The blueberries are ripe, and Marta and I are picking the ones we find around our cabin. For lunch one day we eat a fish caught out on the ocean the night before, and the perfect dessert is blueberries with milk and sugar. Nothing tastes more of summer. Afterwards we compare our tongues. Who has the deepest blue?
After lunch it is time for a sunbreak on the terrace. With a cup of coffee I sit down to read about the blueberries:
The blueberry is one of the oldest known fruit, more than 13000 years old. It is part of a family called Vaccinium which have more than 200 different members, varying from small plants to big trees. The Nordic blueberry, which is blue all through and the healthiest one we know filled with antiocidants as it is, has the Latin name Vaccinium myrtillus
In Norway we have only these wild blueberries, and they have a very short season. Only about 10% of the berries are harvested during the few weeks they are ripe.
We pick blueberries for the freezer, and have blueberries for pancakes and cupcakes during the long, dark winter months. But most of all we pick for eating while they still are fresh and warm from the sun. The thumbs and index finger of my right hand have a deep blue stain for a few weeks.
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Photos: Sunday breakfast at cabin - blueberry pancakes.
Note: I got the blueberry information from Wenche Frølich in Glad i Mat nr.3/2007
More blueberry stories here, and if you follow the links given, you will find even more blue.