinis mastered by the local chefs Sasu Laukkonen, Ossi Paloneva and Ilkka Isotalo.

Photo: Taste of Helsinki / Petri Lyytikäinen

Finland’s wild herb months celebrate all things wild from the South to North. The growing season starts in the beginning of May in the South and nearly a month later in the North. During the season there are many events, gatherings, wild food courses and tastings around the country.

If you are interested in tasting some of the local wild foods in Tampere, the Lahtua organic farm offers wild herb courses, forest tours and wellbeing talks finished off with smoke sauna and a dip in a lake.

Ahlman’s farm deli and café in the city offers locally produced foods and crafts. Here you can also find a collection of local heritage plants from the area such as a 100-year old apple garden. You can also buy fresh milk of local landrace cows at their milk bar!

Our cities are close to nature. Hiking trails and national parks are at everyone’s reach – there are 40 of them where you can camp, hike and yes – eat wild. The everyman’s right allows anyone to pick wild flowers, herbs and mushrooms, fish with a rod and a line and also to walk of frozen lakes, rivers and the sea. But remember that before putting anything to your mouth, make sure you know what you are eating!

The forests in Finland are magical and full of pure tastes of berries, mushrooms, wild herbs, plants and game. Not only do they feed the body, but the mind, too. The green world is easy to reach even in cities so anyone can enjoy some forest therapy!

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