In agrarian Finland, peoples’ diet was predominantly vegetarian. The basis of the diet consisted of cereals: rye, barley, oats and wheat, and they were supplemented by vegetables, such as turnips, swedes and peas and since the late 18^th century by potatoes. Meat was not eaten daily. Especially on the coast and along inland watercourses, fish, for instance Baltic herring, perch and pike, was more common than meat or game. Ordinary working class families ate meat only on festive days; consequently the vegetarian diet of everyday life was not an ethical preference but an economic necessity.

                      It was general to supplement a fairly one-sided diet with seasonal foodstuffs gathered directly from nature; berries such as lingonberries, blueberries and strawberries are cases in point. During long stays in forests, such as hunting trips, tending cattle, and felling trees, people gathered something to eat in meadows and forests, because a packed lunch was seldom enough to satisfy one’s hunger. For example, sorrel and wood sorrel were often used as snacks. However, some natural plants or their roots were also processed before eating.

                      During temporary shortages of regular foodstuffs and famines, the use of natural plants as food became more common. The main aim was to find substitutes for cereals. Because of frequent harvest failures, food shortages were a common societal problem. Therefore the authorities and intelligentsia, too, paid attention on this problem, made some experiments and gave recommendations to the common people for substituting cereals.

                      This paper focusses to examine what kinds of substitutes for food government officials, medical doctors and other educated people suggested to the public, what grounds and explanation they gave for recommended substitutes and what kinds of recipes were distributed. While the frequency of famines remained high throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, public discussions on the substitutes for regular foodstuffs continued. An interesting question is what came out from this long national project and whether successful substitutes were managed to provide.

                      The paper is based on the analysis of primarily contemporary scientific literature, vernacular pamphlets, official publications and newspaper articles as well as research literature.