11 best places to pick berries near St. Petersburg [map]

Photo: Alexey Bulatov

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CLOUDBERRY

The beneficial properties of cloudberries can be listed for a very long time. It strengthens the immune system, removes toxins, stimulates the brain, improves the immune and respiratory system. Usually the miracle berry ripens in the beginning - the middle of July. If the summer was rich in rains - then the berry "lingers", if a lot of sun - it ripens faster.

Where to look and how to get

1.   Cloudberry is rich in the Kirov district. Berry berries say that it can be found in the vicinity of the village of Nazia. Its coordinates: 59 ° 50′30 ″ with. w., 31 ° 35′05 ″ c. You can get by train, which goes from the Moscow railway station to Volkhovstroi.

2.   In the Priozersk District, there is a successful gathering in the marshes south of the village of Sosnovo. Its coordinates are 60 ° 33′05 ″ with. w., 30 ° 14′15 ″ in. There is a bus number 859 from the Devyatkino metro station, or an electric train from the Finland Station. But before the swamps themselves it is best to go by car, since the places are difficult to access.

CRANBERRY

Doctors call cranberries one of the most useful berries. It is an excellent antioxidant - removes harmful substances from the body. And due to the high content of vitamin C and potassium salts, this berry copes with colds. Cranberries ripen at the end of August - September, but then it pleases lovers of “quiet hunting” right up to the first snow.

Where to look and how to get

3.   Experienced berries ensure that the forests of the Priozersky region are especially rich in cranberries. In particular, the neighborhood of the village of Michurinskoye (coordinates 60 ° 33′40 ″ N, 29 ° 51′31 ″ E). You can reach it by bus number K678 from Parnas metro station.

4.   Another successful point is the state nature reserve Mshinskoe Bog (coordinates 59 ° 03′00 ″ N 30 ° 13′00 ″ E). You can get there by train from Baltiysky railway station to Mshinskaya station.

5.   In the Kirov district, many cranberries are harvested between Kobona and Novaya Ladoga (60 ° 01′17 ″ N. 31 ° 33′18 ″ E). Locals claim that "in season" swamps turn red with berries. It is better to go here by car.

BLUEBERRY

Bilberry reduces the amount of sugar in the blood, increases the acidity of gastric juice, improves digestion and metabolism, enhances visual acuity. It is no secret that this berry loves moisture and swamps - so the Petersburgers are lucky. Real blueberry plantations are forming in the forests! To make stocks for the winter, do not even need to go far from the city. Berries are usually eaten from July to September.

Where to look and how to get

6.   One of the most popular destinations is the woods under the Luga. Here blueberries are sown before the usual.

7.   Station Ushkovo (coordinates 60 ° 11′59 ″ with. Sh. 29 ° 37′01 ″ e.). There are trains from the Finland Station.

8.   Forests in the vicinity of the village of Sverdlov (coordinates 59 ° 47′30 ″ with. 30 ° 40′00 ″ E). You can take a bus K-476 from the metro station "Lomonosovskaya".

STRAWBERRY

Favorite delicacy of millions of Russians. And it is not only tasty, but also incredibly healthy. In terms of calcium content, strawberries come first among fruits and berries! It improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system, stomach, intestines and hormones in order. July is the best month to pick strawberries.

Where to look and how to get

9.   According to experienced berry berries, the surroundings of Vyborg are rich in strawberries (coordinates 60 ° 42′33 ″ with. Sh. 28 ° 44′39 ″ e.). Before this ancient town, there are electric trains from the Finland Station.

10.   The village of Losevo (60 ° 40′40 ″ p. N. 29 ° 59′50 ″ e). Fans of "quiet hunting" have already gone here to explore and assure - strawberries "in bulk"! The berry places can be reached by train from the Finland Station to the Losevo Station.

IMPORTANT!

Going into the woods, be careful and attentive. Remember that during the Great Patriotic War in the Leningrad region fierce battles were fought, and the earth still keeps the "legacy" of this harsh time. The last sad incident occurred in May of this year, when a man blew up on an old anti-tank mine near the village of Sinyavino and died. Therefore, if you have proven berry and mushroom places that you already know on your heels, better go there. And if you are still looking for a new fertile meadow, do not be lazy and ask the locals where to walk safely.

