Have you ever found something to eat growing in the wild? While hiking in Sweden, I noticed tiny blue berries growing all around me. I had never picked a blueberry straight from a forest before, so I decided to try one!
I tried a wild Swedish blueberry, called blåbär (BLOH-bair) in Swedish. These blueberries are smaller than the big blueberries you might find in a grocery store. I picked one right from a bush while I was hiking in Nackareservatet, a nature reserve in Stockholm.
I was excited to taste a blueberry that I had just picked myself. But when I bit into it, I was surprised by how sour it was! My face immediately scrunched up. I expected it to taste sweet like blueberries I usually eat at home. It was such a small berry, but it had a really big flavor!
One of the coolest things about these berries is that you don't need to do much to prepare them. After picking them, people can eat them fresh or use them to make foods such as jams, pies, desserts and drinks. For example, they are also used to make blåbärssoppa (BLO-bare-sop-uh), or blueberry soup, as well as blueberry porridge and baked treats. They can also be picked in large amounts and saved for later.
