Mornings are quiet at the Raijan Aitta strawberry farm in Mikkeli, eastern Finland. In fields in the distance, Ukrainian workers pick strawberries for market sales. In those closer to the road are the self-pickers. This morning entrepreneur Katariina Turman sent out a text message to her regular customers, letting them know that the best time for pick-your-own (PYO) strawberries is at hand.
Farms have been inviting customers to pick their own strawberries since the 1990s, when farmers began having difficulty recruiting enough employees. Then, as Finland recovered from a severe recession, many pickers were purely motivated by a chance to save money.
Grandparents and day trippers
Nowadays berry picking is often part of a leisurely day out in the country for families, especially near larger cities. Besides harvesting, they also sample berries and pause for coffee breaks.
"We have a lot of grandparents who come here with their grandkids, for instance,” says Turman. She and other farmers say that increasing public interest in food origins and appreciation of local produce have boosted the popularity of PYO. When you select the soft fruit yourself, you naturally know exactly where and how they grew, and can choose the best ones for your punnet.
"The feeling here is so lovely, although of course you wouldn’t want to do this for too many days. I come here many times each summer though, and pick about 20 kilos altogether,” says Mikkeli native Tuulikki Rahikainen, who has picked her own berries for 20 years.
"We’ve had to put limits on how you can behave"
Growers do have mixed feelings about PYO. Although the customers pick the berries themselves, they still need help. The right rows to pick must be marked, and they must be well weeded, as people don’t want to pick berries among nettles. And there must be staff and facilities for customer service, including weighing the berries.
Some entrepreneurs have found themselves ending up in the red from the practice. That can happen, for instance, if a large family comes to hang out in the field and eat berries without buying many of them to take home.
"We’ve had to put limits on how you can behave here," says Yrjö Rossi, who owns the Kartanon Marjat farm in northern Espoo. “After all Citymarket [grocery stores] don’t arrange trips to eat as many sweets as you like from the candy-by-the-kilo bins. Our costs are rising all the time and we have to run a normal business,” he tells Yle.
Guided berry outings for tourists
Marjatila Juhmo in Tuusula, just north of Helsinki, takes a different approach to self-pickers and day trippers. The farm has set up toilets, hand-washing facilities and a café for visitors, and emphasises customer service.
"Our staff must be friendly and understand that sometimes people want to come and pick a lot of berries and sometimes just to pick a few. If someone eats a bucketful of berries, that doesn’t really have an impact on our overall volume,” says entrepreneur Johanna Matilainen.
"We also get lots of foreigners who want to find out about real Finnish strawberry farming. The employees have to understand the needs of different nationalities and kinds of people,” she says.
Raijan Aitta in Mikkeli offers guided berry outings, including strawberry tasting along with a meal and swimming, for instance.
"There have been a few Russian tourists, but the idea has not really taken off yet,” says Turman.
So far there are no extra fees for picking your own strawberries, just the price per kilo for those you take home – which is significantly lower than the standard retail price.
"At the moment we charge five euros a kilo for PYO berries, while at a market you’ll pay 34 euros for a five-kilo box,” Turman notes. Other farms, too, offer a discount of one or two euros per kilo compared to regular prices at shops or market stalls.
