The story of Poimu berry pickers goes back to around 2010, when I bought my first aluminium basket berry picker from Veikko M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4, a craftsman from Kuhmo. The picker’s dialectal name, Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4, refers to greedy picking. M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 manufactured and sold his own berry pickers for decades, right up to the early 2020s, to various parts of the country. The picker was produced in at least three different sizes, with the largest models being truly enormous berry harvesting machines. <\/p>\n
The special quality and at the same time the strength of the Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4 is its lightness and durability. I have myself picked thousands of litres of lingonberries and blueberries with this model, and the picker still shows no wear whatsoever, even though the soft aluminium does naturally show signs of use. Having become enthusiastic about tinkering with pickers, I have been brought M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4-made pickers, decades old, for repair \u2014 pickers whose bottom corners had worn through from countless contacts with berry patches. The Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4t were and still are pickers that pass from generation to generation as a kind of family heirloom among everyday objects. <\/p>\n
When Veikko M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 ceased picker production in the early 2020s, there was no alternative to the Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4 on the market. Many other metal basket picker models built to last, such as the legendary Marja-Maija, had also become a thing of the past in terms of production. <\/p>\n
I met Veikko M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 in the summer of 2023 and enquired whether the picker master would mind if someone from Kuhmo were to carry on his fine work. “That would be good,” M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 said. We shook hands on the spot, and I bought from M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 the tools, the Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4 patterns, and the right to use the name going forward. <\/p>\n
The primary goal of the picker’s development work was to streamline its manufacturing process. At the same time, the picker’s appearance was updated slightly, and the plastic-coated handle was changed to hardwood. This material choice was intended to add more grip and comfort to the handle for longer berry picking sessions. All components of Poimu berry pickers are cut industrially, while the assembly is handcrafted in Kuhmo. <\/p>\n
Several passionate berry pickers have been involved in the development of Poimu, with a particularly significant contribution from Pentti Puurunen, known for developing the Puuru ski waxing stand and the Puuru elk dragging board<\/a>. The commendable work of Jukka Martikainen of Jalosteel Oy<\/a> from Lieksa in drawing up the revisions also deserves warm recognition. <\/p>\n At the time of the Poimu product family launch in April 2024, there is eager anticipation for the snow to melt and for the first signs of the coming berry harvest. For those thoroughly bitten by the berry picking bug, this is an interesting time of year that shapes the plans for early autumn: what berries might be coming, to which locations, and most importantly \u2014 how much? <\/p>\n Finnish nature is a treasure trove for all of us \u2014 not only for game and fish, but also for berries. Even in a poor berry year, it is possible to pick at least some species from the forests and bogs, enough to fill the cellar and freezer for winter. In a good berry year, the forests are so full of berries that preserving them becomes the challenge. <\/p>\n Poimu has been developed for you who value Finnish berries and have a passion for picking, preserving, and enjoying the fruits of Finnish nature throughout the year. You deserve a good tool for this worthy pursuit, and that is what Poimu has been developed to be. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The story of Poimu berry pickers goes back to around 2010, when I bought my first aluminium basket berry picker from Veikko M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4, a craftsman from Kuhmo. The picker’s dialectal name, Marja-\u00d6hr\u00e4, refers to greedy picking. M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4 manufactured and sold his own berry pickers for decades, right up to the early 2020s, to various parts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poimu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poimu.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}