Cloudberries (Norwegian: Multe) – The Forest Gold. (Photo: Arnstein Rønning / Wikimedia Commons)

Right now, you can pick many different and tasty berries in forests and gardens throughout Norway. The year 2016 is a record year for wild blueberries, and you do not have to walk far to fill cups and buckets. What tastes better as dessert than blueberries with milk and sugar?

The garden strawberries are the first berries that are ready for picking, and they are cultivated all over Norway. In some places, they are ready in late May and the sale lasts until the end of July.

You can also find wild strawberries, and many Norwegians have “thread them upon a straw” before enjoying these little red delicacies. These are the sweetest of all the berries and the season is in July.

Wild blueberries and raspberries are the next berries you can enjoy. Blueberries grow on the forest floor in spruce and pine forests where there is sufficient sunlight, while raspberries grow happily alongside old logging roads and hiking trails.

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Wild blueberries tastes lovely with milk and sugar. (Photo: Marek Silanski / Wikimedia Commons)

Both blueberries and raspberries usually are ready for picking in mid-July, and the season lasts well into August.

Garden Berries

Gooseberries, blackcurrants and red currants are typical Norwegian garden berries.

Gooseberries originally came from the Caucasus and West Africa, and the cultivation started in Norway in the 1600s. The berries can be green, yellow, red and purple, and tastes sweet and slightly bitter. The season lasts from July and well into August.

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Gooseberries tastes heavenly in a compote. (Photo: W. J. Pilsak / Wikimedia Commons)

You can start picking blackcurrants in July – and have you ever tasted better juice than the one your grandmother made from blackcurrants?

Red currants are ready in August and the season lasts until September. In Norway, it is normal with red and white berries. Red currants are fresher and more acidic than white currants but both are very suitable for juice and jam – not to speak of compote and jelly.

Wild Berries: Cloudberries, Blackberries and Cranberries

Northern Norway is famous for its large deposits of cloudberries that grow in the marshes, but you can also find large deposits of the yellow-orange sweet delicacies in Southern and Western Norway. The season lasts until late September.

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Wild strawberries, the sweetest of them all. (Photo: Philip Jägenstedt /Wikimedia Commons)

Norwegians really appreciates cloudberries, probably because they are so rare and that the jam is the most expensive you can find in Norwegian shops – not to forget that they are the main ingredient in the traditional cloudberry cream. A Norwegian will “NEVER” tell you where he found the valuable delicacy, and the secret will never leave the family.

Wild blackberries looks very similar to raspberries, but has a dark violet, almost black color. They are common in the south of Norway, and they are available in several different colors and shapes. The season lasts from August until September.

Cranberries grow wild throughout Norway, and the season lasts until October. The sour and bitter taste is due to benzoic acid that gives the berries durability without using any preservatives.

Here is an overview of the season for the various types of berries:

TYPE OF BERRY                                               SEASON

Garden Strawberries                                     Late May to July

Wild Strawberries                                           July

Wild Blueberries                                             Mid-July to August

Wild Raspberries                                             Mid-July to August

Blackcurrants                                                  July to August

Gooseberries                                                   July to August

Red Currants                                                    August to September

Cloudberries                                                     August to September

Wild Blackberries                                            August to September

Cranberries                                                       August to October

Text by: Thor Lanesskog, ThorNews

Inspired by: nettavisen.no

Categories: Culinary Surprises, Nature