The Harvest Booya Festival is a cherished community event in Finland, Minnesota, celebrating the autumn harvest with food and fellowship. The 2025 festival will mark the fifth year that Dan and his wife, Kaylee, owners of the Baptism River BBQ food truck, have coordinated the event.
Before Dan and Kaylee, the festival was run by the Finland Festivals Committee. A major contributor to its success was Stacey Breden, who managed event records and organization with the help of other committee members. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused a pause in 2020, the committee passed the torch to Dan and Kaylee.
Since taking over, the couple has committed to using 99% locally raised and harvested ingredients from Lake, Cook, and St. Louis counties for their Booya stew, with most of the produce sourced directly from Finland. The Booya is made with a variety of ingredients. There is locally sourced Pork, Beef, and Chicken (bones for the stock and meat for the stew) along with lots of potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, onions, garlic, celery, kale, and herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme). They also use allspice, salt, and pepper to season the stew.
The festival is a true community effort, supported by the Finland Food Chain, Friends of Finland, and Lovin’ Lake County. These are some of the partners and volunteers who play a vital role:
- Finnskogen Farm: For five years, Kaare and Pam Melby have contributed sourdough bread, with Kaare also helping to cook the booya stew for even longer.
- The Finland Wild Rice House: For the last three years, they have provided wild rice for the Finnish rice porridge, or puuroa.
- Dedicated Volunteers: Many other family and friends contribute their time each year by chopping vegetables, stirring pots, and serving food.
- Meghan Mitchell and Slim Steffans help with cooking, and Laurie Kallinen has run the ticket booth for four years.
- The Baptism River Community Church which has been making Lefse for years. This year they will be holding a cooking demonstration for Lefse.
- The Finland Nature Childcare will be making baked mini-apple pies again this year.
The festival also relies on its numerous, generous sponsors and volunteer for a successful event.
Each year, the festival serves over 400 bowls of Booya to attendees. The event is held at the Clair Nelson Center, which offers a versatile indoor and outdoor space for celebrating the fall season. The center ensures the event can continue rain or shine and hosts a range of activities, including live entertainment, vendors, and fresh apple cider pressing outdoors, along with mini apple pie making again this year.
You can get a bowl of Booya with a slice of homemade sourdough bread and butter for $8, and if you would like a cup of locally harvested Wild Rice Porridge, it will be $3. They will also be offering a combo meal for both, costing $10. All proceeds raised will be deposited into the Booya bank account to keep the event going year after year.
During the Booya Festival, you’ll also find goodies and sweet treats. This year, they are excited to have Abbey Goutermont serving housemade baked goods. She has been serving delicious brownies and sourdough donuts at the Finland Farmer’s Market for the past several weeks. She will also have a booth of sweets and baked goods at the festival.
The Harvest Booya festival will be held on Saturday. October 4th from 11 am to 4 pm at the Clair Nelson Center in Finland, MN. There will be traditional Finnish and accordion live music from the Aho Family Band from 11 am-1 pm, and LauLauika from 1:30 pm-3:30 pm.
Volunteers are needed to help work in the kitchen for Booya prep on Friday afternoon, and to serve people and clean up on Saturday. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Dan via email at Dan.C@friendsoffinland.org.
