A post from Waldenlabs explores the Scandinavian traditions of using tree bark flours in cooking—in particular the use of birch and pine barks in the cuisines of indigenous Sami culture.

Birch flour does not contain the gluten proteins typically required to give bread structure and cohesion, and for this reason it is rarely used alone in baking. More often it is mixed with wheat or rye flour to make the dough more cohesive, and to smooth its bitter taste. Bread using birch bark flour, for example, has been made in Sweden and Finland for centuries.

The eating of pine tree bark in the Nordic regions has commonly been regarded as a famine activity.