Foragers in Mustavuori forest, Finland. Image: Jussi Hellsten
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The Finns’ connection to nature is one of the reasons commonly suggested when trying to figure out just why they are so happy.
University of Helsinki’s Jennifer De Paola found in her research that the hashtag #onnillinen – Finnish for happiness – on Instagram regularly bought up photos of Finns making the most of their natural environment.
To get a quite literal taste for why, Big Issue headed to Helsinki’s Keskuspuisto with biologist and foraging guide Anna Nyman.
The capital’s central park bears little resemblance to, say, New York’s Central Park with its manicured pathways and its maintained shrubbery.
The Finnish equivalent is much wilder and stretches from Töölönlahti Bay in the south to the border of cities Helsinki and Vantaa.
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In practice, the park is just a couple of kilometres from Helsinki’s central streets and the sea.
Big Issue joined Nyman to have a go at picking mushrooms in the forest.
It’s not just some Instagram activity for the few. Finland has a particularly strong right to roam, known as every person’s rights or jokaisenoikeus in Finnish. That gives everyone equal right to roam the countryside, fish in water or enjoy the great outdoors with only a few limitations.
Schoolkids also come out of the classroom to forage. It’s not just a break from schoolwork; it fits into the skill-building resourceful nature of Finland’s society and wider security plan.
It can be a lifeline for some. Nyman says some pickers can sell a kilo of rarer mushrooms to a restaurant for as much as €500-600.
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Liam Geraghty has a basket to fill
“If you know where to get the good ones then you can make a living,” says Nyman. “For young students and for people who don’t have a job it can be a good idea to pick them and sell them.”
There are more than 200 species of mushrooms in the forest. Some of them poisonous, some of them tasty and others that might not suit all palettes.
Identifying them is an almost lifelong pursuit.
For Big Issue, spending a couple of hours walking around the forest, that means finding them, picking them and waiting for Nyman to give her verdict.
“We never know what the forest will give us,” says Nyman as we search through the undergrowth.
“What I love is when you’re finding mushrooms you are very focused. It’s only mushroom, mushroom, mushroom in your head.”
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We find porcinis and chanterelles as well as hedgehog and pufferball mushrooms. One milk cap mushroom even smells like curry. We even find clear white destroying angel mushrooms, which Nyman warns are toxic.
Those that get Nyman’s approval are chopped and brushed to remove the soil before being placed in our baskets. It’s a therapeutic process.
Once our time is done, Nyman produces a portable grill and a knob of butter, encouraging us to chop up and chuck our finds on to the heat before tasting them. The porcini definitely earns its moniker of ‘king of the forest’.
It’s washed down with blueberry juice that Nyman made herself from berries she had picked in the days before.
“I know, personally, many people who cannot be away from the forest for one day and they feel anxious if they cannot go,” says Nyman.
“My grandmother, when she was still alive, said she felt physically ill when she could not go and pick berries. She loved it and she was still picking lingonberries at 94. So I guess it runs in the blood.”
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She adds: “It’s like 15 minutes of doing this and you feel relaxed and in a safe place. It’s definitely part of the happiness if we remember to go to the forest.”
