Telkkämäki heritage farm

The pastures around the Telkkämäki farm yard are bordered by the same kind of green leafed forest that was there during the change of the 19th and 20th Century. The landscape was formed as a result of slash-and-burn agriculture. Slash-and-burn has been a common way of clearing forest for farming. The last time this was used at Telkkämäki for traditional farming was in the 1930s. Today the land in the nature reserve is still burnt annually.

At Telkkämäki, you can experience the old-time atmosphere even before reaching the yard, as the road leading there is lined with traditional Kaavi-style fences. The current main building dates back to the late 19th century and has been restored to its early 20th-century appearance. In addition to the main building, the yard includes a barn, drying barn, granaries, and a smoke sauna.

In addition to the beautifully weathered buildings, the yard includes pastures and grazing animals. Thanks to grazing and mowing, the yard areas of Telkkämäki remain beautiful meadows, and the meadow flora, which had previously declined, expands and diversifies.

• Read more about the semi-habitant grasslands (metsa.fi)
• Read more about the cultural heritage (metsa.fi)

Arriving

Telkkämäki Nature Reserve and Heritage Farm is located in the municipality of Kaavi on the north-side of main road 17.

• If coming by car there are signs to Telkkämäki starting at the village of Kaavi or from road 569 (Kaavi - Juankoski). There is a parking area 200 m from the farm grounds.

Opening hours

The doors of the Telkkämäki slash-and-burn heritage farm are open during the summer months from June to August. We will announce the opening hours for summer 2025 as soon as they are determined.

• The yard and nature reserve can be explored year-round.

Visitors have a rare opportunity to see forest-land which has been moulded by slash-and-burn fires and an authentic farm from the beginning of the 20th century and its farm yard. There is also the opportunity to see some of the fields burnt each year. Slash-and-burn cultivation is usually done at the beginning of June. The exact timing is influenced by rain, winds, and the snow from the previous winter, so the date is often decided only a few days in advance. Please follow our updates on this page.

You are also welcome to learn and participate in the sowing of turnips and rye, the threshing of slash-and-burn rye in the warmth of the drying barn, or the harvesting of turnips.

The Telkkämäki yard and nature trails are open year-round. The buildings are locked, but there is a small photo exhibition in the small room of the barn that tells about the modern-day slash-and-burn cultivation at Telkkämäki. The Rietulan kierto nature trail (and its shorter version laidunkierto) lead through old and new slash-and-burn terrain.

Slash-and-burn agriculture has been practised in Finland from prehistoric times. Slash-and-burn agriculture played an important part in why North Savo has been permanently settled from the beginning of the 15th Century. Especially slash-and-burn cultivation in coniferous forest has been the technical and economic foundation for settlements in the area.

The most evident signs of past slash-and-burn activity are stone piles left from when the patches were cleared, green leafed forests, which have grown in once burnt areas and dug holes in the ground left where turnips have been stored.

Metsähallitus has practised traditional slash-and-burn agriculture at Telkkämäki since 1993. Usually the patches have been in young deciduous forest. The first ‘huuhtakaski', which is mainly applied in pristine spruce woods, was carried out in 2000. After this the short rotation ‘rieskakaski' - slash-and-burn method has been used in the area. ‘Rieskakaski' is burnt in young shrub-like deciduous forest. There has been at least one slash-and-burn fire each year, except during a couple years when there was crop failure.

The areas that will be burnt in the near future can be recognised as trees are girdled and allowed to die standing. Girdling is the process of removing much of the bark around a tree's outer circumference thus causing them to die. These trees are felled in April and left to dry, while other slash-and-burn forest is felled in July. The patch is then burnt the next year at the end of May or beginning of June. Short rotation ‘rieskakaski' is burnt the same year the trees are felled. The patch being burnt is set alight along its whole width. When the fire has burnt the ground to a depth of around 2 cm the burning earth is shifted forward with special tools to the next spot that needs to be burnt. Earth is then shifted like this until the whole area is burnt. Burning the land binds the minerals from the soil and trees to the field so they aide crops to grow.

Crops grown on slash-and-burn land include turnips, rye, barley, buckwheat, oats and flax. If the turnip it is grown, it is sown during the week before the Mid-Summer celebration in late June. The old way to sow turnip seeds is putting them in the mouth and spitting them out down to the ground. The area is raked before and after sowing. Burnt-land rye is traditionally sowed on August 10th. At that time the land is first ploughed and then raked before the actual sowing. The rye harvested in Telkkämäki is originally from this area and it has been saved in a gene bank, so that future generations will get to harvest and taste it as well.

The turnip crop is harvested in the autumn just before the weather turns freezing. Winter rye is mowed in the next autumn. It is then hung to dry and then threshed. The whole surrounding community gives a hand when the hay is cut.