The role and place of wild northern berries in tourism in northern Norway

Abstract

Uncovering a vital value of wild berries in local food practices, I aim to understand their realities. The specific research question that focused my study is: how are berries entwisted in northern tourism and how does that reflect local food practices and their role and place in Troms and Finnmark? With very few exceptions, in and outside tourism wild berries are situated within gastronomy. Although, very important in providing authentic tastes in local menus, the role of wild berries remains mainly in seasoning, and sometimes as a key ingredient in and of desserts. By exploring the use of wild fruits by two berry businesses, both of which relay on the tourism sector, I study the importance of wild berries as the main products of these businesses with a focus on the concepts of terroir, gift and food security. These concepts provided a framework for a threefold discussion around wild berry realities. Due to their terroir characteristics, berries complement unique local tastes. As gifts, wild berries are deeply grounded in internal reciprocity systems throughout communities, they are also commercialized gifts of nature in tourism. Wild northern berries are a sustainable solution with respect to provisioning; their value in securing the food supply has been reinforced lately; and their Arctic origin is of special interest in tourism. Within this thesis, I explore the present and future use of wild berries in food practices and in tourism in the study region by using three themes related to the aforementioned concepts: tasting terroir, giving and profiting, procuring and securing food sovereignty.