Still on berries

You know it means business when you drive half an hour to the znother town just to pick up strawberries. Berries are a serious matter come summer. It’s the only time of the year when it’s available. Hence the mad rush to obtain them. Even if it means driving at 10pm in the night to get them.

Unni and I went on a roadtrip to Leknes to get the berries. She had seen on an ad on the papers selling berries. And so we went to Leknes. Half an hour away by car. Not before she went searching for Cato (her eldest son) who had paraglided away and disappeared behind the mountain. She was so worried about him she was getting pissed. She tells me she gets angry when she’s afraid… We drove round the island and then spotted Cato walking back with his paraglider. She gave him a lift back to the farm, didn’t even wait for him to close the car door and was already driving away. She hates it when he goes paragliding.


we were then on our way to ferry the berries back home. We reach Leknes and call the guy. We end up buying the berries out of a van in a carpark. Sounds damn dubious, but the smell of fresh strawberries when he opened the door of the van… heavenly… (he was also selling Cloudberries, KR120/kg. Unni’s ‘Gold’. The berries bcc and I have been picking so far. I tell Unni we should set up a stall and sell them too!). We end up getting 24 packs of fresh, red goodness.

On the way back we stop by for some chocolates for the trip home. The car smelt of strawberries. Natural air freshner. The sun had already set below the horizon, but it was still bright, painting the sky a light shade of pink. Unni tells me it’s this time of the year when the colours are the best. I couldn’t agree more.

We start to prepare the berries for jam making. But coz it was getting late, we stop at the cutting and head for bed. With 12kg of strawberries awaiting us the next day.
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Strawberries here are handled in either of the two ways. They are either made into jam or eaten straight away. Since we had a tonne of it. We had to do both. But both require similar starting procedures.

Step 1:
Pluck off the stems of the berries with a small knife

Step 2:
Give the berries a quick wash. If it’s clean already, don’t bother


Step 3:
Chop the berries in half (remember to set some aside for eating!!!)

Step 4:
Put into a mixer, add sugar and some thickening agent and start whisking

Step 5:
When the mixture becomes thick to the consistency of jam. Stop.


Step 6:
Pack into containers, eat straight away with bread or freeze the remaining for use later. (don't forget to label them!)

Step 7:
Remember the berries you set aside for eating?
Mix with some sugar (it brings out the sweetness of the berries, no kidding!) and cream (or milk if you scared too fattening, but cream is da bestest!).

Step 8:
Tuck in and Enjoy!
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On a separate note:
Here is a pic of the cloudberry jam that was made. Coz cloudberry pulp by itself is already thick, so no need to add the thickener, just add sugar and mash.