Healthy, cold and Finnish

Get ready for the healthy Finnish alternative to all those frozen summer treats like ice cream and frozen yoghurt. A group of friends has started reviving an old Finnish recipe: Musikkamaito (Blueberry Milk).

Basically that just means eating blueberries swimming in milk. But the guys from Mustikkamaito make it more of an ice cream using deep frozen berries, adding milk and sugar, mixing the whole thing up and finishing with a little bit of cinnamon. 

Musikkamaito is sold from a moving stand on a bicycle traveling around town. You can most often find them on Esplanadi next to Cafe Kappeli. One portion is 3 €.

Give it a try. You'll love it!

Berry picking the easy way

This year the berries don't grow as much as normally due to bad weather conditions. Picking berries by hand might take quite a bit of time. But luckily their is a simple device that makes the berry picking much easier and faster.

With those so called Marjanpoimuri you can basically comb through the shrubbery and it collects all the berries. The Marjanpoimuri are tradtitionaly made from wood and metal. Nowadays you can also find plastic versions. They can be bought for a few euros at almost any supermarket. Try them out.

Good luck picking!

The blueberries are here

You can buy blueberries the whole year through in every supermarket. But now is the season when they grow in Finland. So keep your eyes open when you walk through the nature. You can find the plants pretty much everywhere. But to spot the first berries you have to train your eye a bit.

Finnish blueberries are much smaller than the huge ones you will get in the supermarket. But they are delicious and worth the effort. Give it a try and start picking! Good luck and enjoy!

Pricy strawberries

It should be the high season of the strawberries. And indeed you can see berry stands everywhere as every year. The difference this time is that if you want Finnish strawberries which are normally always a bit better then the ones from Central Europe you have to be ready to pay a bit more then usual.

The reason for that is the weather. First the lack of snow and cold temperatures has damaged a huge amount of fields. After a good spring the cold summer has brought the farmers into trouble again. The few strawberries that made it nevertheless are now sold for a price of 5 to 7 euros as a result.

At the stands and supermarkets you can also get Swedish, Polish and German strawberries for a much lower price. But they are just not the same, at least according to the Finns.

Finnish strawberries

Did you spot them already? The first Finnish strawberries are on the market. They can now be bought from most supermarkets and berry stands. So far they are quite expensive yet since the main strawberry time hasn't started yet.
 

And also they are not as sweet as they can get. Let's hope that despite the lack of sun and warm weather this year's strawberries will be as good as always.

Enjoy!

Some berries?

The berry stands are back. Now you can get your fresh berries again at several stands around town.

So far most of their products still come from Central and South Europe. With the sun shining and warm temperatures there should soon also be the first Finnish products on offer though.