Nizhny Novgorod summer residents panic: usually in May fruit trees are blooming, potatoes are planted, vegetable seedlings grow rampant, and by the end of the month strawberries are already ripening in the southern regions. This year, because of the anomalous cold weather in the gardens, everything froze and grows poorly. And in some areas gardeners are afraid that the seedlings planted in the ground will freeze. Even those who are not interested in gardening began to worry. Are we left without a local harvest, and in the fall the prices of these products will rise strongly?

How many fields are planted?

The regional Ministry of Agriculture and Food Resources believes that the vagaries of nature this spring began not with the cold, but, on the contrary, with the heat.

“This year, in connection with the early spring, planting started 10 days earlier than last year,” the department said. - The first days of May were very warm. But despite this, the weather made its own adjustments, and the May precipitation and low air temperature kept the pace of work. More than half of spring crops are now planted - 59%, and spring grain crops - 69%. ”

Agronomists are confident that a slight delay in the sowing campaign is not terrible. Pause farmers use for feeding crops and tillage. More than 70% of the fields planted with winter are fertilized with mineral fertilizers.

“In the Nizhny Novgorod region, 1 million 138 thousand hectares are now allocated for sowing,” the regional ministry of agriculture specified. - But this year, the area for spring grain crops will increase by more than 3 thousand hectares. At 3.1 thousand hectares will be more fields planted with sunflower. On 3,3 thousand hectares more areas will be given away for sugar beets and 133 hectares more - for crops of flax-flax ”.

What are the crop types?

The Ministry of Agriculture of the region said that the plans for the harvest of autumn 2017 did not change due to the May cold weather. The region is going to grow 36.5 thousand tons of vegetables in open ground   and 8.8 thousand tons of vegetables in greenhouses.

“In recent years, a large-scale reconstruction and modernization of production is underway in the regional greenhouse complex, a“ light culture ”technology is being introduced,” explained their confidence in the good harvest of the agrarians. - Actively implemented projects for land improvement and the production of potatoes and vegetables on irrigated land using modern irrigation systems. New techniques and technologies in vegetable production allow smoothing the consequences of natural disasters and get high yields of good quality vegetables. ”

Experts of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Nizhny Novgorod region advise gardeners not to worry. The frosts that were actually in some parts of the region were short-lived and did not have time to seriously freeze the soil. Such a test will endure planted potatoes, but shoots are likely to appear a little later than usual. Sown onions and carrots also tolerate frost well.

Why seedlings coals?

“This is a beautiful spring this year,” said Konstantin Karavayev, an experienced amateur gardener. - I want to reassure all novice gardeners: planting due to the May cold weather will not be affected. This year there will be cherry, plum, and apple in our Nizhny Novgorod orchards. Frost passed when the trees had not yet bloomed, that is, the cold did not cause them any harm. By the way, according to national signs, cold May and rainy April guarantee a good harvest. The main thing is not to be nervous and help those plantings and crops that actually need help. ”

“Berries - for example, strawberries - this year will ripen two weeks later than usual,” the expert believes. - No need to "rush" berries, the volume of the harvest will not decrease due to a slight lateness in ripening. But the currant bushes, raspberries in the cold must be watered. Shrubs tolerate cold better when they are wet. Keep seedlings in greenhouses, maintaining there a comfortable air temperature. Embers can be used for this by putting them in iron buckets or barrels. ”

What is useful cold?

“We are late with sowing, but it will not affect the harvest,” said Nikolai Shkilyov, chairman of the committee on the agro-industrial complex of the regional parliament. - Popular wisdom says "May is cold - the year is grain-bearing." And we immediately began to sound the alarm and complain that nothing will grow.

Believe my experience, we will grow a good harvest this year! Perhaps the only thing that can suffer is the northern regions of the region. There and so is the territory of risky farming. Here in the north of the region may cold weather can reduce yields.

