Harvest Season Stories Vol. 1 / 25

August 10, 2025 – Greetings from the harvest season here in North Karelia, from our headquarters in Sotkuma.
We have started the 2025 season at a steady pace, gradually opening buying points.

At the moment, we are focusing on buying:

• Berries: blueberries (cleaned and uncleaned), cloudberries, currants, and gooseberries.

• Mushrooms: chanterelles, porcini, fresh milkcaps (Lactarius trivialis), and scaly albatrellus (Albatrellus confluens).

The buying selection will expand as the season progresses. Available products vary by buying location, so please always check the product list of the buying point you visit.

Berry season going strong

Blueberry buying is brisk, and there are plenty of berries in the forests – now is the perfect time to focus on blueberry picking! This year, blueberries are large in size. Currants are also becoming ready for harvest, and buying is clearly picking up. Just yesterday we received wonderfully sweet red gooseberries from pickers – delicious!

In the Kuusamo area, cloudberries are now ripe and ready for picking. There, it’s worth heading out to collect marsh cloudberries in the bogs. Pickers have clearly been finding them more easily this year. Compared to recent years, the cloudberry season has been more moderate overall. The cloudberry truck is currently buying both cloudberries and uncleaned blueberries in Kuusamo, Taivalkoski, Kuolio, and Pudasjärvi.

Mushroom season still quiet

While the berry season has gotten off to a good start, the mushroom front is still very quiet. There are chanterelles here and there – in places where rain has reached. In North Karelia, however, the weather has been sunny and hot for a long time, which is reflected in a slow start to the mushroom season. Now, temperatures have dropped a bit, but we are still waiting for rain. Porcini are unlikely to appear yet in our heartland area. Fresh milkcaps would need only a bit more moisture to emerge.

Generally, mushrooms benefit from a warm summer – as long as they also get rain and steady moisture. We are following the developments of the mushroom season with interest and keeping an eye on other areas across Finland so we can catch the porcini rise and organise buying in those regions.

Current mood & open buying points

So, we are in an expectant mood. Buying continues steadily, and we are gradually opening new buying points. It’s been a pleasure to meet you, our pickers – and we hope to see more and more of you as the season progresses.

Currently open buying points:

• Sotkuma

• Joensuu

• Buying truck 4: Tohmajärvi, Kitee, Puhos, Kesälahti

• Buying truck 5: Heinävesi, Savonranta, Kerimäki, Punkaharju, Parikkala, Saari

• Buying truck 6: Simpele, Ruokolahti, Imatra, Joutseno, Lappeenranta

• Cloudberry truck in the north: Kuusamo, Kuolio, Taivalkoski, Pudasjärvi

• Haukivuori

• Kouvola (buying truck)

Opening next week, Tue Aug 12:

• Buying truck 3: Ilomantsi, Kovero, Heinävaara, Eno

Planned opening:

• Buying truck 2: Ylämylly, Hammaslahti, Rääkkylä, Liperi, Ylämylly (more info to follow)

You can find detailed buying point information in the menu here: Dalla Valle Oy’s Buying Points

We wish everyone a relaxed start to the harvest season. You are warmly welcome to our buying points! It’s always a joy to see familiar faces after the long break, and we look forward to meeting new ones as the season goes on. Everyone is welcome!