...Eat Cloudberries

The cloudberry plant (Rubus chamaemorus), also named bakeapple or salmonberry outside UK, is less then 30 cm (12 inch) tall and generates just one white flower, thus just one fruit.

First, the fruit is red and hard, but while ripping, it gets a golden or amber color and turns soft and juicy.

The name cloudberry alludes to the fact that in the UK, it only grows in northern mountains surrounded by low clouds.

But the real home of the Ice Age plant is the Arctic tundra, moors, bogs and marshlands.

In southern Scandinavia, the fruit matures in august, but in the remote north at the beginning of the fall.

For centuries, the Laplanders and Inuit (Eskimos) collected the cloudberries to be consumed during winter.

The berry is rich in various vitamins, especially vitamin C, and, as it has a natural preservative, the marmalade can be kept in good condition for years in cool places.

As in the northern lands vegetable food is scarce, the meat and fish based diet of the northern people received an important vitamin supplement through cloudberries.

That's why cloudberries are also called "the gold of the marshlands".

Currently, huge quantities of these fruits are collected for supermarkets and food industry.

In Sweden, for example, each year 1,000 tonnes of cloudberry are traded, each berry being collected by hand!

And Norway imports 200-300 tonnes annually from Finland.

Usually, school children make some extra money during their holidays.

The Finns even honored the cloudberry by engraving it in their 2 Euro coin.

The cloudberry has a refreshing and bittersweet flavor.

In pastry and other shops around Europe and the US you can find cloudberry marmalades and jams, and even canned goods with cloudberry essence.

Many times, in the menu of the gala ball after the Nobel Prize Awardws (Sweden), cloudberry ice cream is included.

In some luxury restaurants, warm cloudberry marmalade is served topping vanilla ice cream.

The marmalade is also used as filling for cakes and is a perfect supplement to the Swedish cheese cake or fried Camembert cheese.

The golden cloudberry liquor is produced in Finland and in Canada and Sweden cloudberry wine is commercialized.

In Canada, cloudberries are also used to flavor a special beer.

Many times, freshly picked cloudberries are consumed with sugar sprinkled on top and a large spoon of whipped cream.