But in the south of the Nizhny Novgorod region neither rain, nor frost, nor even winter snow will seriously damage. In many areas, the sowing campaign this spring began even slightly earlier than usual. But the harvest, in my opinion, will be cleaned at the standard time for the region.

Weather corrections first sped up the sowing campaign, then slowed down a bit. As a result, it will mature as usual! ”

“All day yesterday, my daughter and I walked through the woods and got this much,” an elderly woman selling blueberries at the entrance to the market nods at a five-liter bucket. - No berries! Do not compare with last year. Then it was so much that even could not collect all. So it remained to winter. And now ... You are looking for blueberries, like mushrooms: then you pick a berry, then there ... "

A freeze to blame

This year, blueberries in the price. For a liter jar in the central market in Brest in the morning they ask for 5 rubles. If you start to bargain, sellers are offended - the berry this year is not easy. Weather anomalies have affected: just at the time of blueberry flowering night frosts occurred. Where they left their mark, there is a “no” berry. In another forest and even in another clearing, the situation may be a little better. In general, experts say: in some regions, including in the Brest and Gomel regions, the yield of blueberries is 1.5-2 times lower than last year.

Cold spring pushed back the time of ripening of wild berries. In past seasons at this time, harvesting blueberries was already in full swing, now it is just beginning. For now, procurement firms are cautious and keep the purchase price in the range of 2-2.3 rubles per kg. A year ago, they also started with two rubles, but then prices went down sharply and reached 1.5 rubles by the second half of July. This year, the situation may be the opposite.

Exporters expect price increases

Similarly, prices for blueberries in the European markets have not yet formed. This is where most of the frozen Belarusian berries go. “Europe is waiting for proposals,” explains Anton, an expert in foreign economic activity of one of the commercial firms of Brest, engaged in the harvesting of wild-growing plants. - And the first sentence will come from Ukraine. Prices are already beginning to form there, and we see that they will be higher than last year. Then Ukraine because of the high yield of blueberries desperately dumping. In the current cold and touched her. On the plains, blueberries are few. In the Carpathians, it will be, but later. "

Last year, blueberries presented an unpleasant surprise to exporters: their prices on world markets went down sharply. A few years ago (for example, in 2011), they amounted to 2.5-3 euros per kg, and in the middle of July 2016 they dropped to 1.3-1.5 euros. Speech about the unrefined berry, experts emphasize. This is what we mainly export. There is practically no equipment in Belarus (they say, terribly expensive) that allows them to clean and calibrate blueberries in size. It is after such a “refinement” that it goes to the producers of yoghurt, jams, and other appetizing products. Poland and the Baltic countries are mainly engaged in refining the berries, and their price for them is completely different.

Select last year's reserves

However, Belarusian exporters also earned good money on blueberries, if they correctly calculated the strategy of European manufacturers and large networks. They can do it: either buy all the volume of berries needed for the year at once, or purchase small batches necessary for operational work during the year if they are sure that the already picked and frozen berries are not going anywhere from them. It is difficult to say what strategy they will choose this year and who will determine it - suppliers or consumers.

Russia can influence prices on world markets, experts say. Our eastern neighbor consumes this berry in large volumes, but also exports it no less. Last year, it was frozen so much that they could not sell the whole until now. Knowledgeable people estimate these reserves as “very large”. According to their data, Russia is now offering last year’s peeled and calibrated berry at 1.9–2 euro per kg. Our exporters hope: this situation will continue for two weeks from the power until the stocks run out and the new crop berries go. It is not much this year. "And on demand, skillfully, you can jack up the price three times," - says Anton.

Earn "on cheese and sausage"

However, for ordinary consumers, that is, we are with you, and the current prices for fresh blueberries seem to be "ceiling". 5 rubles per liter jar is about 8 rubles (4 euros!) Per kg. Therefore, no matter how hard this berry gathers, there is a sense to go after it to the forest. 65-year-old Anna Ivanovna from the district center nearest to Brest knows this not by hearsay. With the onset of the blueberry season, she spends every day in the forest and knows berry places. He does not give in to the suppliers and does not trade on the market. The woman has a wide range of buyers, whom she sells berries this year for 4 rubles per liter jar. “The pension is small, and I earn money for cheese and sausage,” explains Anna Ivanovna. If you believe her, since the beginning of the season she has already earned about 100 rubles on blueberries.

