Fig. 2

Individual picking and then sorting berries, mushrooms, and other forest products in contemporary Russia. Like centuries ago, modern Russians actively visit forest for individual harvesting of various edible resources. After picking, these are brought to homes where sorted, dried, and conserved for further consumption during long winters. This remains essential for nutrients uptake in cold seasons. Such practices are especially typical to residents of the densely forested geographical domains of the Russian Northwest and Siberia. Although these practices share some characters of outdoor recreation (also for children), they are also customs reflecting the identity of the people living in the forested domains. In other words, picking berries, berries, mushrooms, and other forest products has remained a kind of regional, quasi-ethnic patterns inherited from the past, which can be judged characteristics to the Russian nation (or, at least, some of its major constituents)