Laitilanmäki on Lake Siilinjärvi is a rural Finnish environment with a difference. Hannu and Merja Laitinen’s organic farm is just a couple of kilometres away from the centre of Siilinjärvi behind Leppäkaarre, a residential area of terraces and apartment blocks.
The organic farm’s terrace is the perfect place to look out over the shore meadows and in the summer the view also includes the horned heads of the long-haired Highland cattle grazing the shoreline. Behind the lake, views open up to Kasurila ski centre. It’s not exactly your traditional rural environment.
Rural.fi is a website for rural Finland, set up as part of the Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland to serve as a portal for rural issues.
The site features key figures and organisations working in rural development. It also provides an insight into rural development in Europe’s most northerly agricultural country, by looking at life in Finland’s vibrant and beautiful rural regions.
The story of Lapland-based company Mieland started with a joke, which grew into a humorous philosophy. The firm’s young designers make products that are amusing and long lasting. Lapland provided them with the inspiration for their idea.
Joint seminar of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the Rural Development Programmes was held in Helsinki 28-29 September 2011. The objective of the seminar was to find synergies and value added on cooperation between the EUSBSR and the Rural Development Programmes.