Video of Nikolay CHEBERKUS

Probably every summer is associated with fresh berries. Now in the markets and even in the shops you can find any berries, but there are people who prefer to collect forest gifts with their own hands.

Already on the tracks, near the forest, there are queues of cars, and in the more often you can see the brave berries with bast baskets in their hands.

In search of berry place

For years, someone already has “his” places where you can certainly find whole fields of various berries. But there are beginners who do not attach their mind, where to look, where to go.

“The best berry forests are where pine forests grow in large areas. Some berries (for example, cranberries, blackberries, blueberries, blueberries, and even lingonberries) like to grow in large swamp areas, ”says Taimi Paal, a specialist at the Institute of Forestry and Rural Construction at the University of Natural Sciences.

According to her, in the middle of Estonia there are very few forests and, accordingly, berries too. So you shouldn't go there.

An important factor is the weather. With all the desire, the berries will grow only when they are comfortable.

“Our harvest depends entirely on the weather. The biggest pests for a bountiful harvest are frosts during the flowering of berry plants. Very often blueberries experience such troubles, as its flowering coincides with the flowering of the bird cherry, traditionally accompanied by cooling, ”explains Taimi Paal.

So to be or not to be?

Later frosts can damage blackberries, cranberries and even lingonberries. The raspberry harvest depends on the number of insects that pollinate the flowers of the berries, and also on whether it is rainy during flowering or not.

Taimi Paal, an expert at the University of Natural Sciences, explains that if the weather is cool and rainy, then the pollinating plants do not fly. And if the flowers are not well pollinated, then the berries will not appear, there will be nothing to collect.

“Snowless winters can also harm berry plants. There were cases when the cranberry bushes were badly damaged in the winter and then for several years did not yield a crop, ”says Paal.

Any berry wants to believe that this year is waiting for us big harvesthowever, experts disagree.

“If the spring is warm and frost-free, then the harvest will be good. But sometimes a long drought can ruin everything, ”explains Paal.

But do not be upset, as Taimi Paal says, our rains started watering on time and saved the harvest. However, if the drought returns, and for a long time, then we will not see the berries.

Supply more demand

A lot of bumblebees were noticed in Estonia this spring - experts on nature say that there were more of them during raspberry blossoming than last spring. But the harvest of raspberries directly depends on the number of pollinators, heat and precipitation. Taimi Paal notes that there are already a lot of green berries on raspberry stalks that will ripen in the second half of July. In some clearings, frost was damaged by crimson plants, but on the edges there will be a very good harvest.

In the swamps can be seen quite a rich harvest of blackberry. However, it is distributed unevenly. The harvest of this berry depends on the place of growth - there will be a lot somewhere, it is poor somewhere else.

The blueberry crop, as a scientist from the University of Natural Sciences believes, will be rich, as there were no frosts during the flowering season. At the same time, Taimi Paal is surprised, there are not so many people in Estonia who are ready to collect forest gifts. We came to a situation in which Finland and Sweden were a couple of decades ago: there are berries, but there is no one to pick them. They solved this problem in a peculiar way - they brought berry pickers from Thailand.

Now every year in Sweden and Finland more than 6,000 people in Thailand save a crop of berries, not to mention those who harvest in Ukraine, Poland and other Eastern European countries. The most active harvest collectors from Thailand over the summer in Finland receive the same salary as at home for several years - from 3,000 to 10,000 euros.

“Where do we import labor?” Because most of our raw materials remain in the forests, ”Taimi Paal asks.

Berry variety

“In Estonia, most of all are blueberry forests and cranberry marshes,” continues Taimi Paal. - In our country, all wild berries are harvested, but for some reason very few people look at blueberries. Given that it is no less valuable and useful than blueberries. Blueberries are very well suited for blanks, juice. "

However, you need to be careful with it. It is believed that blueberries can lead to intoxication. The main villain is a marsh ledum growing next to this berry, which on warm summer days spreads essential oils through the air, causing intoxication.

