Sunshine In A Jar

It´s been a wonderful weekend. After weeks and weeks of rain and frankly DEPRESSING weather, we have had two gorgeous days, with blue skies and bright sunshine. Saturday we took a walk by the river, and thanks to my husband unexpectedly pulling a plastic bag from his pocket (I have, over the years, come to expect him to carry nothing at all of use, so that was very surprising), I came home with enough rowanberries to make jam of it, from a recipe from my oracle-on-Swedish-cuisine-cookbook, "Vår kokbok" (=our cookbook). 

I have wanted to do this for a while, and this fall, the rowan trees have been so amazingly abundant with fruit. From what I have read, the bird that most favour rowanberries is the fieldfare, but by this time of year, the fieldfares have all gone south. And I have only seen one guy out picking the berries, so most of it just falls to the ground.

I remember picking them when I was little. My mom made jelly at least one year, and I remember they must be picked after the first frost, just like the sloeberries. Picking berries, both wild berries like lingonberries, blueberries and wild raspberries, and cultivated berries like strawberries and blackcurrants, was a big part of my childhood summers. And when we visited my grandparents we would pick cherries. They had amazing cherry trees of several kinds, and apples and plums, too. We would eat home-made preserves and drinks made from fruit syrup, what the English call squash, all winter.

I love the look of rowanberrys. When you pick them apart from the clusters, they look like tiny miniature apples. I prepared 1½ liters, boiled them and added sugar, exactly the same way I make lingonberry jam. Rowanberrys are usually turned into jelly, which is then served with meat, preferably game of different kinds. Making jam is so much easier, though, and it makes more sense to me to not throw the berries away. Fiber, you know. And the finished product tastes as good as it looks. I got about a liter of jam.

Really, I should do this every year. Looks great, doesn´t it!