The Weight Of Mountains 13 – Foraging

 

I just wanted to share with you the results of a cooking adventure I had the other day. I discovered earlier on that the little black and red berries that grow wild and abundantly over the cape behind our house, are in fact crowberries! I had never heard of this tiny, hardy and surprisingly useful fruit before I got to Iceland, though Rachel says they grow where she used to live in the USA. Having always dreamed of collecting wild berries, I cannot express how childishly excited this discovery made me! Last week, I spent an hour on my own wandering among moss covered boulders and frozen pools, collecting these gems and listening to the roar of the sea down below. It was utterly magical.
164A1008SCrowberries!

A few days later, I decided to have a cooking day, and I began with my first attempt at jam making, using the crowberries, and some fresh cranberries I had found in the local supermarket. The jam was a definite success! I was worried it might not set properly, but the consistency turned out just right!

I then realised that I had nothing to try out the jam on, so I made myself a loaf of spiced sweet damper bread, with ginger, cinnamon and cardamon.

Lastly, I have finally managed to source all the necessary ingredients for my chai recipe! I’ve been desperate for chai for a few weeks now, but it was surprisingly hard to get my hands on all the spices I needed. But at last I was able to sit down with a dinner of grilled zucchini slices, a cup of chai, some spiced damper and homemade wild crowberry jam.

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Bliss.

-Em xoxo

 

7 thoughts on “The Weight Of Mountains 13 – Foraging

  1. Hi Emily, The photos and films and blogs are lovely, but – enough, time to come home soon. We miss you
    xxx
    Ken and Marie

  2. SOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

    I wish I could try the berries. Also, nice teapot. And your damper looks really yummy – it’s ‘Sarah can’t turn the oven on because it’s already too hot in the kitchen’ season over here, and I really miss baking things. :(

    xoxo

  3. Congratulations Emily. I’ve just visited your blog for the first time since you arrived in Iceland…having retired from work, spent 3 weeks over Christmas/ new year in Tasmania, and endured a nasty Adelaide heatwave…But your story reminds me of the joy of ‘blackberry jambles’ as a child: there are blackberries all over the place in Tassie that are not (or at least were not, 50 years ago…) affected by roadside spraying, and we could really ‘pig out’ as we rambled around – trying to remember to bring some home for jam!

  4. Hi Emily! I am looking at your blogging at work. No go on our computer at home and I have NO idea why! But love your photos. And the crowberries! Better reading this late than never….and hoping you have had/are having a blast!
    Sharon x

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