Travellive 7 - 2018

STRAWBERRY PARADISE
In addition to trekking, camping
on mountain peaks or mountainbiking,
summer is wild berry
hunting season. European countries
in general, Northern Europe in
particular, are a paradise for summer
berries. Among the berries, the
strawberry might be the most
familiar of fruits in Vietnam.
However, Northern Europe has more
to offer than just that!
Wild strawberries grow at
the forest's edge. Farm-grown
strawberries can be harvested
extensively in greenhouses, or in
tropical climates, whereas wild
berries only grow in the wild,
especially in the northern part of the
Northern Hemisphere.
Strawberries are smaller than 1/3 of
a girl's pinky, but their smell and
taste is so entrancing that you will
remember them forever after one
try. Strawberries are as sweet as
sugar with a slight sour background;
their smell is so pungent that you
only need to pick one to spread their
aromatic scent into the air. I laughed
at the thought that if I had not picked
this wild strawberry by the forest's
edge, that perhaps my only notion of
a strawberry would be of candy made
from tons of sugar and chemicals!
Blueberries are still quite rare in
Vietnam, but recently they have
appeared in some supermarkets and
import/export fruit shops. However,
the variety seen in Vietnam are those
selected for breeding and professional
cultivation in large farms. These
blueberries are quite large, plump
and sweet while wild blueberries
grown in the forest tell another story.
Wild blueberries grow around pine
trees; the more sunshine they have,
the thicker and more flavourful they
are. They grow in low dusty areas,
close to mossy swamps and rotten
leafy trees - areas that are quite
dangerous if you happen slip down.
To harvest blueberries, you need a
special tool to separate the berries
from the small bushes. The young
fruits and leaves will pass through the
slotted loops of the tray, leaving only
the collected large ripe fruit.
When eating blueberries, your
hands and lips will turn purple like
when eating the Vietnamese sim.
Wild blueberries are smaller in size
and more sour than they are sweet.
Because of this, wild blueberries are
often used to make jam, blueberry
smoothies or baked breads. One of
my favorite summer pastries is the
blueberry muffin, baked with freshly
picked tiny blueberries from the
forest, still fragrant with the scent of
pine needles and damp soil. When
baked, the blueberries burst in the
muffin, mixing with sugar and
aromatic vanilla, bringing a delicious
taste as sweet fruit jam.
One of my favorite
summer pastries
is the blueberry
muffin, baked with
freshly picked tiny
blueberries from the
forest, still fragrant
with the scent of
pine needles and
damp soil.
TRAVELLIVE 125