Dear readers! I got better after exactly seven days of flue! The minute I felt like all the phlegm had left my wind pipe, I got up from my sickbed and went out to the forest. There´s so much good stuff out there and I´m getting more and more interested in it. During the past week I´ve been getting down on my knees and collecting some seriously healthy wild food.
Blackberry (karhunvatukka)
These vitamin bombs don´t grow on my home latitudes so I´m really thrilled to find them here in southern Norway. It took me a while to figure that only the very ripe ones are sweet. It´s not enough that the berry is black: it must also be soft(ish) and come off easily. On my first berry trip I was so greedy that I pulled out some berries with force. Obviously, they were too bitter. Blackberry grows near to the ground so it´s not always easy to spot it. But once you do, there´s a whole lot of them! The branches are thorny, though, which makes things a bit inconvenient.
Nettle (nokkonen)
Everyone knows this annoyingly stinging plant that grows just about everywhere. The best season for collecting nettle is spring when the leaves are still small. Later in summer you can collest the upper leaves. Nettle is incredibly nutritious with e.g. five times more vitamin C than the orange! It´s pretty much like spinach but nutritional values are far better. Use it for soups, pancakes, stir fries etc.
At this time of the year I didn´t find that much nice looking leaves but I managed to make some food. I quickly boiled the nettle, squeezed it dry, chopped it and mixed it with butter and garlic. Dead easy and lovely tasting nettle spread was done.
Rose hip (ruusunmarja)
This berry I know nothing about. It´s fairly unknown as alimentary product. What I know is that when I in primary school tasted a fresh one it made me throw up. So I didn´t give a thought to this berry untill now.
However, this is another superb vitamin supply that is easily found. The plant is of course rose so the berry can come in many differend forms. It´s also high on vitamin C and can therefore prevent cold, apart from other superfood qualities. I wanted to dry them and use as tea. A downside is that it´s hell of a lot of work to split every single berry and deseed them! Maybe that´s why nobody uses rose hip.
Collect orange ones rather than the very ripe, scarlet red ones. When the berry is overly ripe it´s really mushy and difficult to handle. I´ll tell you later how the tea tastes once I finish with drying.
...
If price is what modern people are most interested in, I don´t see why more people don´t go out and collect food from the nature. It´s free and as healthy as it gets. But I suppose it´s just easier to buy whatever the local supermarket offers. And of course, nobody advertises nettle and how cool and sexy it is to eat it...
Nature is fundamentally pure and free of chemicals, preservatives etc. By using wild plants from your surroundings you´re not contributing any questionable business or transport from overseas. You can know exactly where you´re food comes from and what´s more, what it really is. I want to know because I only settle for the best food. No need to explain why.
Happy autumn!
Blackberry (karhunvatukka)
These vitamin bombs don´t grow on my home latitudes so I´m really thrilled to find them here in southern Norway. It took me a while to figure that only the very ripe ones are sweet. It´s not enough that the berry is black: it must also be soft(ish) and come off easily. On my first berry trip I was so greedy that I pulled out some berries with force. Obviously, they were too bitter. Blackberry grows near to the ground so it´s not always easy to spot it. But once you do, there´s a whole lot of them! The branches are thorny, though, which makes things a bit inconvenient.
 |
| Still more to come. |
Everyone knows this annoyingly stinging plant that grows just about everywhere. The best season for collecting nettle is spring when the leaves are still small. Later in summer you can collest the upper leaves. Nettle is incredibly nutritious with e.g. five times more vitamin C than the orange! It´s pretty much like spinach but nutritional values are far better. Use it for soups, pancakes, stir fries etc.
At this time of the year I didn´t find that much nice looking leaves but I managed to make some food. I quickly boiled the nettle, squeezed it dry, chopped it and mixed it with butter and garlic. Dead easy and lovely tasting nettle spread was done.
 |
| Rose hip, blackberries and homemade nettle spread. |
This berry I know nothing about. It´s fairly unknown as alimentary product. What I know is that when I in primary school tasted a fresh one it made me throw up. So I didn´t give a thought to this berry untill now.
However, this is another superb vitamin supply that is easily found. The plant is of course rose so the berry can come in many differend forms. It´s also high on vitamin C and can therefore prevent cold, apart from other superfood qualities. I wanted to dry them and use as tea. A downside is that it´s hell of a lot of work to split every single berry and deseed them! Maybe that´s why nobody uses rose hip.
Collect orange ones rather than the very ripe, scarlet red ones. When the berry is overly ripe it´s really mushy and difficult to handle. I´ll tell you later how the tea tastes once I finish with drying.
...
If price is what modern people are most interested in, I don´t see why more people don´t go out and collect food from the nature. It´s free and as healthy as it gets. But I suppose it´s just easier to buy whatever the local supermarket offers. And of course, nobody advertises nettle and how cool and sexy it is to eat it...
Nature is fundamentally pure and free of chemicals, preservatives etc. By using wild plants from your surroundings you´re not contributing any questionable business or transport from overseas. You can know exactly where you´re food comes from and what´s more, what it really is. I want to know because I only settle for the best food. No need to explain why.
Happy autumn!
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