I found a handful of these berries today, the Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus). That is, I found a handful that was ripe, and thousands that was not quite ready. Within a few days now the Norwegian mountains will swarm with people. They go there to pick what we call “the gold of the mountains”. Many foreigners who taste this don’t always like it that much. For us it is very valuable. It is a delicacy that people eat for dessert on Christmas Eve, or at other occasions or parties. In earlier days this was an important source of vitamin c, since there isn’t much fruit and vegetables that grows this far north. If you cross the Arctic cirkcle it is only the locals that can harvest the cloudberries. We call it molte. It is red when it is almost ripe, then it turns golden.
There are more photos of the wild edible berries in Scandinavia in my photo gallery.
My dog looks as if he his also looking for berries, but he was more interested to smell who had been there before, and it was probably a hare.
I love berries of any kind! I wish you could share.
But thanks for the pictures. The berries look so pretty and delish 🙂
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They are pretty and delishious, Gemma, a treasure to find..
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I wonder what they taste like, these golden berries. They look appetizing even when they are not ripe, but still red.
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They look very appetizing when not ripe, but they are too hard to eat. Some stay a bit red when they just ripen, but we are looking for the golden ones, Cypermum. Taste? Difficult to say; juicy apricot maybe..
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I am curious about the berries..Are they very sour?
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No not sour at all, just sweet with a touch of apricot and honey maybe. Or rather they taste like nothing else. But there are a lot of small stones inside, who some don’t like..
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Very cute. I hope that the dog wil find many fruit and enjoy the smell.
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I have to train the dog for these berries, Cocomino. Thanks for the idea….;)
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I think this is the berry that they call bakeapple in Atlantic Canada. Very popular and tasty, I hear.
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Yes, I didn’t know that name, but I googled, and you are right, Anneli. Popular and traditional not only in Scandinavia..
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Interesting…now I want to try them! 🙂
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Then you have to go to the mountain area in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, Russia, Canada or Alaska. There is also supposed to be a small population on Long Island, New York, according to Wikipedia.
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Looks very tasty indeed. I love berries in our Australian summer. Blueberries are my favourite, although raspberries, blackberries & strawberries are nice too. Sometimes they’re nicer when they’re very tart.
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Blueberries are my favorite too, that is the wild berries we call blueberries in norwegian, I think it is billberries in english. And wild raspberries, strawberries and cowberries (which you probably don’t know), then comes all the gardened berries. Lovely season here just now, Victoria.
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The foliage reminds me of a strawberry, and the fruit reminds me of a blackberry. They are surely rich in vitamin c and antioxidants and an important food source for the fauna, humans included! Z
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Blackberries we haven’t got, but we have strawberries, both wild and in the garden. The wild berries actually have more vitamins than grown berries, and the taste is stronger too. I like all of them, it is valuable food and dessert, Zeebra.
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Wish I could reach into your photo and taste one! Beautiful dog…
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Thanks, from my dog, Carol.
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Are they sweet or tart? Maybe sweeter when they turn golden? ~ Lily
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I would say sweet, Lily, and juicy. But only when ripe and golden.
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You never know, you could have a berry hunting dog on your hands!
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Ha, ha, ha, Suzanne. But I am not sure if I should rather train him to find the golden chanterelle. I have heard dogs can be trained to find this mushroom. The colour is the same as these berries, but the dogs search be the nose and the smell is different. So it can’t be both…
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decisions, decisions…what to do, what to do…keep me posted 🙂
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I was picking rasberries in our yard today. That first photo is amazing the colors are wonderful. Funny it does look like your dog is sniffing out berries.
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Lucky you. I am waiting for our raspberries to ripen, they are late this year, but those in my garden, and the wild superrtasty raspberries just outside my garden. The sniffing dog is probably into something else, Starlaschat.
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They sure are pretty berries!
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Pretty berries that touch our hearts when we see them. I am jused to harvesting them since childhood and also learned to value the mountain trip searching for them. They are always very good hikes, but bending down a lot..
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Mmmm deilig molte ; ) Var på fjellet forrige helg, fant ikke en kart en gang -har vel regnet bort den å!
Nydelige bilder! Artig bilde av hunden -funnet duften av molta den å! ; )
Ønsker deg ei fin ny uke! : )
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Blir massevis her, bare regnet holder opp så bæra blir moden og det går an å komme seg ut. Fin uke til deg også, Fotonita.
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By the way Bente, speaking of hunting dogs, I think you might like the photographs you can see when you click the link at the bottom of this posting of mine. You can even see my handsome Diesel and me in IMG_0125.JPG, resting after performing all our hunting tests.
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Clicked too fast, sorry. This is the posting I meant:
http://beatielenburg.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/waarom-ik-gisteren-om-04-00-u-ben-opgestaan/
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At last I was able to find the photos, I tried some times, Cybermum. It seems like a very good apporting dog. Mine is very good too, but we need to start training in the water, never tried that.
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Ummm likes “multebær” or cloudberries in english… 😉
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Mmmmm, me too, drakenoir. 😉
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Excelente. ¿Sabes? Queda corto el trabajo. ¡Pena!
