Saturday, July 25, 2009

Another day with mostly cloudy weather. But who cares, it´s vacationtime :-)



I went away early to the grocery store today. Then I don´t have to care about that for a couple of days. Cat food was on the top of the list, they get so mean when I forget that :-)





Solanum dulcamara, has many names in english one is bittersweet nightshade. In swdish it´s just bittersweet. A potatoe relative (shows clearly on the flower) and as such it´s poisounes.

It´s a really nice turkish family that owns the store nowdays and I always get greeted as I was one in their family :-) No wonder I want to go there often :-) Today I was standing there and wondering if I shoulkd buy strawberries, when I saw that they had blueberries for sale too. They were gigant so I understood that they weren´t the ones we have in our forests.

This little bumblebee had no strength left so it must have had a rough night.





They were the sort we call american blueberries. They are white inside and ours aren´t, ours are blue inside. I think there are more species of blueberries on the american continent than we have here. We do have a close relative to the blueberry that looks similar to the american, we call it Odon (Vaccinium uliginosum and it is also white inside) . The problem with Odon (or Bog billberry)is that one never knows how the berries tastes. They can even be tastier than blueberries, but mostly they just taste as blueberry mixed with a lot of water :-)






Since I don´t have any bushes of American blue berry I ofcourse picked some of the seeds I found in these gigant berries. Now I only have to sow them in peat mixed with some soil and put the pot outside on the northern side of my cottage. With a bit of luck they germinate next spring. One never knows how the berries will taste when sowing seed, but let us hope for the best!




Angelica sylvestris, a close relative to the one we have in our gardens. Biennal and loves tio grow here in the village.



I thought of whipping some cream to have with the blue berries, but I always forget how much faster it becomes whipped with a machine. So when I looked at it I had made butter instead :-) :-) But blue berries tastes even better just by them selves :-)
Have a great day now!






8 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

you could always make blueberry pancakes and then you would have butter for them! great pics today!

Anonymous said...

I love blueberries and miss that we had a blueberry farm not far from where we lived in Michigan. So many we picked them in the summer for free. Corn too. Those were the days. Have a good one Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Didn´t think of that, must do pancakes next time I buy blueberries :-)

The butter I made I can use for making dinner later today :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
It´s just recently that we can go and pick blue berries on farms here. That is only because of the American blue berries. The plants of them is so much higher than our common so people rather go to a farm picking them than out to the forest.

But more and more people buys plants to have in our gardens now and as long as they plant them in peat mixed soil they´re doing great.It´s something special with blueberries, it means summer for me :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

NinaH said...

Guess you would succed with blueberries by seed to!;-)
We (read: F!;-....) four bushes here. Soon ready to pick.
Remneber the first I was i USA (1982) & we went to a blueberry farm with my cousin. I couldn´t belive my eyes! Picking berries to us was a quit diffeent kind of thing... so to speak.... (especially bluberries.... the swedish awy- Elsa Beskow, Allemansrätten, being in the nature etc... you know...) But now we have farms for berries here to & not any longer think it´s that strange at all!! New traditions?!;-)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nina!
One never knows with seeds :-) But I think I have to buy some plants too, I want blue berries around the pond too. The problems is the risk of getting the spanish slug via the soil in the pots! have to think a while about that or perhaps just use Odon instead.

The only thing I remember when it comes to berry farms is strawberries. Later on the different currant berries too. I still think our blue berries will stay popular for a long time yet, because of the delicate taste. But to be honest, the american bushes are so high so it´s easier to pick berries from them (and perhaps one gets away from all flies that we have in our forests) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...this is the first year i am growing tomatillos and edamame. both are strange plants. the tomatillos are about 4 feet high. they are covered with fruit. i think they have to be roasted to bring out their flavor. i am hoping to make salsas and sauces to can. the edamame are hairy! and you only eat the bean inside but so far the beans are skinny. i am just leaving them on the plant to see what they do. when they get bigger i will steam them with sea salt. i am waiting and hoping for a storm!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Yore fast in responding :-) :-)
Yes I´ve heard that one has to roast the tomatillos to get their flavour. The edamame I´ve never heard about before so I´m looking forward to read more about them when they are fully grown.

You can get our storm that will come tomorrow, I wouldn´t mind :-) :-)
Take care!
Christer.