WILD HERB KIOSK - our mission
A natural environment abundant with free superfood – wild plants, berries, mushrooms full of flavour, vitamins and minerals, is a great and unique thing in this world. Thanks to the freedom to roam allowed by Finnish law, these treasures of nature are accessible to all.
The Wild Herb Kiosk – Villiyrttikioski was established by Mimmu and Satu in order to increase awareness of edible plants and to give advice in using them in everyday cooking as well as special occasions. Satu Sällinen is a herb consultant and nutritionist.
On Facebook and Instagram the Wild Herb Kiosk gives practical in-season tips as how to easily increase the use of wild plants in your meals, and also how to create pampering spa treatments to enhance the well-being of yourself and your nearest and dearest.
We also offer training courses and made-to-order theme field trips for groups both online and outdoors. How about an exciting herb tasting event for a group of friends, for instance? Or a workshop or a relaxing natural spa day for your company’s employees’ day out?
Welcome to the wild world of hortaphiles!
For information of training courses and events, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. #villiyrttikioski.
Information available also via e-mail villiyrttikioski@gmail.com.
WILD ABOUT WEEDS – WHAT IS A HORTAPHILE?
Horta (greek. χόρτα, chórta) is greek for wild plants in general.
”Phile", meaning passionate interest and/or fondness in any one thing comes from the latin word phila and the classic Greek philos, meaning something dear to your heart.
Horticulture refers to gardening, and horticulturalists specialize in farming edible plants. Us hortaphiles, on the other hand, love the wild weeds that gardeners find most annoying, the plants that flourish all around without seeding nor sowing. While a horticulturalist sees dinner as they look at their vegetable garden, for a hortaphile, dinner is to be found practically everywhere in nature. There wasn’t a ready term available for a lover of weeds – so we had to invent one.
Hortaphiles appreciate the wild natural plants as well as mushrooms and berries. In its more refined and elegant forms, wild food is to be regarded as fashionable fine dining. We feel, however, that it’s more important to include wild plants in of our everyday meals. In that case, the health benefits would have a real impact on a larger scale.
For a beginner hortaphile, the nutritional density and potent aromas of many wild plants must be tempered in order to create those delicious and easy-to-use natural products.
