Famine Bread

In times of hardship, flour was mixed with pine bark (“pettu”) and lichen. Both are naturally toxic and must be soaked if used for food; pettu could also be roasted. Preparing pettu was labor-intensive: an ordinary pine yielded about 2 kilograms of flour, and a large one 5–6 kilograms at most.

A small amount of pettu could improve the nutritional value of flour, but in large quantities it led to deficiency diseases. In Eastern and Northern Finland, pettu consumption was common even in good years, but in Southwest Finland it was eaten only as famine bread. Bread made entirely from pettu was called silkko (referring to its smoothness). An eater of silkko could be recognized from the distinctive smell, clung to clothes and hair.

Lichen was heavily promoted by intellectuals, but was only used during times of extreme desperation. Its nutritional value was very low. Often, it only made matters worse—those weakened by hunger risked poisoning if the bread was poorly prepared.

In the Loimijoki Valley and surrounding areas, famine bread was known as tamppuleipä. Tamppu flour was ground from pea stalks, which are high in protein. A bit of rye flour was added to the mix.

In the worst of times, small chunks of straw were added to the dough. Straw bread crumbled easily and had to be baked inside a wooden hoop.