Cloudberries, a taste of heaven !

The forest surrounding our nest gives us many treasures. Now the second gold of the forest is due : Cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus) 

These yellow beauties grow on marshes here and shine like golden stars in between their green leaves. Cloudberries are mostly found in big numbers in the north of Norway, but also in the mountain areas further south, and as you can see, also here in the eastern part on the marshes which we are lucky to have around.

There is an old saying that if Christmas night brings a starry sky, it will be a good season for cloudberries in the coming autumn. If this is trustable, I can't say, but a wet and warm spring and early summer is good for the growing of this treasure. The season itself for harvesting is rather short because they ripe quickly so you better be there in the right time, otherwise they get very soft and juicy which makes them hard to pick.

They look a little like raspberries but are more round in shape and grow on the ground. At first they are red and hard, then they soften and get this golden yellow/orange color. The smell... ooooh my, and the taste... a little piece of heaven!

Cloudberries are useful for many recipes. We use them mostly for jam and syrup, but you can make liqueur, mix with sourcream and black pepper for game meat, and the nicest specimen we normally freeze whole and use them as ice cubes in drinks and decorations on cakes. A traditional dessert is Multekrem, which is cloudberries mixed with whipped cream and sugar…delicious. If You have to buy these berries in the shop, they are quite expensive, so having them in the area and harvesting them for free is really a privilege.

The only thing that can be a bit annoying when you enter the marshes to harvest them, is the horsefly (Chrysops). Those biting flies come quickly and fly around you constantly and it can be rather painful to be bitten, which they will do if they get the chance. The trick is to ignore them and smack them as soon as they land on you.  But the joy of harvesting these berries knowing all the good that will come out of it makes me just go on and fill buckets. 

Wishing you a good trip looking for these fantastic berries, just remember to leave some for the insects and other animals. This is one of the treasures in the forest you keep as a secret once you have found a place they grow and you never tell anyone where ;)

Enjoy!

Morten