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. Kuopio airport is just a stone’s throw away as the crow flies.

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.

The café and shop that opened just before Christmas sell organic products from across Finland. During the first weeks the most popular products, however, were organic flour, flakes and grains grown on the farm and milled in the farm’s own mill, and the organic eggs from the 3,000-strong flock of hens the other side of the wall.

There is no doubt that once Laitilanmäki starts selling the farm’s own Highland cattle meat next year, the café’s home-made organic beef burgers are sure to be a hit!

The North-Savo ELY Centre has funded the construction of the organic farm shop from the EU’s Rural Development Fund.

Text and photo: Jari Sihvonen