In Scandinavia you can't really find cultivated lingonberries. Thank you for your visit! Only a few countries cultivate lingonberries Take it with you next time you go out picking berries and try it out. It'll, for example, do wonders for your huckleberry picking needs as well. You can of course pick other berries with this tool. If you are interested, they sell one through Amazon #ad that's perfectly suited for your next berry picking adventure. The more luxurious ones have metal instead of plastic on the part that separates the berry from the bush. Now its more flexible, lighter and often made entirely of plastic. Click here for price, availability and user reviews on Amazon #adīefore the tool was crude, bulkier and made of wood and iron. The funny thing is that the berry picking tool they used, is very similar to the ones you can buy today.

It was a clever tool that made the work go a lot faster.Ī lot more effective than picking every little berry one by one. The tool itself is best described like a box with 'teeth' that you rake over the lingonberry bush which are then gathered inside the box. The value of lingonberries and the cost of labor had to reach a certain point before it was deemed worthwhile to invest in specialized tools. This tool was actually developed in the end of the 18th century, but had not seen a widespread use before. When demand grew for the lingonberries, there was a need for a more effective way to pick the berries. It was during this time, the late 19th century, a lingonberry picking tool was put to use. This made it possible for children to help with the picking of the lingonberries. To meet the growing international and domestic demand for these red super-berries landowners started hiring poor people during the picking season.Įven the nations children got an extra leave from school in September called “lingonberry leave”. Germans in particular were very interested in the wild lingonberries from Sweden.

This enabled international trade and the “lingonberry rush” grew exponentially. In the early twentieth century the railroad was built throughout the country. Merchants realized that there was a lucrative market for the berries and through cooperation with landowners transformed the common lingonberry to a more valuable resource. There was a demand for the lingonberries from people who were unable to pick the berries themselves. Suddenly, there was an interest in buying the lingonberries. It was landowners who first noticed that they could make money of the berries. In the late 19th century something similar to a gold-rush started in Sweden that was later named the 'lingonberry rush”.

Lingon berry