Wild strawberry
Fragaria vesca
July
Identification:
A low herb, 5–20 cm tall, with three-fingered, saw-edged leaves. The berry is red or yellowish, with small achenes on its surface.
Habitat and season:
Thrives in sunny spots: forest edges, verges and rocky meadows. Fruits abundantly especially after clear-cuts. The best picking time is July.
Use:
At its best fresh, with milk, in baking or in fruit soups. Preserve by freezing or drying – cooking into jam or juice is not recommended because of off-flavours.
Note:
The first wild berry to ripen, from late June onwards.
Bog bilberry
Vaccinium uliginosum
August
Identification:
An upright shrub, 15–50 cm tall, with greyish blue-green leaves. The berry is round, greyish blue with pale flesh and a mild taste. Its lookalike is the bilberry.
Habitat and season:
Grows in moist places such as pine bogs and shoreline forests, in Lapland also on drier heaths. Ripens in August, slightly later than bilberry.
Use:
As such, mixed with other berries, in porridges, soups, juices and jams. Preserve by freezing, drying or cooking.
Note:
Do not eat mummified berries – they may contain a poisonous fungal mycelium.
Cranberry
Vaccinium oxycoccos
Sep–Oct
Identification:
A creeping, ground-hugging shrub 10–80 cm long. The berry is red or dark purple-red, sour and hard-skinned. The small cranberry is more delicate with smaller berries.
Habitat and season:
Nutrient-poor open bogs and pine mires; the cranberry throughout Finland, the small cranberry more common in the north. Pick from late September until the snow comes – frost sweetens the berry.
Use:
Juices, fruit soups, berry soups, porridges, oven dishes, baking, jellies and marmalades.
Note:
Naturally contains benzoic acid, which improves shelf life.
Cloudberry
Rubus chamaemorus
Jul–Aug
Identification:
A bog herb 10–25 cm tall with many Finnish names: lakka, hilla, valokki, suomuurain. The ripe fruit is yellow, juicy and fragrant and detaches easily from its base.
Habitat and season:
Bogs throughout Finland; the richest crop comes from undrained mires. The season starts in mid-July and lasts to early August.
Use:
At its best fresh and as little processed as possible. Cloudberries are made into jams, juices, soups and desserts.
Note:
Like lingonberry it contains benzoic acid – the berry keeps in its own juice in a cool place.
Stone bramble
Rubus saxatilis
Jul–Sep
Identification:
A runner-forming herb 10–35 cm tall with three-fingered leaves. The berry is bright red, refreshingly tart, a compound drupe of 1–5 segments. Lookalikes are arctic bramble, wild strawberry and raspberry.
Habitat and season:
Common throughout the country in herb-rich forests, fresh heaths and along shores. Picking starts in late July and continues into September.
Use:
Best used mixed with other berries; preserve frozen or cooked into jelly or jam.
Note:
The crop is usually scant even though the plant is common. Its hybrid with arctic bramble is called mesilillukka.
Arctic bramble
Rubus arcticus
Jul–Sep
Identification:
An upright herb 10–25 cm tall with red or violet-red flowers. The berry is dark red or brownish, delicious and delicately fragrant – a compound drupe.
Habitat and season:
Most common in the belt between Kuopio and Kemi: meadows, shores, ditch and road verges, clear-cuts and field margins. The crop peaks from mid-July to early September.
Use:
Thanks to its strong aroma, used as a flavouring in berry preserves, and fresh, in desserts and as a tea flavouring. Preserve as juice, jam or frozen.
Note:
Spoils very easily and does not keep fresh. The arctic bramble is considered the noblest berry of the North.
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Jul–Sep
Identification:
An upright shrub 10–30 cm tall with angular green stems. The berry is round and dark blue, dark both outside and inside. Its lookalike is the bog bilberry.
Habitat and season:
The signature plant of coniferous forests throughout Finland; a single shrub can live 30 years. The best picking time is from late July to early September.
Use:
Berry soups, baking, smoothies, porridges and juices. Preserve by freezing or drying, or by cooking into jam and juice.
Note:
Wild bilberries contain 3–5 times more anthocyanins than cultivated highbush blueberries.
Rowan berry
Sorbus aucuparia
Aug–Sep
Identification:
The rowan is a 4–10 m tall, often multi-trunked tree with pinnate leaves. The orange-red berries ripen in showy clusters.
Habitat and season:
Common throughout Finland. In a good year one tree can yield up to 200 kilos of berries. The berries ripen in August–September and may be picked under everyone's rights.
Use:
Jams, jellies and desserts; the strong taste mellows when combined with sweeter berries or fruit. Preserve by freezing, drying, as juice or cooked into jam.
Note:
The bitterness comes from a parasorbic-acid compound and mellows after the first frosts. Taste varies from tree to tree – favour good-tasting individuals.
Lingonberry
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
Aug–Oct
Identification:
An upright shrub 5–30 cm tall. The berry is round, red, tart and juicy. Its lookalike, the bearberry, is also edible but low-yielding and bland.
Habitat and season:
The most common understorey shrub of heath forests throughout Finland. Produces the largest wild berry crop, up to 500 kg per hectare. The picking season runs from late August to early October.
Use:
Berry soups, porridges, oven dishes, baking and juices. Preserve by freezing, crushing, or cooking into jam or jelly.
Note:
Contains as much resveratrol as dark grapes, plus naturally preserving benzoic acid – a raw crush keeps in a cool place as it is.
Sea buckthorn
Hippophaë rhamnoides
October
Identification:
A thorny shrub 0.5–3 m tall. The fruit is an 8–10 mm long, yellow or orange-yellow, fleshy drupe.
Habitat and season:
Grows wild on the Gulf of Bothnia coast and in Åland on stony sand and gravel shores. Harvesting can start in October, preferably after the first frosts when the berries detach most easily.
Use:
As such, with porridge or yoghurt; preserve as juice, jam, dried or frozen.
Note:
The most nutrient-rich of our wild berries. The flesh and especially the seeds contain oil made up mainly of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Raspberry
Rubus idaeus
Aug–Sep
Identification:
A thorny shrub 50–150 cm tall with biennial canes. The berry is sweet and fragrant, a compound drupe that detaches from its receptacle when ripe.
Habitat and season:
Common in southern and central Finland up to the latitude of Oulu: clear-cuts, forest and ditch edges, shores and roadsides. The season runs from early August to early September.
Use:
As such or in juices, berry soups, baking and desserts. Preserve frozen, as juice, jam or dried.
Note:
Spreads quickly onto nutrient-rich regeneration areas after final felling and persists there for about 20–30 years.
Crowberry
Empetrum nigrum
July–first snow
Identification:
A shrub 10–30 cm tall whose overwintering, needle-like leaves are 3–7 mm long. The fleshy drupe is glossy black.
Habitat and season:
Dry and dryish heaths and bog hummocks throughout Finland. Berries can be gathered from late July until the snow comes.
Use:
A tasty juice berry; also suits baking, berry soups and porridges, and can be made into jam, jelly and marmalade.
Note:
Contains almost as many anthocyanins as the wild bilberry.
Species information: Luonnonmarjat tutuiksi guide (Marttaliitto ry & Arktiset Aromit ry).