Saludos.
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Gracias por tu comentario, Alpuymuz.
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Fotografías de oro, diría yo.
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Gracias, Mercedes, estas bayas son como oro para nosotros cuando los encontramos en las montañas.
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WOW I was looking at a lot of your fotographs and they’re beautiful Bente! Thank you for your “Like” Greetings, Ann.
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Thanks a lot, Ann, thanks a lot. And likewise.
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De är verkligen härliga! My personal favourites among all berries 🙂 Snygga bilder!
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Min favoritt også, Polaroidized, noen ganger. Andre ganger er det blåbær, eller tyttebær, eller jordbær. Takk for kommentaren.
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So beautiful, so beautiful… Thank you dear Bente, love, nia
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Thanks a lo. Glad you liked them, dear Nia.
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I got some lovely cloudberry liqueur when I was in Norway 🙂
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That’s another way to use them, rather than make jam, cake or eat them with cream. Made my own liqueur once, that was better than the one you buy. Mine was stronger in alcohol and with less sugar… 😉
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We used to eat berries like those when we were kids, in my granparents´ house. I loved them so much!
Jota.
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Things we remember from childhood is usually big treasures. Thanks for your comment, Jota.
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Lovely story of your berries!
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Thanks, Sally.
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Wow! Great post and definitely, photographs ! Unbelievable what this planets holds in every inch! Grandiose ! ~Thank you friend ~ Deborah
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Thanks, Deborah.
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That looks berry good, Bente. In central Texas we have Rubus trivialis, which typically produces berries in May. This year my wife and I gathered 2 kilos of them. Some we ate fresh, but most she cooked down into a sweet sauce. Our species is called dewberry, but cloudberry is a loftier name.
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
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There are many Rubus plants and I don’t know the dewberries. The fruits also look a bit differnt, but the flower is more similar. Personally I know only raspberries and Rubus saxatilis (which we don’t normally eat) in addition to the clodberries, but other parts of Norway have Rubus arcticus which they say taste very good too.
You know some people around here can pick 100 kilos or more of cloadberries during the season (1-3 weeks).
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It took us only about 45 minutes to pick the 2+ kilos of dewberries, so I can foresee 100 kilos over several weeks.
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Very interesting. It looks somewhat between wild strawberry and raspberry.
It must be unique to the northern land, but not in northern Japan.
Three photos giving all the necessary information and its details !
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It is related to raspberries, Yoshizen (and roses), and yes they can only be found int the northern hemispere. According to Wikipedia it can be found but rarely in the moorlands of Britain and Ireland.
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I have read about these in books. Thanks for posting about cloudberries. Looks like someone else likes berries, too!
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Yes, someone else looks like he likes berries too, but I guess he prefer a bird, Sandy. His favorite birds graze in the mountains were these berries grow, but usually on drier grounds.
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Cloudberries never heart, what is she beautiful.
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Cloudberries are beautiful, makes the norwegian heart to feel great..
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gorgeous photography… always wondered what they taste like
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Taste like nothing else, Pumpkin. A juicy taste of the mountains.
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a lil jealous…
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Beautiful photos and beautiful post, that’s why I have nominated you for The Beautiful Blogger Award, go check my blog for details!
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Noooo, that is too great, Marielba. Thanks a lot. I’ll check for details, absolutely.
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But, you deserve it! Really!
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They look so good! Cloudberries were one of the things my grandfather really missed after he immigrated to the U.S., decades later he would wistfully talk of picking them.
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Picking them is actually even greater than eating them, even if they are very good. Can’t explain why, but I love going to the mountains for a day, walking miles and miles and looking for something that looks like gold…
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There are cloudberries here, but I’ve never seen them in enough abundance to collect.
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They are supposed to grow in Canada but maybe not in the same abundance as in Scandinavia. But it varies here too. Some years very much, the next year killed by frost when blooming since most grow in quite high mountains.I love finding just a few when walking around, to put in my mouth. If there are many I get crazy if I didn’t bring something to put them in..
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Kruipbraam på Nederlandsk… namnam 🙂
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Yes, you are right, I didn’t know they had a dutch name. Right about the namnam too. 🙂
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My father brought back a bottle of Lakka after a trip there, which I still have because it has a pretty picture of the cloudberry on it with its botanical Latin name next to it. Your pictures are much, much prettier–thank you for sharing!
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Det är verkligen guld, de goda hjortronen! Det finns på enstaka ställen även här, bl a hos mina föräldrar. En väninna var uppe i Harstad/Sortland-takten o skulle plocka, kom hem till Sverige igen igår. Tyvärr var de inte mogna där heller. Det är fest när det serveras hjortron, till våfflor, elelr blandat med vispgrädde… Jag tar det t o m på en rostad smörgås när jag blir extra sugen. Har en vänlig norrman som i vänlighet ger mig en burk då coh då 🙂 Lycka! Ja, hjortron är guld och smakar lycka. ❤
Kram och allt gott till dej!
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