The Sammalmamma company was born in Mustiala, where, having just retired from the position of educational counselor, I became fascinated with bees.
I studied to become a beekeeper at the Häme Vocational Institute. From the beginning, other students began calling me Sammalmamma, which naturally became the name of the company I founded during my entrepreneurship studies.
Environmental issues and the preservation of nature’s biodiversity have inspired the choices in my studies throughout my life. I completed my radiochemistry degree at the University of Helsinki in 1975 and my master’s thesis was ”Solidification and final disposal of nuclear power plant waste”. At that time I stood at the edge of the construction pit of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant and wondered what would happen to marine animals when the plant’s cooling waters are discharged into the sea.
Family reasons next took me to Oulu and to the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Oulu, where I worked as an assistant and conducted research in a vanadium study funded by the Academy of Finland. In my licentiate research ”Kinetics of the oxidation of phenyl- and alkenyl-substituted alcohols by vanadium(V) and cerium(IV)” I tried to find ways to commercially utilize the vanadium obtained from the Mustavaara mine. I did not then imagine that I would encounter the floral scent of phenylacetaldehyde, formed as one of the reaction products, in a completely different sense later on, in natural cosmetics.
As a mother of three children I had twenty-year careers both at Häme University of Applied Sciences and at the Ministry of Education and the National Board of Education. As head of the Student Selection unit and as project manager for the development of electronic services I matured and retired in good spirits.
Then I found the bees and their wondrous world. They gave impetus to the idea of how, in my own part, one can make the world better for one’s children and grandchildren. A passionate implementation of the skills gathered over a lifetime began.
Sammalmamma’s products are created through the cooperation of the bees and the mama. The bees labor during the summer in the Monni apiaries in the area between Hyvinkää and Riihimäki and in Väisälänsaari in Hirvensalmi. In autumn and during the winter, from the treasures obtained from the beehive Sammalmamma develops and manufactures products into honeyed delicacies and natural cosmetics.
The beehive’s treasures honey, beeswax, pollen, perga, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom) offer the most diverse possibilities for utilization.
Domestic origin, pure high-quality raw materials from my own apiaries combined with a love for the bounty of berry and mushroom forests serve as sources of inspiration. Finnish nature with birch burls and chaga, spruce resins and juniper berries are a valuable source of raw materials for handmade natural cosmetics.
