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19th of August 2017

19th of August 2017
Today's harvest.
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42 users have voted.

Comments

How could you find that much of berries? =)

Two weeks ago, as I was picking some berries for breakfast, I ended up wandering deeper in the forest and happened to find a few good spots with abundance of berries. So now I returned to those places.

But the amount I harvested isn't that much compared to what many other people get. My berry picking style is rather slow and meditative and I'm hand picking, whereas most of the people use berry-picking rakes and get several buckets of berries.

Pretty good! I don't have a good sense about berries quantities, wheare i live, berries are quite exotic, and honestly, i don't like buying fruits packed with plastic.

I think Henry David Thoreau's book "Walden or Life In The Woods" has some numbers and calculations of Thoreau's self-sufficiency experiment - like equating time spent and the yield for different tasks. (I don't remember exactly, it is something like twenty years since I read the book). Oh well, but maybe I could do something like that, too. Writing a blog post just counting time spent (and distance travelled) picking berries, and recording the amount of harvest, also calculating the nutritional values etc.

But, yeah, my general approach to life has always been less calculative as I greatly value qualities which aren't that easy to measure (like, time spent in forest has good effects on mental and physical well-being, and those effects aren't easily counted. There already is scientific data showing the effects are real, but I don't know if there already is research showing if it one's state of mind makes a difference - like, if one hurries to get as much berries gathered as quick as possible, does inhaling forest air have all the good effects it does when you go stroll in the woods mostly to relax?)

Hehe, and anyhow - if there are any scientists (or persons who make decisions on science funding), please consider adding more research in the health benefits of nature. My hypothesis is that plants might be emitting some pheromones which the human system takes as anti-stress signals.

Sorry for sidetracking =) I mean, I'm totally with you with the dislike of buying food packed in plastic !

I love finding hidden spots to wild harvest, to come back from the forest with amazing finds is the best feeling for me, this year is looking to be a great a year for mushrooms here, last year seemed a little lacking!

Indeed! Instead of merely picking up standardized stuff from the abundance of supermarket shelves, in wild harvesting there is always this thrill of seeking and finding, the need to adapt to local and varying conditions.

Here we had a rather cold spring, and the summer hasn't been anything like hot. Everything seems to be ripening two weeks later than usual.

I envy your situation in regards to living nature side! Living in the city myself, mostly surrounded by concrete, stuck in a work - uni - family/home loop I have a deep appreciation towards outside in general :) but living in what is basically a desert doesn't help much unless you like getting cooked under sun..

Well, yes - every day I think how lucky I'm about the location and surroundings of my home. I mean, although in Finland everything is rather close to nature. But then, that also means that a lot of houses in the countryside might also be next to industry, next to a busy highway, next to a quarry, next to big open fields and only small patches of forest.

My house is on the edge of local countryside neighbourhood, so where my yard ends the woodland begins (to the other direction it is a belt of village fields and houses scattered next to the village roads). I'm especially happy about living near a lake which has small uninhabitated islands (most of the islands are privately owned and have summer cottages, which means that they aren't good for casual camping).

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