The wild antioxidants: Swedish berries, blueberries, cloud berries, red berries, strawberries, cie
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| Wild blueberries from the woods |
During my last stay in the North of Sweden, one of my everyday food was BERRIES!
This brings me to one of the main milestone of the
Swedish gastronomy: wild berries!
Berries will also be a great companion of our special Sweet Life at Revsunds Prästgård (click on the link for more details).
Berries will also be a great companion of our special Sweet Life at Revsunds Prästgård (click on the link for more details).
August was just amazing with this late sunny summer
weeks as I could enjoy every day some fresh berries and mushrooms! Blueberries,
lingon berries, cloud berries, raspberries, and strawberries, all of them at
your reach everywhere in the forest and in the mountain!
This had been like a dream made reality! My friends
Cecilia and Wouter had a nice little red and white Swedish house in the forest,
and as soon as you step outside. From there, just extend your hand and pick up
the wild berries!
The powerful antioxidant berries, with all kind of berries grow freely in the woods everywhere... you just need to go and pick them.
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| Meatballs and lingon berries sauce |
During my first stay in Stockholm, I discovered the lingon
berries,… that I do not really enjoy on their own, small little red
berries, quite sour that often goes in jam to pair with wild game or the
traditional meatballs. But there is enough choice to select your favorite berries!
During my last stay in Jamtland, the red thread of the trip had been the blueberries!
They follow me along the whole journey, from the forest to the top of the
mountain! Fresh, frozen, in jam, compote, stuffed in a brioche, smoothie, on
top of the pancakes,…. Everywhere: blueberries!
To be honest, the taste is so different from what you buy at the supermarket! These ones were flavourful and sweet. I could have kept eating them every single meal in every single way! Further blueberries are so full of antioxidants, vitamins K, C, Calcium, Iron, and plenty of other nutrients to protect your health of your eyes and heart.
I also made a new stunning discovery: the cloud berries!
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| Cloud berries jam |
It is quite difficult to explain and put in words this
amazing experience! First of all, they are scarce and really like a golden
grail for Swedish people. They were just beginning to ripe when I was there and
we could find some of them ready on top of the Storvulan mountain.
Woooow! This
feeling to pick up wild fruit from the nature and put it directly in your
mouth,… Do you know this feeling?
Do you ever have a memory of picking up apples,
cherries or strawberries directly from the tree or bush? This is just a
wonderful memory, a precious moment you should keep and try to live again!
When I put the gold berry in my mouth - I call it like
that, because its search is like the gold diggers rush in Sweden – it was a mix
of quince and pear, a little bit sour. It was such a new flavour
discovery for me! At the beginning, it is difficult to know if you like it or
not,… I had the same with the lingon berries… I never got used to it though,
and they are not my favorites! But the cloud berries, I tried later in jam, was
just astonishing!!! I really fell in love!
What is your favorite berries? How do you eat? You will find several recipes with strawberries on my blog: strawberries tartare or the red fruit sauce!
I will host a special cooking course week in Jamtland from 16th of March with Cecilia Gotherstrom to get a Sugar Free guaranteed week! Check info and details here:
Sweet Life at Revsunds Prästgård: 1 week retreat in Sweden to quit sugar!
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Comments
I also experienced the amazing flavour of blueberries collected by locals in the north of Montreal and Nova Scotia, whou would leave boxes close to the road, so you can stop by, and just take them and leave the dollars they costed in a tiny tinbox.
I would like to share a couple berries more I discovered in two different countries.
First one, cranberries ("canneberge"), that is sooo used in Canada, but not only dried, like in Europe.
The harvest is already amazing, take a look at some pics:
https://www.google.de/search?q=recolte+canneberge&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS4oOXpcfKAhVEjCwKHTguD2gQsAQIJg&biw=1195&bih=820
They are amazingly fresh and full of flavour. I mix them in the blender with some yougurt and banana and use the mix to do some home-made müsli. Or I just add some water and maple sirop to a handfull of cranberries, and heat them stirring quite often just a couple of minutes to make an amazing hot partner for some Vanilla ice.
The other ones are used to make delicius jams and confitures: they are called Sanddorn in German (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides), and Holunder (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus), you definetely should try them!
Again, thaks for sharing all this with us!!!
Arturo