“Blueberries should be especially interesting for those who make homemade wine. It makes wine with excellent taste and color. For the fermentation of juice, it is necessary to use wine yeast, as blueberries contain substances that prevent fermentation, ”Taimi Paal says.

In her opinion, it is worth paying attention to cowberry forests, because the flowering this year ended successfully. However, the berry clusters for some reason less than usual. Cranberries are about to finish flowering, and the crop is expected to be average.

By the way, Taimi Paal from the University of Natural Sciences gives cranberry pickers such advice: it is better to leave the combine for berries at home, as it damages the fragile plant stems very much.

Corporate approach

In addition to ordinary people who pick berries only for themselves, there are companies that produce local berries. For example, the Bacula company has been producing various products from what is collected in Estonian forests and gardens for more than 30 years.

“We make jam from all sorts of berries and other fruits that grow in Estonia,” says company head Vahur Vuks. - We start in spring with rhubarb (or rabarbara, as they like to call it in Estonia - Ed.), Then come strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, black and red currants, lingonberries, blackberries, sea buckthorn, black ash, pumpkin, quince. We end the season with apples and cranberries. ”

OÜ Viibergi, a small company from Türi, is mainly engaged in the sale of lingonberry products - lingonberries in water, lingonberry salads, frozen berries and so on. According to the head of the company Ragmar Rikberg, they buy berries in Türi, from ordinary people, and if this fails for some reason, then the berries are brought from other regions of Estonia.

The head of another company that deals with both mushrooms and berries, Villar Vaherpuu says that their company buys berries from South Estonia, they do not work with other regions and producers.

“Of course, the harvest depends on the weather, but, unfortunately, the spring drought has done its job. Most likely, now you should not expect a bountiful harvest. Fortunately, this is not the worst year, there have been cases that 100 percent of the crop dried out, ”says Vaherpu.

02.06.2017

Strawberries.

Many interesting things can be seen now in the forest. Many useful things you can learn. We visited the fields and meadows of the Zubovo-Polyansky district. We looked at how the strawberry blooms this year, what its harvest will be, given the weather conditions of this year.
  Soon wild strawberries will start ripening in the fields and forests of our wonderful republic! It blooms this year neobilno.

There is hardly a person who has not tried this berry. Strawberries are the taste of summer, the taste of childhood. She has an unforgettable scent. Finally, this is the mass of the necessary substances! Useful properties of forest strawberries are very large and diverse. It is consumed fresh - with milk, cream, sugar (and just “with that”). Only it is better to do it not on an empty stomach, but as a dessert! From it prepare jams, jams, compotes. You can also freeze or make ice cream. Berries and leaves of wild strawberry are a real first-aid kit for many ailments.

The first fruits begin to appear in the sun: in the fields, slopes, which are flooded with sunlight. Berries here are smaller than in the forest. But they are the most fragrant and tasty, because they are saturated with sunlight. A little later, strawberries begin to ripen in the forest on clearings and clearings. There she is bigger.

It turns out that calling the strawberry fruit a berry is not entirely correct, although we used to call it that. The fact is that any berry develops from the flower ovary, and the seeds are inside the fruit. For example, currant. But strawberries have a completely different fruit. Its juicy pulp is formed from overgrown receptacle, which becomes sweet and colored red. And on the surface of this fruit seeds have grown into the pulp. Once in favorable conditions, they quickly germinate, give rise to a new bush. Such a botanist fruit is called a multi-hole or simply a strawberry.

Harvesting strawberries is best in dry weather, when the dew has already descended. Ware for picking berries need to take a small, so it was convenient to collect. Pour from one container to another is undesirable. After all, the berry is very tender and can be washed. Also do not recommend washing strawberries. She just all "raskiselytsya" and quickly deteriorate.

But in the strawberry is useful not only the berry itself. Her leaves also possess useful properties. The content of vitamin C in the leaves is five times higher than in the very self. Therefore, it is very good to take an infusion of leaves for the prevention of vitamin deficiency and with loss of strength. Collect strawberry leaves for medicinal purposes should be in the flowering period, in dry weather. They are cut with scissors and dried in the open air in the shade.